Save Money: Web-Enable Client-Server Applications

In information technology, it seems every evolution brings about solutions to existing problems and then challenges us with new dilemmas.

When we first formed Nicom IT Solutions 27 years ago, computer applications ran on expensive mainframe and midrange computers administered by large IT departments. Perhaps the most common application was billing, which meant that millions of dollars were spent on what were basically accounting systems. Shortly thereafter, the Personal Computer revolution changed everything by putting computing power in the hands of ordinary users in all departments.

Problems soon emerged because information got scattered throughout organizations. If this information had been kept in one spot it would have been much more useful and quicker to access. Enter the world of networking, where common databases were centralized and could be accessed simultaneously by different departments. Also with networking returned the rigor of IT where critical data could be backed up, best practices followed, and trained professionals brought to bear on departmental technical challenges.

Then the network itself became a challenge because of bottlenecks in throughput. Client-server solutions came to the rescue by putting lots of power on desktop computers while allowing for shared data via synchronization with server databases. Only data that needed to be transferred got transferred, thereby solving the network traffic problem.

This is where many organizations are today, and the challenge they now face is the time and cost of managing all these client computers. Whenever an update is made to the software, it has to be applied and tested on each desktop. In large organizations, and those with multiple locations, this can be a support nightmare, where multiple versions of software with different sets of data are all too common. Fortunately, those organizations that standardized on Microsoft technologies when they implemented client-server solutions are better off than many others. These organizations can reuse much of their code as they progress to the mother of all evolutionary changes: the Internet.

This is certainly what we found when we modernized a suite of client-server applications for the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay. These had been written over a period of time since the mid-1980s, in Visual Basic with a central SQL Server 2000 database. Their clients are located all over the world which meant that providing support for these applications caused a strain on the organization. Our web-enabling consisted of overhauling the database to accept new records, rewriting all screens in ASP.NET, and programming new business rules.

By making use of some of the newer products and practices, things like ASP.NET AJAX, Microsoft Enterprise Library, SQL stored procedures, and an upgrade to SQL Server 2005, we are able to minimize network traffic and keep applications on a central server with nothing more than a browser required on the client end. There is only one set of code to maintain, and no maintenance at the client end.

Other advantages include using our graphic design team to build beautiful screen templates and to support multilingual functionality, where internationalization is built into the .NET Framework.

For the Maritime Exchange we were able to reuse 80% of the existing code. They found that they were able to migrate to a platform that will save them countless dollars to maintain and they got the conversion done in a very cost-effective manner.

Nicom IT Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a member of Microsoft's Partner Excellence Program.