NET based enterprise applications is now outpacing investment in Java-based enterprise applications.
A CA-sponsored survey shows investment in .NET solutions for the enterprise is outpacing investment in enterprise Java applications. The survey also points to a need for application performance management solutions, which CA's Wily Technology unit happens to sell. A recent survey indicates that investment in .NET-based enterprise applications is now outpacing investment in Java-based enterprise applications.
Of course, no survey is 100 percent reliable, but what is interesting about this survey is it is not sponsored by Microsoft. CA sponsored the survey, which was conducted by Evans Data. The survey targeted enterprises with 1,000 or more employees and queried 350 developers and managers involved in creating or managing business-critical .NET applications.
Microsoft has been touting the advance of .NET for enterprise applications for years. Now CA is supporting the claim. But CA's interest is not purely casual here. One of the findings of the survey is that a strong market exists for integrated APM (application performance management) solutions that support the increased use of both .NET and Java development architectures in the same organization. And CA just happens to own Wily Technology, which sells APM solutions. Wily got its start delivering performance management solutions for Java applications, but now supports both .NET and Java.
"These survey results confirm that .NET applications are pervasive in large enterprises and their acceptance and dependability is continuing to increase," said Mike Allen, director of product management for CA's Wily Technology division. "This begs the question of how to effectively manage environments that use both .NET and Java. CA Wily advocates a comprehensive application performance management solution that addresses both with a single solution and helps key Web applications to meet business, customer experience and performance goals."
Moreover, the survey found that most enterprises have highly heterogeneous application environments and that .NET support teams are similar to Java support teams in terms of size, structure, problem types and time needed to isolate problems. A majority of respondents said their .NET and Java groups are integrated within their organizations, and the management responsibility is spread across departments such as development, operations and quality assurance, and is equally required in both environments.
The survey also found that nearly 60 percent of respondents said their .NET investment is growing, while 50 percent said they are adding new .NET personnel. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said .NET expenditures comprise more than a quarter of their overall business-critical application investment, and nearly 20 percent of respondents put that figure between 75 and 100 percent.
"An increasing number of enterprises are realizing the benefits of deploying applications built on both .NET and Java," Jasmine Noel, co-founder and partner at Ptak, Noel & Associates, said in a statement. "However, with those benefits come the challenges of managing a heterogeneous environment coupled with the unique issues of both development architectures."
Now let us have a look at the product line from Microsoft for the enterprise.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of business software made by Microsoft. It was previously known by the codename of Project Green. It replaces the previous family of Microsoft Business Solutions.
Microsoft Dynamics comprises the following software:
- Customer relationship management
- Enterprise resource planning
- Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta)
- Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains Software)
- Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision)
- Microsoft Dynamics SL (formerly Solomon IV)
- Retail management
- Microsoft Dynamics RMS (Retail Management System) (formerly QuickSell)
- Microsoft Dynamics Point of Sale
Now let us have a small idea about some of the most interesting products, namely Microsoft CRM and Microsoft AX and NAV. Know how they can be used in CAT Technologies Ltd.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a Customer Relationship Management software package developed by Microsoft. The most notable features are the ease of creating customizations to CRM, the use of Microsoft SQL Reporting Services to run reports, the ability to run on Windows Vista and Outlook 2007, and support for Exchange 2007.
Dynamics CRM also supports integration with Windows Mobile devices via third-party applications such as CWR Mobile CRM or with BlackBerry devices via Tendigits MobileAccess. The 4.0 edition adds a number of new features, including support for duplicate data detection and other enhancements. Perhaps most importantly, version 4.0 provides true multi-tenancy, which will allow the creation of multiple organizations on a single server.
Microsoft Dynamics AX
Microsoft Dynamics AX is one of Microsoft’s enterprise resource planning software products. Microsoft Dynamics AX contains 19 core modules:
- General Ledger, composed of ledger, sales tax, currency and fixed assets features
- Bank Management, where cash is received and paid out
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM), where Business Partners (customers, vendors, and leads) are contacted and maintained
- Accounts Receivable, where orders are entered, shipped and invoiced
- Accounts Payable, where purchase orders are issued and goods received into inventory
- Inventory Management, where Inventory is valued and managed
- Master Planning, where purchase and production planning takes place
- Production, where bill of materials is defined and manufacturing is tracked
- Product Builder, where product models are created and maintained
- Human Resources, where employee information is kept
- Project, where projects are created and tracked
- Basic, where data configuration is performed
- Administration Module, where system configuration is performed
Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product from Microsoft. The product is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management, supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises. VARs can have full access to the business logic source code, and it has a reputation as being easy to customize.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, with new role-based GUI, is currently expected to be released around November 2008. Microsoft originally planned to develop an entirely new ERP system (Project green), but has decided to continue development of all ERP systems (Dynamics AX, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL). All four ERP systems will be launched with the same new role based user interface, SQL based reporting and analysis, SharePoint based portal, Pocket PC based mobile clients and integration with Microsoft Office. This means all the product lines can be customized using the .NET developers from our organization. Right now when the enterprise investment in .net is on rise, this is a high time to embrace these new technologies and jump start our customized enterprise solution providing.
Posted by: Anirban Ganguly