1. The current implementation of the Wave Direct Store uses a catalog product that is no longer supported by its owners. The store was built using the ICAT catalog product. Since this product is no longer supported, any long-term goals of the store should include the migration of the store to a product or language that will likely be supported well into the future. There are many options that could be evaluated, but this report will focus on the ones that appear to be the most viable and cost-effective.
2. The options that will be discussed are porting the current catalog functionality and pages to a new markup language and server technology. The leading products for these options are Microsoft’s Active Server Pages and Cold Fusion Server. Just as the ICAT product was an internet catalog solution, several pre-made catalogs using the Active Server Page and Cold Fusion technologies are also available from third-party vendors.
3. A primary factor in making this evaluating these options will be cost. The elements that affect the cost include the cost of products required and the cost of the manpower involved in the migration. The cost of the manpower is a factor of the time involved to complete the migration and that is how it will be evaluated. The time estimates are based on my own experience and how long I think it would take me to do the work. The time involved could be affected if other manpower assets are added or used instead. The other factors are performance, scalability, maintainability, and stability.
4. The two main points of this decision are the selection of the technology and the option to purchase another catalog product, which are available in both technologies, or to use the functionality of the current catalog and port the current pages. The issues involved with the selection of the technology
