Web hosting database asp

Information is power : The Internet has provided business with the unified platform it needs, which is driving database applications development - Internet/Web/Online

When a database meets the Internet, the integration must be guided by a seamless, XML-based plan with a budget that can afford the right gateways.

The challenge is compounded by the evolutionary nature of computer data. DBMS' themselves have to be scalable in order to integrate the different types of data and administrators need to be able to update the database using an Internet browser.

Capturing and bringing information together has always been the function of database management and the Internet has given companies the unified platform they need, which is driving applications development. An application service provider (ASP) begins to look like an attractive alternative when companies consider the costs involved.

As for the value of some of the data from the Internet that's being stored, some IS managers are skeptical.

"I doubt some people have any idea what they can do with the information they are gathering from the Internet. They're doing it because they can," says Jerry Dmetrichuk, manager of information services at Dover Industries of Toronto.

The future focus will be on what to do with the information those companies have gathered, Dmetrichuk says.

System integration between the database and the Internet is being made possible through extensible markup language (XML), a script that encrypts and interprets information to make it safely available over the Internet. "The days of the standalone database are gone," says Susan Millar, a DBMS consultant in Toronto and president of Global C:\. "Clients are now focused on making databases available on the Internet, " says Millar.

The weak links in the development of Internet applications is in the IT departments that haven't invested in XML training because it's a relatively new technology, says Millar. "People didn't think it would do the job of traditional database management systems. It took four years to prove itself," Millar says.

Adding XML to the database and development mix is critical to the further adoption of the XML standard. DBMS vendors offer tools for taking data in XML, storing it and searching it.

For others, integrating data starts in one's backyard, not in the realm of cyberspace. Bob Hilverth, a database administrator at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ont. says data control has become too loose. "After Y2K, integration has become the biggest expense," Hilverth says.

The influx of desktop database tools have introduced ease-of-use. The downside is organizations that depend on data compatibility find it almost impossible to identify what data is corporate and what isn't.

"That's what makes integration a complex problem," Hilverth says. "Even if it's the same vendor's product, it's still difficult to distinguish department from corporate data."

The problem, according to Hilverth, is DBMS vendors may or may not be talking to each other's data. "They say it's not their problem and that we have to purchase gateways. Some gateways are good quality, but some are only concerned with products in the same family. Vendor consultants could provide service but it's always at a high price. One way or another, it's a lot of work," Hilverth says.

Hilverth would like to think ASPs could solve his data integration problems, however, he and other organizations might be hesitant to pass some kinds of data over to an ASP.

Hilverth is more likely to go the 'replication' route. The model says department 'A' can take information and work on it locally and the result is replicated on the corporate machine. This model requires strong centralized control over databases.

Another area of growth for ASPs, says Hilverth, might be where organizations take external data sources and marry them to their own -- Canada Post's active postal code look-up mechanism, for example. Some organizations are using these mechanisms to verify customer information. The software, however, must be able to navigate the Internet programmatically, but these products are not readily available.

"You have to code those yourself. It would be nice to have a standard technology that would do that. A central repository would get information needed in a database. Search engine companies would be most likely to provide this type of product," Hilverth says.

As organizations of all sizes strive to meet the demands placed on their database management systems, such as Internet capability, integration and data analysis, the ASP is coming up more often as an alternative to costly infrastructure augmentation.

According to analysts, buying services rather than software can save anywhere from 20 to 50 per cent of the total ongoing monthly cost of ownership. Those savings have raised the profile of ASPs leading IDC to predict the market will grow from US$300 million in 1999 to US$25 billion in 2004.

An ASP hosts applications over a network or the Internet, for a negotiated fee. The ASP manages the applications, taking responsibility for maintenance, upgrades and storage of client data. ASPs also offer support services for the applications they host.

Variations include independent software vendors (ISVs) acting as their own ASPs, hosting service providers (HSPs), full-service providers (FSPs), business service providers (BSPs) and Internet application hosting providers (IAHPs).

DBMS vendors have endorsed the ASP model. "We think it's an effective way for a business to implement applications and become an e-business very quickly," says Oracle Canada national sales consulting manager, Carl Griffin. "Integration is critical in e-business implementation i.e. between Web front-end and back-end ERP applications."

Application hosting lets the customer focus on core competencies and avoid investing capital in nonstrategic assets.

FirstWorld, NaviSite, Exodus and USI provide customers with a complete Internet infrastructure. These companies offer professionally managed data centres with services ranging from Internet-based applications hosting, web hosting, server management and collocation services, Griffin says.

RELATED ARTICLE: Future is in OODBMS: developers

The table above shows results for responses provided by 933 U.S.-based database developers in the summer and fall of 2000.

The results show most database developers are using relational databases and expect to still be using them in three years.

However, two-thirds of the database developers expect to be using object databases -- which signifies significant interest in this technology.

An OODBMS (object-oriented database management system) supports the modeling and creation of data as objects.

This includes support for basic object-oriented capabilities such as classes and inheritance of class properties.

Yet, a third type of database runs in memory and thus supplies superior speed. For this reason many have thought main memory databases would be popular for use with Web applications.

More than one-third of the developers polled expect to be using main memory databases.