[Sussex] Why is a web based solution better than using aclient/server approach?

[Mark Harrison (Groups)]

Brendan,

A more "salesy" point now.

Rather than appearing to answer the question "Why is a web based
solution better...", instead tackle the question "WHEN is a web based
solution better..."

You then present a set of circumstances when a web solution is
appropriate, and when a client/server solution is appropriate, and show,
mysteriously, how your potential customer's circumstances lend
themselves to a web solution.

For your application it would be:


WHEN CLIENT/SERVER IS APPROPRIATE

- Client PC hardware and configuration is identical.
- Client PC configuration is centrally managed (up to date versions of
applications, libraries, security policies) etc.
- Application requires features that don't readily lend themselves to
web application (eg live  updates on "triggered" basis, and opposed to
"polled" basis, drag and drop elements for visual design.)
- Each user has a dedicated PC used by no-one else, and will not need to
use another PC.
- Application needs to interact with an existing desktop application
through macro control of the like. (Note that this is different from
application needs to output reports into legacy file format - that's
possible and normal for web-based as well with PDF libraries and the
like.)

WHEN WEB FRONT END IS APPROPRIATE

- Client PC configurations are different
- Client PCs are spread across different organisations / organisational
units with no centralised configuration management across entire
userbase
- Application features are suitable for display on a web page
- PCs are shared by multiple users at different times of the day/week.
Users roam between multiple PCs depending on task location.
- Application is self-contained, or only needs to produce downloadable
reports. (ie application does NOT need macro control of a desktop app.)

The only apps I "usually" see the need for macro control of the desktop
tend to be relatively high-end stuff that either controls a spreadsheet
(through addin function, but still needs the power of a spreadsheet for
what/if analysis rather than just producing canned reports) and CADD
packages (CADD = Computer Aided Drafting and Design, as opposed to
Computer Aided Drafting).

The questions about "which requires more bandwidth - which requires a
bigger database" are not things I believe can be generalised. It depends
a lot on how clever the application design is. Certainly, I've seen web
applications that need huge multi-processor database tiers with big fat
SAN arrays... and web applications that run web server, application
server, and database server on a 5 year old PC... ditto client/server.

You may, in fact, find that the best answer is a "mixed solution"
whereby "normal users" get a web front end, admins get a GUI, and "power
users" are where the interesting questions get asked - that having been
said, the web-based admin tools for LAMP/WAMP are a lot better than they
were a few years ago, so raw-level admin is now easy via the web. It's
the middle-tier business process admin tasks that are sometimes worth
automating in client-side code.

Regards,

Mark