At 24:00 EST on December 9, 2011 the Microsoft sponsored protection and analytics service for Windows Phone 7 will be shut-off.
A different service fully and solely subsidized by PreEmptive Solutions will take its place. This service is materially different – please read the following notice carefully for information on how to continue to work with PreEmptive Solutions technology for Windows Phone.
Background
While Microsoft’s sponsorship expired on September 30, 2011, PreEmptive continued the service for an additional 60 days at our own expense while we explored a variety of options to continue our support for the Windows Phone development community. Microsoft’s sponsored service has ended, but our commitment and support for this community continues unabated.
PreEmptive’s challenge was to find an affordable means to support for the burgeoning WP7 development community without compromising the quality and capabilities unique to our protection and application analytics technologies; we believe the following provides both a valuable set of services at little and no cost for small WP7 development efforts with a smooth “on-ramp” for larger development projects and for organizations with more demanding service levels, governance or scalability requirements.
Summary
Obfuscation and Instrumentation continues at no cost through 12/31/2012.
Dotfuscator for Windows Phone, the post-compile tool that obfuscates and injects application instrumentation will continue to be offered to Windows Phone 7 developers at no cost through December 31, 2012.
Mobile analytics endpoint (wp7.runtimeintelligence.com) will be shut-off on 12/9/2011
The current analytics endpoint will be discontinued. However, developers have a number of options that they can consider;
· Subscribe to the PreEmptive Solutions commercial endpoint. This is a fee-based option that includes all of the features currently offered PLUS an advanced mobile portal, a RESTful API, and a higher service level (plus support beyond WP7). For more information, email sales@preemptive.com.
· License PreEmptive Analytics for TFS. This is also a fee-based option. This solution is an on-premises solution focused on exceptions rather than feature tracking. For more information, see Using Analytics for Windows Phone and Azure Exception Tracking - User Community Virtual Series and email sales@preemptive.com.
· Develop and host a homegrown endpoint. This is a no-fee option but development will be required. The CodePlex Runtime Intelligence Endpoint Starter Kit repository starter kit project may be of some help.
· Plan to migrate to the PreEmptive Analytics for TFS community edition to be included with Dev-11. This is a no-fee option but is NOT yet generally available from Microsoft. For more information, see the video A Lap Around PreEmptive Analytics for TFS with Justin Marks.
· Publish their app as a CodePlex project and utilize the CodePlex analytics endpoint (this is different than the option above). This is a no-fee option. For more information, see this tutorial (note that this assumes the developer is limited to the Community Edition of Dotfuscator – but the WP7 edition has full functionality).
The following feature summary table highlights the three principle options available to the Windows Phone 7 development community with a comparison to the discontinued Microsoft sponsored service. (click thumbnail to enlarge)
FAQ
Q: Will developers have to republish my WP7 app on or before December 9, 2011?
No
Q: Will users notice any difference in app behavior after December 9, 2011?
No
Q: Will I have to re-register my installation of Dotfuscator for Windows Phone 7?
No
Q: If I have only been using Dotfuscator for obfuscation, will I lose any functionality or will I have to do anything differently?
No
Q: Will developers have access to earlier runtime data generated by Runtime Intelligence for Windows Phone after December 9, 2011?
They will not.
Q: Where can developers ask additional questions regarding migration, upgrades or discontinuing use of PreEmptive Solutions technologies?
Post to the PreEmptive forum at http://www.preemptive.com/forum/index.php?f=26&sid=dfe90c2ba80de07692372dae962c58b2&rb_v=viewforum
PLEASE NOTE – this is NOT a moderated forum.
Q: Why would a development organization upgrade to a professional SKU of PreEmptive Analytics?
· Multi-platform (WP7, Android, JavaScript, all .NET and Java, native API…)
· Private endpoint (for large-scale enterprises with demanding scalability, governance, or other unique requirements).
· Analytics for TFS option (out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft Team Foundation Server).
· True application analytics such as custom data fields, development ownership of data, true SLA and support for developers, etc.
Conclusion
Of course we would have preferred that Microsoft had opted to extend their sponsorship for Runtime Intelligence for Windows Phone, but that was not the decision that they ultimately made. However, over the past 12 months, we had a front row seat watching a flood of innovative apps launch. We know that a good percentage of the WP7 development community relied upon PreEmptive Solutions for both analytics and protection (in a recent analysis of the marketplace, it was shown that 17% of all apps used either protection, analytics or both).
This experience combined with our confidence in the future of the Windows Phone platform has prompted us to extend free access to Dotfuscator for Windows Phone. We look forward to our continued support and participation in the growth and success of this exciting technology and marketplace.
No comments:
Post a Comment