Application Deployment

This section includes:

•

Served Data Versus Direct Data Connection

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Application with Served Data

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Application with Direct Data Connection

•

Display Viewer Application

 

Served Data Versus Direct Data Connection

With application deployments, clients either have a direct data connection to each data source or they connect to the Data Server. In most production scenarios it is best to use the Data Server. The Data Server uses EII and XML technologies to gather, federate and distribute information from disparate data sources based on information currently in demand. It also caches the data so that multiple demands are delivered to any number of clients - without need of subsequent data queries. These important factors greatly enhance processing speed.

However, in some small scale implementations the direct data connection may be the best choice. For instance, in order to rapidly implement RTView for prototyping and testing purposes. When testing is complete, it can be ported to a served data deployment for the production environment.

Ultimately, this decision would be determined by weighing the advantages that the Data Server brings; performance, scalability, security, easier setup, and lower impact on backend data sources, against the cost advantage of the direct data connection.

Note: Refer to the Data Sources section of this documentation to see if deployment with a Direct Data Connection is supported by your data source.

The pros and cons of the two scenarios, Served Data and Direct Data Connection, are described below.

Pros and Cons

 

Issue	Served Data	Direct Data Connection
Setup	Server: Requires Data Server setup Client: Requires less setup since clients do not need to meet all system requirements for each data source	Server: Does not require Data Server Client: Requires more setup since each client must meet all system requirements for each data source
Performance	For a very small deployment it is slower, but for all other deployments it is faster	For a very small deployment it is faster, but for all other deployments it is slower
Security	More secure since backend data applications are only accessed by the Data Server	Less secure since backend data applications are directly accessed by clients
Scalability	More scalable due to data requests being federated and caching by the Data Server	Less scalable since each client makes individual data request
Cost	Large Deployment: Client maintenance more costly, hardware less costly Small Deployment: Hardware cost equal to Direct Data Connection but client maintenance more costly	Large Deployment: Client maintenance less costly, hardware more costly Small Deployment: Hardware cost equal to Served Data but client maintenance less costly