AREV DOS migration strategy

A Revelation business application that has been developed and refined over a period of many years can be very accommodating to your organization's needs but it can also become more and more demanding to operate over time. When DOS equipment, performance, networking, support and systems integration issues become significant, here are some of the strategic options you should consider, along with their pros and cons.

The first step is to evaluate the current status of your AREV application. This will provide a solid basis for your decision-making process.

What proportion of your current business needs are satisfied by your AREV application? Prepare a short list of the key functions, then assign a "percentage met" to each item based on your insight and user feedback.
Document the technological and/or structural aspects to be improved: e.g. printing to PDF documents, consolidation of multiple database directories or AREV accounts, elimination of backup issues, etc.
Anticipate upcoming requirements: what are the trends in your industry, where are business opportunities being missed, etc.
The web services revolution: All information that you presently exchange with customers, business partners, reps and suppliers via e-mail, datafiles and paper will eventually be handled by computers talking to each other in real time over the Internet. All user applications should be web-based and communicate via web services to facilitate ubiquitous access, reduce support costs and prepare for this new IT architecture.

The most common approaches we have seen to solving the AREV/DOS enigma are outlined below. Several options may apply depending on the size and needs of your organization;

1. Purchase a package

Many fine software products have been developed over the years while your trusty AREV app was chugging along. You may be pleasantly surprised by the availability of customizable industry-specific packages. This option is particularly recommended if the evaluation of needs met (above) is 60% or less.

A successful software purchase requires a careful up-front evaluation of vendors and products but is faster to implement, easier to manage and simpler to finance than in-house development. Our xPort utility can help get your data moving in the right direction.

2. Subscribe to web 2.0 cloud computing service (aka SAAS - software-as-a-service)

Very easy to set up and maintain, cloud computing has all the advantages of purchasing a package except that customization is generally limited. No significant equipment or software investment is required and usage costs are usually very low. A competent supplier will require little or no contractual obligation on your part since you won't want to leave. SAAS is ideal for smaller organizations but can be equally advantageous for larger entities.

Beware of those sites that involve significant supplier setup time/cost or high license fees. These are conventional packages which are individually hosted, often using Citrix (see option 4 below). They rarely offer the ease-of-use, reliability and user autonomy of true multi-client web 2.0 browser-based services. Try Basecamp project management or other 37 Signals services to get a taste of one of the better web 2.0 providers.

Many companies hesitate to get involved in cloud computing due to security and reliability concerns but in reality, a good hosting supplier will provide you with reliability, performance and a continuous off-site backup which will exceed many in-house installations. Scalability is a huge benefit, since additional resources can often be added and released with a few mouse clicks.

Since Internet connection speed and reliability from your premises are essential, purchase primary and secondary high service services from different suppliers to avoid local outages.

3. Move your Revelation database to Windows Server

The Universal Driver from Revelation uses TCP/IP communications which is much faster and easier to support than IPX under Novell. View the many benefits to be gained when making this move. Requires AREV 2.0 or better. AREV32 (see option 5 below) requires the Universal Driver.

4. Run AREV in a browser using Citrix virtual desktop

This concentrates all your challenges onto one or more Citrix servers since no client workstation install is required. Allows you to consolidate remote Revelation databases onto a single server by extending application access using the Internet. 2x.com is an alternate source for virtual desktops.

Citrix can be costly ($500/seat) and reliable printing can be difficult to achieve. DOS AREV sessions under TameDos require about 3 times as much Citrix server juice as Openinsight sessions. Your stations can be very lightweight and run any supported version of Windows.

5. Upgrade from DOS AREV to AREV32/OpenInsight

AREV32 is a character interface to OpenInsight that was created by Revelation Software by compiling the DOS AREV kernel under 32-bit Windows. The upgrade path has some twists and turns (see AREV32 conversion tips) but the end result is a very stable AREV application environment that can access all OpenInsight functions.

Immediate benefits to moving to OpenInsight include;

Eliminating all use of MS-DOS
Using native Windows printer drivers instead of Net Use commands
Calling the Windows API
Calling OpenInsight utilities (e.g. FTP, SMTPmail, SQL)
Integrating with COM applications using OpenInsight's OLE functions
Transferring AREV R/Basic code to OI Basic+ procedures is fairly easy.

A couple of caveats to consider: every AREV32 user consumes 2 OpenInsight users sessions (and licenses, although RevSoft has offered price breaks in the past) and the AREV32 debugger is awkward to use. OpenInsight also has some inherent limitations that may require development using other tools - see the AIRS Web Service project which uses a technique know as wrapping dotNet controls. The OpenInsight repository does not include AREV32 code so you need a parallel utility such as our DXR package to manage software release distribution.

6. Build your application using Microsoft's VB.Net

VB is a fairly easy transition from R/Basic and there are tons of Googleable instructions available to get you going. You have the option to retain your Revelation database by using the NetOI assembly from Visual Studio.

You can also write native Windows applications using VB with the option to generate a COM interface that can be called by Open Insight's OLE utilities (see the AIRS Web Service project). Windows services can be created to automate many processes and all applications can run in a browser.

The quantity and quality of Microsoft-related development, support and human resources is significant.

7. Transfer your AREV database to a SQL-based server

Whether you are using a package, OpenInsight (with the SQL connector) or dotNet for application development, client-server architecture offers enormous advantages over the file server technology provided by Revelation. Multi-tier applications are very stable, flexible, scalable and easy to manage with development teams.

Available server software includes commercial systems such as Microsoft's SQL Server and Oracle. MySQL and PostGres are the main open source contenders. Our xPort utility can generate DML scripts and normalized data files in various formats to facilitate your transition.

Whatever path(s) you decide to take, feel free to contact us if you have any questions.