Hi,

I need to ask some pre buy question but since there is no general SF topic area to post to I decided to post this here.

I’m fairly new to .NET and obviously new to SF so I need some insight and opinions on SF. I’ve looked at other frameworks like Java based (servoy) and .net based (Idea Blade and SF) but SF seems to have a lot to offer in their framework, Role-based Security and Database Deployment modules at a reasonable price.

I’m looking into reengineering a fairly complex somewhat commercial MS Access app that uses SQL 2000 as a backend. The idea is to bring the app to a more robust front-end and ideally make it into a Smart-Client software as a service (SaaS) model with a limited counterpart website.

So far I’m impresses with SF and especially with its smart-client demo’s performance using the ES. Keep in mind that I’m fairly new to all this so I know I’m biting more then I can chew.

So my questions are:

1. Is SF a good choice for this type of project?
2. How robust would SF and its ES in a Smart-Client SAAS scenario be?
3. How effective is the ES and SF BO on a website?
4. When will SF integrate with VS 2008 .NET 3.5 and how will LINQ and its OR/M affect SF future?

Thank you in advance for your answers or advise for that matter,

JC

Greg, had a lot of good things to say, and he is correct on each point.  I will add to his comments as it relates to VS2008 and LINQ.  StrataFrame will already work with .NET 3.5.  When VS2008 is released we will also have full integration support as we do with 2005.  LINQ is a great tool and we are excited about it and will be part of our 2.0 release which will be released sometime in 2008.  But as Greg mentioned, StrataFrame was a result in our need for a framework, so we use StrataFrame as a company every day to develop our medical software. 

To add to the ES points that Greg mentioned, we spent one year developing this product...actually more like 15 years   We have wanted a SaaS model for our medical software for 15+ years but have never really had a good mechanism to do this...thus, our ES.  This product was created for scalability and with SaaS in mind.  There are a number of large organizations that use the ES...including the Department of Defense, so scalability and speed are obviously a major component of this tool.

Finally, Greg is correct.  The training class will make a huge difference in your coming up to speed in developing in .NET as well as in StrataFrame.  I have posted the class training guide to this post so that you can see the material that will be covered.  I highly recommend coming to the December class...I think that it could move months aside in your developnent cycle (or possibly more).

Let us know if you have any more questions or if we missed anything, but I think Greg pretty much got it said