Why are we using Silverlight at Work?

I had to remind myself today how it actually came to be that we had adopted Silverlight at work. Not because I'm wishing we hadn't mind you, but just because we're about to go back and evaluate technologies again (well, we are if it can't be avoided, it's madness if we do I think) and I thought I'd better make sure I'm covered if I start getting grilled on why we took this direction in the first place. So here's how it happened, in a seriously abridged format:

Why is Silverlight/WPF our chosen platform?
Outcome of the capability enhancement project in 2008.

How was it an outcome of that project?
Various platforms were rapidly assessed for further investigation against a large number of criteria. Microsoft platforms were chosen due to time constraints and due to our existing large investment in this area. WPF came out on top, Silverlight next. This report is available in the electronic libary.

The chosen technology was investigated, architectures assessed, proofs of concept conducted, standards/guidelines developed. They were then used in our next two UI projects with a good level of success. Silverlight 4 delivers further benefits making it a better fit than it did before. Indeed, the WPF project that integrated tightly with Office and the desktop could have been written in Silverlight 4 had it been available.

Why not use an HTML based solution?
Products like one of those developed that integrate tightly with the desktop do not lend themselves to browser based solutions. By using Silverlight we can adopt a consistent architecture that brings the power of tight desktop integration with the ease of web based deployment. Adopting HTML based solutions we will still need a desktop architecture for products that require privileged access to local resources. By using Silverlight we can realise considerable savings by adopting an architecture that fits both needs.

Additional benefits

• Tools are free (i.e. included in existing licence agreements with Microsoft)
• Technology based on .NET/C# which we are already heavily invested in
• Silverlight is rapidly growing with many new features being added to Silverlight 4 less than 12 months after the release of Silverlight 3. Features such as trusted applications will allow us to use a single architecture to tackle almost any conceivable business requirement