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The Case for Web Based Applications-Part I

© Herb Wexler

I'm old. Don't get me wrong I love being old. It gives me a wonderful sense of history. Decades ago when I first started working with computers all the company's information was stored on a central computer. Computer wizards managed the complexity of the equipment. They roamed in and out of locked air-conditioned rooms with serious looks on their faces. Outside these rooms, the users either read the information on printed reports or used a dumb terminal that revealed the data on command.

All these things changed in the 1980's. The personal computer let people store and manipulate information on their desktops. This gave individuals greater control and improved efficiency. But there were drawbacks. Information was duplicated. Two people who worked on the same data might have different copies on their local machines. Neither one was sure who had the correct copy. Backups sometimes proved unreliable or were not done at all. Software updates had to be installed on every computer when a new version was released. We are now swinging back to the earlier model of data stored in a central location. Now there are some vast improvements.

Three trends are allowing this to happen.

• First, the internet supports access to databases.
• Second, it is easy to access the internet from just about anywhere.
• Third, the number of devices that have access to the internet is increasing.

People can reach the internet not just from home and the office but from the coffee shop, hotel and any place that offers a wireless access point. The variety of tools is growing. Besides desktop and laptop computers there are handheld devices such as PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), cell phones and pocket PC's. The infrastructure is in place to get data anywhere, anytime. What is missing, and the key to future ease and flexibility, is the software. Most software developers, who concentrate on small businesses, are still thinking in the 90's. Databases are designed to run on local servers that sit in the office of the small business. This requires companies to have at least one person with some IT skills.

These employees have a host of duties. They need to understand how to do simple maintenance on a server, rebuild database files and make sure backups are running properly. The small business pays thousands of dollars to purchase the software and then shoulders the hidden cost of maintaining the network installed at the office. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is much higher than the purchase price.