Several months back, Kyle IM’d me a link to the Top 10 Dead (Or Dying) Computer Skills. We both noticed that Ecometry used the first two technologies, Cobol and Non-Relational Databases. Having had our troubles with Ecometry and how backwards it sometimes seemed to how applications are developed today, especially web apps, this gave us a little chuckle.
I recently got a little fired up (here and here) with Ecometry regarding their support billing cycles, so I came back to this article and figured I’d publish it.
There are many reasons companies stay with old technologies. Sometimes it just works, so its hard to justify change. Sometimes the cost outweighs the benefits of developing a new application. But sometimes, just sometimes, to increase market share and keep existing customers, you have to change. I’m not saying companies like Ecometry will ever disappear, I just think that eventually, something better will come along.
What I will say to that effect is that as time goes on, better solutions come out (read web applications) that can do the same things antiquated systems like Ecometry do but better (Ecometry isn’t the most user friendly application in the world). Older companies are either forced to change or die out because people go elsewhere. Think about it, why is Digital Equipment (DEC) gone? Something better came along. Why don’t we use DOS anymore? Something better came along. I think we’ll start to see more and more of this happen with Web 2.0 applications replacing desktop applications (look at some of the Google applications that have come out that are useful, but not yet as powerful as say Microsoft Office) when its possible for them to have the same usefulness and features their desktop ancestors had.
Eventually, as web applications become more and more powerful, legacy applications such as Office and Ecometry will go the way of the Dodo. This isn’t a knock on Ecometry so much as its an observation on my part as the direction of software these days. More and more powerful applications are being developed for the Web as we bandwidth increases and we start to go more mobile.
Great observations Bill – when it comes to Ecometry, I’ve had nothing but headaches. Even the simplest task seems impossibly complicated. They never got the DRY memo when it came to software development. Broken windows, yay!! At the end of the day, newer technologies win out because they’re more efficient and _easier_to_use_. Evolution means change – for the better. To neglect and resist change is to go the way of the Dodo indeed.
Gents,
Much of what you have said is a common refrain but much as this is a shameless plug I think you would find Devix solutions would bring the right kind of tear to your eye. Indeed, for inquiring minds there are many better solutions.