In the past Access has been given a bad name, we've all seen slow or frequently crashing examples.   In my experience this can mostly be attributed to a case of "shooting the messenger".   As a RAD tool (rapid application development) - for many years it was unparalleled, although this undoubtedly tended to contribute to its bad press.   Increasingly I.T. departments are migrating away from this solution, and looking for alternatives.  Let's look at this objectively, since it affects so many existing customers.

There are 2 main sources of problems with MS Access (implementation and design) -  1. When it is extended beyond its capabilities, e.g. implemented in a multi-user environment, and 2. when its database is poorly designed - this usually occurs when novice programmers concentrate on screen designs instead of establishing their database objectives and building their GUI from there.  Crashes often occur because of uncompiled VBA modules, or poor DB design using blobs or highly dynamic data (a compile and then repair and compress often corrects this problem).  I've spent hours fixing poorly designed forms and combo boxes.  But you can't blame Access for these issues.

If the primary data tables are stored in a separate mdb file and linked to the front-end mde GUI, when the need arises to increase the number of concurrent users, this can be achieved by migrating the back-end data to an alternative database format.   From Access version 2000 onwards - the obvious choice for this would be to SQLServer, in Access 2003 this resulted in the Access file format of ADP (Access Data Project).

Perhaps Access's best feature is the way it integrates with existing MS Office applications.  It's great for mail-merge, reports and charts and localised stores of information.  I've used it as a temporary storage vessel of data that is obtained across a WAN environment, with a Excel front-end.

Given the enormous size of the existing customer base - the release of Access 2007 is big news.

ActiveWin.com, reivews Access 2007:

Access 2007 is an overwhelming update both interface and feature wise, with new tools that enhance its existing offerings, from better integration with Office applications to Server side feature integration with products such as SharePoint. This release should be a definite hit with the Enterprise user who does a lot of group work and data entry.

Microsoft, as expected, have nothing but praise for their new product. But it is clearly a huge step forward for small to medium business solutions, especially existing customers.

Now days there are many great DB alternatives; MySQL, Derby, Cloudscape - to name a few, but if you need to prototype a solution or quickly mock up a GUI - its hard to beat Access, if you recognise its limitations.