Technology That Matters: Introduction to Web Architected Asset Management

DATASTREAM 7i
TECHNOLOGY THAT MATTERS
white paperDATASTREAM 7i: RAISING THE BAR AGAIN IN WEB-ARCHITECTED EAMThe Internet has fundamentally changed the way enterprise applications are built and deployed. It has alsocreated an enormous amount of confusion around how enterprise applications should be built to deliver thefull benefits of Web-architected deployment.The fact is, most enterprise applications today must move to a Web architecture of one form or another. The challenge for end-users is to determine which architecture provides the best functionality for today and a foundation and strategic direction to ensure ongoing success in the future. According to Bob Mick, vice president of the ARC Advisory Group, "Today's business strategies areinextricably linked and enabled by enterprise software Much of the software, and architecture, was designed for use entirely inside the enterprise. The rapid evolution to highly dispersed value-chain networksof strategic partners requires reliable, secure interaction capabilities, which these original architectures donot support. Of course, most software suppliers are trying to deal with these new customer requirementsusing Web technologies, with varying degrees of success, and it is up to the end user to assess how suitablethe supplier's architecture is for the end user's strategic purposes." (Source: ARC Insights, "ArchitectureDefines Ultimate Capability," by Bob Mick.)Determining the proper architecture for Web deployment can be a daunting task. To all but the savviesttechnologists, today's typical Web-architected enterprise product diagram is a confusing jumble of acronyms and buzzwords and pledges of "true enterprise wide" deployments. Separating the hype fromreality is critical for end-users to select enterprise products that deliver the full benefits of true enterpriseWeb deployment.
THE BENEFITS OF WEB-ARCHITECTED DEPLOYMENTWhy go through the considerable effort to migrate client/server-based enterprise applications to Web-architected ones? Because the overwhelming benefits of Web-architected deployment simply cannot beignored. These include the following:Lower Total Cost of OwnershipWeb-architected enterprise applications deliver significant cost savings over traditional client-serverones. For example, a multi-site client/server deployment requires client and server software in eachlocation. A Web-architected deployment only requires one instance of server software for deploymentacross multiple locations.
The average time to achieve Web-architected products deliver additional cost benefits when they aredeployed under the hosted model, which is also known as the Application100% ROI with a hosted Service Provider (ASP) model. This is when a third party hosts the serverapplication is 16 months, and software for the company, and end-users access the application over the five-year ROI is 404%. the Internet. This eliminates the hardware, software, and network costsassociated with maintaining a server in house, along with the personnelcosts associated with installing, administering, and maintaining theInternational Data Corporation application. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the average(IDC) time to achieve 100 percent return on investment (ROI) with a hostedapplication is 16 months, and the five-year ROI for the hosted model is 404 percent. Numbers like theseprovide compelling evidence that hosted applications, while still relatively early in their existence, willbecome the most widely used method of enterprise application deployment moving forward.
| 1Faster DeploymentBecause only a single instance of server software is required, and there is no cumbersome clientsoftware, the technical aspects of Web-architected enterprise deployments take a fraction of the time of client/server deployments.Reduced Maintenance and SupportWith just one instance of server software, Web-architected deployment also drastically reduces thecomplexity of ongoing administration and maintenance of the application. This simplifies softwareupgrades. Once the server software is upgraded, the benefits are immediately available to all end-users,thus delivering a higher-quality user experience.Cross-Enterprise VisibilityWeb-architected deployment facilitates the sharing of information between locations and between systems.For example, because all product inventory can be viewed as a single, logical "enterprise inventory," newefficiencies can be reali... [download for more]