Need MS Access Product roadmap

The Microsoft Answers forums are peer-to-peer forums. The participants are mostly users of Microsoft products who try to help other users.

Among the participants are some Microsoft employees, but they are most probably not in a position to provide roadmaps...

What kind of road map are you talking about? Can you give me an example of such a road map?

Say like one from the past for FoxPro, or perhaps one for for vb.net? Or perhaps some other example of a road map? Can you give me Such a road map for oracle developer tools ? Or How about a road map for mySQL?

I'm not aware of any vendor or manufacture of any product that outlines a road map beyond that of much generalizations unless there's some big significant change in store.

However if you would post a sample roadmap of these other products that points out specific features then I might have some respect for your request. This seems like a double standard here since I not aware of other products having such road maps, but somehow Access is one supposed to be different from the rest of the industry?

I you look at the industry for the last 10 years, obviously there's been a big push for office applications to move towards the cloud. That play from the point of view for office has much been of recent office 365.

With the advent of office 365 and low cost cloud computing such services can be had for a monthly cost that is a bit less than two Starbucks latte grand bravos.

In the case of Access it has always had its roots in office and has always been tied to office. I think as office moves towards the cloud, then again Access will be tied to office 365., However, this is no different than the past in that Access been tied to the office suite for 18 years now. So this would be absolutely nothing new when we view the past history of access would it now?

To me the real great news in access, is of course the ability of web publishing. I hear stories of people using some web development tools and after 45 days they could not even post a few lines of code to launch a form or display a simple message box. For me, in less then one hour I was up and writing code using Access Web Services.

So I wrote a tic tac toe game in web services in just what amounts to one evening of my time. Can you do that with your web tools?

And writing "code" routines like this soundex search routine for Access web was also easy. I have that web sample posted here:

http://www.kallal.ca/searchw/WebSoundex.htm

Again, the above was easy to write, and again it was not done with wizards.

And I built a way cool outlook style calendar system. And again it was my CODING skills and the writing of code that allowed me to build this booking system, here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU4mH0jPntI

The above was not built with wizards, but writing of code. And all were done with WELL LESS then one month of using the product. In other words I hard pressed to see examples like the above from people who used other web dev products and do so with well under a month of using the product.

Anyway, I I am not really sure what you mean by specific features in a specific product you're talking about in terms of specific roadmap.

Now I do have a much better informed idea since I am under NDA in regards to Access, and I do wish I could share more, but I cannot. However, I can say all one has to do is look at the past history of Access to get an idea of where it future lies.

So the industry in general to my knowledge never really gives out roadmaps that go beyond "general" ideas unless has to assume there is zero competition in the marketplace.

So I not aware of specific feature related road maps that are specific in nature until such time public testing or pre-release copies of the product are known to the general public. 

I recall the fiasco with windows 7, and the roadmap that suggested that we going to have WinFS included.  Using such a database engine for all file storage to replace NTFS on windows is something I've wanted for 10+ years (because I've worked in other systems that work that way).  However it turned out that compatibility and performance issues arose that this feature simply was not going to be part off windows 7. This turned out to be a public relations fiasco, and when the feature was cut and removed we saw nothing but loud and squealing complaints from the developer community that lamented that this feature was promised and then not going to make it.

So I'm not sure of your experience in the software industry, but you will have to point out and give me these examples of these future road maps that go beyond a certain level specifics that you seem to demanding here?  And what was the reaction of the developer community when these specifics changed? I don't think I should point out the obvious, but recent history shows that such roadmaps for the industry that goes beyond specifics, has turned out to be a very bad idea indeed.

On the other hand, anyone who spent any amount of time in this industry, or anybody who has any opinion that I would respect would know all the above before and realize that such an above question is likely going to fall on deaf ears unless you can provide examples of your experience in our industry where the above does not apply and works different with other products in the industry?

Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada

I'm not wanting to get into this debate per sey, but Albert your statement is a little false.  Several major software companies do offer roadmaps of their software development.  Now I'm not going to start giving every link available, but Adobe, for instance, does:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/max-2010-envision/roadmap-flash-platform-services-and-app-monetization/

and you can find many more with our favorite friend Mr Google.

Now whether MS does or does not...  Well it would be nice, give us a glimpse of what we might look forward to in the coming years, but then again they will argue this is kept secret for competitive reason...

Also, Open source project quite often divulge such information freely to get community input and interest.

Some do, some don't.  Both approaches have their reasons for being.

Anywho.

Some road maps are:

64 bit computing is extremely important. 

This means that people using FoxPro or VB6 don't have a x64 road map. 64 bit code cannot automate these x32 products. And perhaps MORE important is if a client is using x64 office, then your CLIENT development tools sure as the heck better have a x64 bit option.

You cannot mix x32 and x64 when you do application automation. So this is a future consideration for products.

So as a REALLY BIG future road map is we received an x64 bit version of Access and VBA. I think this is huge news.

Now while 64 bit computing for servers is pretty much a done deal, and in fact 32 and 64 bit clients can use and consume web a system of x32/x64 does NOT in general matter, the client side development for the desktop is a VERY different matter. So one important road map is we now have a 64 bit option for Access clieint dev.

So if we give roadmaps high importance, then I would assume that in the last year when you adopted any new tools, you took into consideration this future of 64 bit computing?

So now that I pointed out one future and important strategic road map of a future world of 64 bit computing, the other road map of course that you see on the cover of darn near EVERY trade publication from our industry is that of cloud computing.

Virtually every CEO and CIO from Oracle, Microsoft's, and on down the line have been talking like a broken record about cloud computing.

One of the really great things about office 365 is it's based on a cloud computing architecture.  Remember clout computing is not a hosted server or a hosted web site. If you have to choose a product that based on hosted web servers or worse on a private virtual server then the WHOLE server session has to allocated to that one customer.

This means that your monthly hosting costs will be $50, or even $100.

With cloud computing, you not tied to one server, and your monthly cost is like $6 per month.

So it is cloud computing as opposed to a hosted server that gets you office 365 with Access web services for the very low and affordable $6 per month cost. 

In other words if you go to a small business and offer $100 per month vs $6 per month, you don't think then all of a sudden cloud computing becomes important? You see the "buzz" word cloud computing means nothing to that customer, but $6 vs. $100 means a huge difference.

So if you can choose cloud computing as opposed to hosted computing then obviously those small business are going to choose cloud computing nearly every time since the cost tends to be about 10x less.

So once again as a future roadmap, having a cloud option as part of that roadmap laid out is important.

As I pointed out having to use a hosted server, or virtual private host of server (VPS) is not even close to the same kind of road map as to what everyone is talking about the future road in this industry.

In other words there are some general roadmaps we see here.

And in case you missed this:

Access Web Services is based on all of these new tools and technologies coming out of Redmond, and thus you do have a x64 future road, and you also have a cloud option as opposed to having your on local server, or purchasing virtual private hosting, but you ALSO have the cloud option with Access Web Services.

So do keep  in mind that some of these general road maps and trends to help your decision process is available and Access has "jumped" on a number of these trends.

Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Take a step back and breath!

WOW!

" and yet come here and post and yell and scream with Lock on like a 12 year old?" - I di no such thing.

You are obviously confusing me with the original OP of this thread.  I by no means encourage the style of their post, but merely pointed out that certain other companies do provide roadmap for their products.  The style of the original post is aggreasive, and as you state, much less likely to get help from.  But don't automatically throw all the fruits into one basket!

Your own responses (and not only in this thread) have been very hostile, aggresive, condesending and rude as well.  One can see you are very possionate, and knowledgeable, but you don't have to be borderline insulting when someone does or says something you disagree with.  You might as well not answer if that is the case.

I think I will be looking for a new home/forum for Access support since this type of support being given by an MVP no less!

Thanks for the aplology.

And yes, did mix your post up with the original poster. My apologies. I will re-edit that post to fix this.

Keep  in mind I am the ONLY one here that did in fact point out future roadmaps in regards to x64 and that of cloud computing – two big issues and ones that are important to our industry. (so, yes, a good number of future roadmaps for office have been public shared).

I mean really at the end of the day, not a big deal for someone to ask for information.

I mean I am not some police or even a fan boy here. Ford vs. Chevy was exciting up to grade school days and I am long past that point in life.

Where the train falls off the track is it becomes irresponsible to give the impression that somehow there's no future road map available for Access. The reason why this is important is because I have for more than 12 years in online forms have fought the rumor and idea that Access is about to be depreciated or dropped.

In fact this rumor so often has resurfaced on the Internet SO OFTEN it become nearly an urban legend or myth.

In fact it ONLY been a late that with x64 VBA, new office 365 features has Access moved forward in public impression that a future exists for the product.

Demanding a road map as opposed for asking SUGGESTS and gives a clear impression to the readers here that somehow there is no future roadmap is thus available for Access. The result is then widespread doubt and then the following cascade of rumors that no future roadmap exists! And then we back on-line fighting this rumor and idea for the next few years.

At the end of the day it does not even matter what intentions are here. Good or bad, such ideas placed here can even put the existence of this whole community at risk if such rumors are to take on a life of their own.

As the other OP kindly points out there are certainly industry road maps available, and even from Microsoft in terms of general overall technologies.

And as I pointed out, the x64 road clearly been opened for Access. And I also pointed out that clearly the cloud road been opened up for Access with o365.

My only real goal here is people be responsible for their posts in forums to not miss-lead people.

(and that includes me too!).

Half-truths and double standards applied to one product and not others does nothing but cause damage to the Access community.

So to the two posters here, if there is anything in my post that you would ask me to delete or edit out, I will most graciously do so (the internet has a memory – so this is an important offer on my part).

I sincerely hope the above helps clarify my position.

However such clarification on my part is no means for any justifiable rudeness or disrespect on my part to anyone here, and for that I do apologize if I'm offended anyone.

Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Yes, I did confuse you with the other poster, my sorry, my apologies. I have re-edited the post.

See my other response in terms of the issue of rumors of no roadmap.

Sincerely, Albert k.