I still can't believe it… I will end my holidays with major milestones complete!
Of course, to ship is to choose, and there are details on this beta release that need further testing and may need to be fixed. This is specially true when we talk about NMTools, the newest piece on this little puzzle.
OpenSLIM is an MS Access application and I've been running its previous versions for the last 6 months. Currently, I am handling more than 1000 Nodes on more than 80 Services with it and, in my opinion, behaves fairly well. On future versions, I will also ship a version with a SQL Server backend and I am also thinking on supporting partially connected scenarios.
On the other hand, the NMTools are completely new and will obviously need some time to mature. It has taken me some time to define the internal architecture, build some prototypes and get to the final shape ot the solution, but, fortunately the design seems to be finished.
It has been known for some time that PowerShell honours its name. But, in my particular experience, building and designing NMTools has showed me the great potential and the great economic value raised when you can easily connect traditionally more isolated domains: systems, networks, databases, applications, data, etc.
OpenSLIM represents also my first step of my learning process into the concept of Office Business Applications. It really represents interesting values and opportunities in a world where the end-users:
- have more general purpose and powerful tools every day. Those tools represent “out-of-the-box” and “ready-to-use” investments and building solutions upon them make the overall value bigger because of the natural connection between each peace.
- have reasonable training on them.
- have expertise on the problem domain field.
- know what they want but often fail (unconsciously or not) to communicate their needs.
- the value (cost/benefit), priority and life cycle of the solution they need is realy uncertain.
Hope you like it, and wish to build a whole new Way from this first Step.
