Using SQL Server with Access Forms or ASP.NET

Question

What would be the pros and cons of taking a large (16000 LOC) existing Access 2007/Forms application and porting it to SQL Server 2005, while keeping the Access forms on the front end, versus porting the front end to a .NET technology, say ASP.NET 4.0 or MVC3? The backend is definitely getting ported to SQL Server, with large schema modifications, so this question is about whether to use the existing Access Forms front end or not. I don't take throwing away existing working code lightly! On the other hand, the schema will be changing a lot.

If you had a lot of experience with ASP.NET/Oracle but not with Access or SQL Server, how might this change your answer?

Thanks,
Mike

Answer 1

There is nothing wrong with Access as a front-end to an RDBMS whether SQL Server or another

Porting the front-end but leaving an Access back-end would seem a bit weird: why bother? Access is a good presentation tool but mediocre DBMS. Why keep the mediocre?

Also, only change one component at once no matter what you do: data, then front end. Don't do a big bang approach and change the lot