Most applications today are web-based or have a significant web-based component. Given this fact, it is important that a software consulting firm provide depth of expertise on one of the major web platforms. Each of these platforms has benefits to offer, but as a purchaser of software applications, it is important to consider the following:
- Lifetime of platform – Is this a new platform that is growing in popularity? Or maybe a “has been” platform which may be widespread currently, but is on the decline?
- Pervasiveness of platform – Will it be hard to find a programmer to maintain the system in the future?
- Platform requirements – What kind of server will be needed to run this application?
- Scalability of the platform – Will this platform provide for the amount of data/users/files/bandwidth required by my company?