Clarity

Expand all | Collapse all

Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

navzjoshi00

navzjoshi00May 08, 2015 01:52 AM

  • 1.  Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 05, 2015 08:57 AM

    Hi All,

     

    I seem to be struggling with finding out what the disadvantages of using the On Demand CA PPM service is. I understand the Pros for moving towards an On Demand service, as outlined in the documentation, but the Cons (assuming there are some) cannot be found so easily.

     

    What are other peoples experience with this Service?

    Is the migration from On Premise to On Demand straight forward?

    Can custom functionality, which may not necessarily be supported by CA, be introduced and can your instance be fully customised as it can with the On Premise version?

     

    Regards,

    Phil



  • 2.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM
    Best Answer

    Posted May 05, 2015 10:07 AM

    Phil,

     

    One of the biggest disadvantages of going to On-Demand is the limitations around customizations.  You cannot have any processes that update the database directly.  (many clients have created processes that run update statements).

     

    You also cannot have any customizations at the database level either.  So no Views, Triggers, Stored Procedures, tables, etc.

     

    All of these limitations can be worked around using GEL, XOG, and custom objects, but if your installation is heavily customized, the effort to become "On-Demand Compliant" can be significant.

     

    If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.

    -Doug Kalkowski

    dkalkowski@winmill.com

    www.winmill.com



  • 3.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 06, 2015 05:14 AM

    Thanks Doug,

     

    That helps clear up my questions, thought the customisations would be an issue. I think I'll be staying with On Premise in that case.

     

    Regards,

    Phil



  • 4.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 07, 2015 04:16 PM

    The greatest flexibility you can have with Clarity is with an on-premise implementation. The least flexibility is onDemand. Both are great solutions, and both have their place in the Clarity world.



  • 5.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 08, 2015 01:52 AM

    Agree, with Michael

     

    NJ



  • 6.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 12, 2015 11:45 AM
      |   view attached

    I've attached the presentation/class I presented at Rego U on the topic.  I include an "advantages" matrix on which option provides the advantage over the other (on prem vs on demand.)

    Hopefully this helps.

     

    Thanks,

    Josh

    Attachment(s)



  • 7.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 01:47 AM

    Thanks for sharing this, Josh

     

    Very useful !!

     

    NJ



  • 8.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 04:47 AM

    Many thanks Josh, the presentation was exactly what I was looking for.

     

    I still have a couple of questions, which hopefully you might be able to answer:

    1. Could custom tables be migrated or created, albeit unsupported by CA?

    2. To what extent are customisations restricted?

    • Would this take away the ability to change the UI themes, page layouts, menu options etc.?
    • Could custom portlets still be created and migrated?

     

     

    Regards,

    Phil



  • 9.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted May 13, 2015 10:06 AM


    Hi Phil,

     

    Here are the answers to your questions:

     

    1. Could custom tables be migrated or created, albeit unsupported by CA?

     

         No.  This would not be allowed for On Demand customers. 

    2. To what extent are customisations restricted?

    • Would this take away the ability to change the UI themes, page layouts, menu options etc.?

      No, you can still make these types of changes since they can be accomplished via the UI.
    • Could custom portlets still be created and migrated?

      Yes, you can migrate custom portlets via xog

     

    Sincerely yours,

     

    Jeanne Gaskill

    Senior Support Engineer

    CA PPM (aka Clarity)



  • 10.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 11:47 AM

    As Jeanne says, things deemed "custom" are not allowed.  The best way to classify items is to use terms "configured" versus "custom."

    Anything you can do in the UI today.  CSS, Studio, Objects, Attributes, etc.  are all "configured" changes. They aren't custom.  So, those are all allowed.

    Anything you added to the product that wasn't done through the UI is what is considered custom and couldn't be migrated.



  • 11.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 01:01 PM

    As for "custom tables" - it depends what you want to use them for - its absolutely true that some random table that you have created in your on-premise instance to hold some data would not be supported in a on-demand instance, but if you re-engineer your solution to create a custom Clarity object then the application itself will create a table (called ODF_CA_something)  that you can happily interact with (create data via the application's XOG web-services / use in NSQL portlets / reports ) - and all that will work/be supported in an on-demand system.



  • 12.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 02:50 PM

    Thanks for sharing!

     

    On SaaS, upgrades (fix packs, content packs and versions changes) are made free of charge? If so, this seems to be a big advantage of SaaS over on premise.



  • 13.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 03:39 PM

    Remember, if you have customizations, you will have to pay to have them converted.

     

    Due to restrictions, if you have an integration to the Clarity database, or are calling stored procs, or custom processes that write directly to the database, these all have to be converted to XOG. if you are time sensitive like my location, this conversion could create a timing issue. as XOG is just a little slower then direct database access.



  • 14.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 11:21 AM

    Phil,

     

    It seems you have decided to stay on Premise.  I agree with the crowd that there are pros and cons for both Premise and onDemand--it really depends on your needs.  We went to the cloud, as dictated by our leadership.  I will tell you it was a VERY painful and problem-riddled effort.



  • 15.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 03:41 PM

    Michelle, would you be up for a quick chat about your experience? We are looking at the same and are a very heavily customized installation.

     

    I can be contacted at: 4tmlt4@gmail.comtmlt@rogers.com



  • 16.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 04:24 PM


  • 17.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 04:05 PM

    Can you share a litle about your major pains?

     

    When a Clarity is heavily customized, even a version upgrade can be a big pain. You can face this major pain migrating to the cloud as your last headache upgrading Clarity..



  • 18.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 04:23 PM

    When you can no longer access the DB directly, use stored procs, etc. life can get very difficult in a highly customized environment. Upgrading is one thing. Converting some of your customizations to Xog and GEL and no longer using Stored procs, triggers, etc is quite another.



  • 19.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 04:38 PM

    Agreed! The effort to migrate from On Premise to On Demand is much greater than the effort to do an upgrade.

     

    But I think that Michelle's organization already went through it, so they might already reached the promised land

     

    When moving to On Demand, I think that triggers are the one thing we can't reproduce the behaviour. The other customizations we can adapt, losing some peformance (direct database access >> XOG) and at cost of more complex code base (Java and Store Proc >> gelscript).

     

    Regards,

    Roberto Barra



  • 20.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 04:28 PM

    Sure.  The biggest pain point we had is the requirement to be on Oracle.  We had to convert SQL server to Oracle before doing any cloud move.  There is no slick conversion tool, its just XOG, and it is not very efficient or accurate.



  • 21.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 04:42 PM

    Thanks for sharing!

     

    At least you are on Oracle now, and can use human-readable date conversion functions on your queries!



  • 22.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 04:44 PM

    Ouch! 



  • 23.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 13, 2015 08:02 PM

    We are moving the other way – On Demand -> On Premise.  This is being dictated by my customer.  We are moving Oracle to Oracle so no XOGging between databases.

     

    I am really looking forward to having an On Premise environment where I can move our custom applications that we are running outside On Demand to java jobs within the platform.

     

    V/r,

    Gene



  • 24.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 14, 2015 05:59 AM


  • 25.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 14, 2015 06:05 AM

    I think ThomasConnery posted a comparison a couple of years ago in blog which I don't seem to be able to find now.



  • 26.  Re: Disadvantages of using On Demand (cloud) CA PPM

    Posted May 14, 2015 02:28 PM

    urmas, thanks for remembering that. The original post was removed and resided in CA's old blog platform. I have updated it slightly and posted it to my personal community blog. It may not be 100% accurate today as it was written in early 2013. Doug from Winmill and Josh from Rego have provided some valuable information within this thread as well. The On Demand team would be able to confirm exactly what they will and will not support. Your sales or account team can help you engage On Demand if you had particular questions.

     

    Why Deployment Models Matter