An Update from David Drake

The past few years ushered in a time of transition and change to my consulting business. With the onset of the pandemic in 2020, consulting opportunities quickly dried up. Fortunately, networking with long time associates opened new doors.

During my time at Vertical Management Systems, I had the opportunity to work along side of Jerry Glynn. Jerry invited me to join the development team that he manages at AccessNsite.

AccessNsite is a software development company in the Access Control industry. I have been working as a Development Lead for the past two years, offering my experience to evolve development processes and procedures. I am pleased with our progress, we managed to smoothly double our development team size over the last year.

Challenged to Learn

Although I had a lot to offer in my new position, I also had a lot to learn. Transitioning from my industry of expertise, Financial Services, to the Access Control industry has been a challenge. On top of that, changing from a Microsoft-based technology stack to a Java and Linux stack was like learning to swim by diving in the deep end. I am very grateful for the AccessNsite team, which went to great lengths to make me feel welcome and show me the ropes.

With Great Tools Comes New Opportunities

I am pleased to say that it has been a growthful two years for me, and I am excited about the new experience and skills. I have been able to work with a wide variety of new-to-me technologies, including: Java, Oracle, MariaDB, MySQL, APIs, Android & iOS apps, Linux, Docker Containers, and more. I'm looking forward to my continued work with our team and product, bringing innovation to our industry.

What about Vestridge?

For now, I have decided to keep my consulting company alive, but on hold, as a fall-back for the future. My time and focus are with my position at AccessNsite, but I will try to make occasional posts on this site to share my thoughts and insights.

Your Organization Has Grown Up

It is a common story. Your Back Office needed a simple application to get the job done. With no budget for custom development, Microsoft Access came to the rescue. Access is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of building custom data-driven applications. Designing your database, building basic data entry forms and reports were a snap. Access provided a rapid solution at a low cost, and kudos to Microsoft for providing such a powerful tool.

However, the hidden costs of Access did not become apparent until later. Your application worked great at first, but overtime became slow and inefficient. Access works great with small data sets, but struggles with the large data volume of an Enterprise Operation. When you first started, you only had one person working the application. Now, your operation has grown and you need many concurrent users. Access simply was not designed for Enterprise Level Applications. It is time to find a solution that will take your business to new heights.

Modern Solutions Are Within Reach

Opportunities for modernizing your application are waiting for you. Migrating your data to a modern database, such as Microsoft SQL Server, will provide a foundation for the growth of your business. Migrating your application to the cloud will pave a path for the future. Upgrading from Access will present many benefits for your business, including…

• Security – Enterprise level security for your data will be a breeze to implement in a modern solution. In the interconnected world of today, securing sensitive data is imperative.
• Scalability – Modern databases are designed for scalability at their core. With greater application performance, you gain greater productivity from your work force.
• Automation – As your business grows, your operations will grow more complex. There are more tasks to complete and more people to do them. Instead of hiring more people, increase your margins by leveraging technology to do more work for you.

We Are Here to Help

Vestridge Technology and Atlas Software Group have teamed up to provide an easy and affordable migration path for your Microsoft Access application. We have the experience and expertise to bring your operation into the modern era.

• Data Migration Services – We have built custom tools that will extract your Microsoft Access data and import it into a modern relational database, such as Microsoft SQL Server. We can assist you in migrating your database service to the cloud or an in-house hosted server. You will have the option to keep your existing Access User Interface (now connecting with a remote database server) or we can assist you in modernizing your entire application to a cloud based solution.
• Cloud Migration Services – Our team has extensive experience with AWS and Azure cloud services. We are specialists in providing cloud solutions for your application and business integration needs. We are committed to working with you to find the best solution for your business.

Vestridge Technology is a professional services company specializing in software consulting for financial technology solutions.

At Vestridge Technology, we have the experience to provide a complete assessment and custom solution for your unique situation. We are experts at working with business and IT teams to build a road map for success. Contact us today for more information at info@vestridge.com.

The Atlas Software Group is a 4 man programming team specializing in designing, building and hosting custom web applications in the Amazon Cloud. We’ve been in business for 8 years and in that time we’ve used software to build a multi-national cupcake empire, save lives by diagnosing heart disease and advance medical research by connecting 60k of the worlds physicians with research and grant opportunities.

Atlas Software Group designs, integrates and supports the technology that power your company. Contact us for more information at djung@atlassoftwaregroup.com.

Step 1 – Identify the Hurdles

Corporations everywhere are facing the same challenges. Mission critical, custom built applications are trapped on the corporate desktop. Modern, cloud based application designs have set a new standard for usability and governance that are leaving legacy desktop applications trapped in the past.

Many IT groups have active initiatives to rewrite their legacy desktop applications to address this challenge. However, these initiatives are resource and time intensive, and it may take years to successfully implement, test, and deploy the upgraded version. Unfortunately, these efforts often carry a high risk of failure and may encounter several setbacks along the way.

What may come as a surprise is that there are simple and cost effective solutions available to break free of the desktop and enable access to legacy applications through a web browser. These solutions can be quickly implemented and will provide major benefits ahead of completing a complete rewrite of your application. This may open doors for an interim solution, while long-term redesign efforts are underway.

Step 2 – Evaluate the Advantages

By migrating desktop based applications to a cloud accessible interface, you can immediately gain the following benefits for your organization.

• Centralized Control – By centralizing your application’s installation, on servers hosted in a public or private cloud, you now have complete control over the configuration of the server hosting the application. Users can no longer install conflicting programs and the hosted service will provide increased protection against viruses and malware.

• Web Based Interface – Your desktop application will be transformed into a website interface. This means that the legacy application will be accessible from any type of computer, tablet, or phone that has access to the internet.

• Simplified Deployment – Since each hosting server can support many remote users, you also have fewer computers to maintain, patch, and deploy software changes to.

• Simplified Security – Access to your legacy application will become centralized over a secure channel, HTTPS. This increases your control over who has rights to access your software at any given time, and rights can be revoked without needing physical access to a user’s computer or tablet.

• Simplified Disaster Recovery – By hosting your application in the Cloud, disaster recovery is greatly simplified. Your application servers can be replicated and co-located, providing an easy path for recovery from disasters. Since users only need a web browser and their credentials to access the application, they can use any computer, tablet, or phone with web access to reach your application. This provides tremendous flexibility for dealing with office power outages and emergencies.

Step 3 – Plan the Path Forward

There are many viable options to migrate legacy applications to a cloud based solution. They range in features, price, and ease of implementation. Start by laying out all the options on the table, to determine what makes the most sense for your situation, budget, and organizational goals. A detailed cost-benefit analysis will inform your path forward, whether that includes the full rewrite of an application or an intermediary solution for cloud hosting. A staged approach may provide some easy wins, while still providing space for long term initiatives.

It can be challenging to reallocate resources for the effort required to successfully initiate change. In order to take action, detailed cost and feature assessments will be needed by management. If this the case for your organization, there are outside resources that can help get the ball rolling. It may only take a small nudge to send your team in the right direction, enabling your legacy applications to break free to the Cloud.

Vestridge Technology is a professional services company specializing in software consulting services for Financial Technology solutions.

At Vestridge Technology, we have the experience to provide a complete assessment and custom solution for your unique situation. We are experts at working with business and IT teams to build a road map for success. For Cloud migrations, our solutions cover a range of desktop client technologies, including Visual Studio, Visual Basic 6, Delphi, PowerBuilder, and more. Contact us today for more information at info@vestridge.com.