Internet

Users can be separated into three basic categories: the public, your private employees, and trusted business partners. The following terms are used to describe these groups:

» Internet: Public access from outside the company
» Intranet: Private access from inside the company
» Extranet: (Extended Intranet) Private access from outside the company

Since the applications and published information are downloaded via the internet from a central server, the client can be very thin, requiring little or no maintenance for any particular platform the user prefers.

Client/Server

We develop client/server applications designed for any number of users. Consistent with the nature of c/s systems, users are distributed but share a single data repository. We recommend that systems that need to serve more than 5 users should be implemented on a client/server system. This improves response time, enables greater data integrity and reduces network traffic.

Client/Server systems are designed for mission-critical, enterprise-wide applications. Clients can be located on a LAN (Local Area Network) or a WAN (Wide Area Network).

There is a trend moving from (now traditional) 2-tier c/s sytems to 3-tier client/server systems, componentizing objects, where the business logic is broken out into a middle tier. This allows greater choices for each tier, and is more of an "open" system, allowing the developer to keep the business logic even if there is a database change or a user interface change. We would be happy to discuss this movement with you.

Desktop

We develop desktop applications designed for approximately 1 to 10 users. Desktop systems usually use a database that is local to the user's machine but could share the database if it were on another machine. Some desktop systems are truly stand-alone and cannot be shared by others. We recommend that systems that need to serve more than 5 users should be implemented on a client/server system. This improves response time, enables greater data integrity and reduces network traffic.

Desktop systems are usually less expensive, quicker to develop, and easier to maintain than client/server systems. However, they are not designed for mission-critical, enterprise-wide applications.

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