MSNZ Podcast 8 – Access Services for SharePoint

image[2] While at the SharePoint conference, I was struck by the potential for Access Services for SharePoint.  I shared my thinking in a previous blog post, but I was also fortunate enough to sit down with Ryan and Johanna from the Access team and Steve Letford to talk about Access Services a little more.  Johanna, Steve and Ryan

We asked the questions we thought technical people would ask like how will is scale if an app is poorly written and how does it manage large tables and what does it do with the network, but we also talked through some of the other things that this technology offers to business, such as the ability to clean up Access databases that appear around the environment while also providing tremendous business agility by creating short term Line of Business applications quickly to streamline business processes.

I hope you see why I think Access Services is a game changer after listening to this podcast.

Posted by darryl on November 11/2/2009, 2009  •  Comments  •   • 

Comments

11/5/2009 8:36:35 AM

Albert D. Kallal

I been playing with the new version of access, and is really is cool.

Here is a cool demo I wrote in access 2010 preview. You notice at the half way point I switch to running the application in the browser.

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

Albert D. Kallal

Albert D. Kallal Canada

11/5/2009 8:57:37 AM

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11/12/2009 7:17:03 AM

Brandon (Microsoft Access devotee)

I agree it's a game changer for Access, Darryl.  I've been playing with it since November 2008, and the only thing that strikes me is whether it will be enough.  Access has a huge install base, but web-based competition from Zoho, Alpha Five is heating up.  Since Access Services are strictly tied to  SharePoint, I wonder if you've heard anything about whether SharePoint online will support Access Services?  I'm part of the beta, but there isn't any indication that Access Services will work with SharePoint online.

Brandon (Microsoft Access devotee) United States

11/12/2009 8:25:53 AM

darryl

My understanding is that the eCAL features (BCS, Access Services, InfoPath forms, etc) will not be available in SharePoint online.

I think that Access Services plays in a different space to Zoho and other cloud offerings due to the simple fact that it is hosted internally and this fits the traditional Access database model better.

I could be wrong though.

darryl New Zealand

11/12/2009 9:08:18 AM

Albert D. Kallal

Office live small business has been free for about two years now, and it included SharePoint stuff with ms-access support. In fact, when you launch up a list in SharePoint in a browser that was a table upsized from access, it displays as a list in the browser with an access icon (this functionally been this way for two years now, and office live (small business) also been free for the last two years).

So Free is rather reasonable price. I mean, there also tons of companies that offer SharePoint hosting for less then $20. Regardless, I assuming that with the free edition of office live, and that of MS plans to offer SharePoint hosting, and also that of many other vendors who offer SharePoint hosting now, I would think I am going to have lots of options here, some of which are very affordable (even free) right now.

I suppose it is way to soon to really say what parts Office Live gets. However, you could upsize access 2003 and 2007 tables to the free on-line office live and it works quite well. I suppose they could drop this access support they had for two years, but that would really surprise me.

Albert D. Kallal Canada

11/12/2009 10:05:12 AM

darryl

Thanks Albert,
I wasn't actually referring to Office Live - rather I was referring to SharePoint Online which is part of Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite.  This will be aligned with SharePoint Standard in the SharePoint 2010 timeframe, hence the comment about eCAL features.

I can't comment on Office Live as I don't know the roadmap for that product.  Although it is a nice offering for free.

darryl New Zealand

11/16/2009 1:59:23 PM

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Access Services

Access Services is new to SPS2010 and caters for hosting Access databases within SharePoint. It is only available in the Enterprise edition.  The recommended use for this, based on the MSNZ podcast,...

Confluence: SharePoint 2010 Development Wiki

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