Yeah, Don, you're right. I generally move on whenever coming across a project that defines the architecture a priori. That results is way more work than anything is worth. The interesting thing here is that this group is already a client, albeit for different projects. I've been doing smaller OACS web projects with an eye on bidding when their big ole monster came along.
They have a member of their board who has been building massive databases for decades who has been directing their long term tech direction, which includes a very substantial and massive database. He seems to drank the .NET koolaid recently, though. As a result, I would like to be able to compare and contrast the productivity, stability and reliability of .NET web architecture vs OACS.
Here is a little more background:
For the big project, I haven't been privy to their plans because I would then be disqualified for bidding when the RFP comes out. I have a general sense of what they want to do, though, and it is a *perfect* fit for the OACS. I recently learned what their preliminary architectural plans are, though, and it is heterogenous and, uhm, weird.
Basically, the DB will be Oracle on a big fat Solaris box with a .NET app and web server in front of it. In fact, the web/app server may not be in the same room or even the same subnet as the Solaris box, which is really tripping me out.
Now, having a general idea of their needs and their organization structure, I would have suggested OACS, Linux and Oracle/PG, but they went ahead and bought everything before they made any other decisions.
However, they are not close to making the ultimate decision on the front end app/web issue and I have been entrusted with building a very basic prototype of the system using OACS. So I have an opportunity to make the argument for OACS in place of .NET in a very real way.
But in order to get the board member to stop fixating on .NET, I need to have some arguments that can compare OACS with .NET. He seems to have really strong opinions on technology, which may make this effort worthless to even try. I am meeting with him on Tuesday though, where I will find out about this.
I think that this discussion has been very fruitful, though. Gimme a little time and I will summarize what I have heard so far.
