Johannesburg, 12 Mar 2004
PeerDirect, a supplier of patented technology for distribution application and database deployment and management, and an operating company of Progress Software, has launched PeerDirect Remote Office.
The product suite gives independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprise IT departments the ability to build distributed applications that can operate connected to and disconnected from the network.
"Deploying applications in this way eliminates the latency and performance problems with traditional network-centric application architectures," says Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software (Pty) Ltd. "It also provides remote employees the same application performance and availability enjoyed by the central office, and keeps applications running even during network outages or slowdowns."
PeerDirect Remote Office is the latest product in the PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise 2.0 product suite and leverages patented technology for application distribution and data synchronisation.
The technology enables applications and their data to be managed centrally, even when deployed in remote offices.
PeerDirect Remote Office reduces bandwidth expenses, Parry continues, by "trickling" transaction data back to the central system, rather than sending it as a batch at the end of the day.
"The architecture enables uninterrupted availability because it eliminates the network as a point of failure," he says. "If connectivity goes down, workers can continue to use the application unimpeded. When connectivity comes back up, PeerDirect Remote Office automatically synchronises any changes to the database and any software updates to all relevant systems. This makes the product ideal for retail chains where continuous availability is essential."
The product includes database synchronisation technology that automates integration of data from remote systems and features embedded application management that makes installation, updates and support a centralised function, without the overhead costs associated with traditional distributed application support.
"This synchronisation technology takes advantage of periods of connectivity to keep the network of users transparently synchronised with data and application updates," Parry says.
Carl Olofson, programme director for information management and data integration research at global market intelligence and advisory firm, IDC, points out that many enterprises are faced with unpleasant choices when considering support for remote offices.
If they use a thin client application, they can manage the application centrally, but must use expensive dedicated high-speed long distance networking or accept the performance and availability problems that come from dependence on the public Internet, he says. If they distribute applications locally, they have a severe software management problem and they must also deal with data distribution issues.
"The PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise suite delivers the type of application architecture that can eliminate these problems, because it is designed to move applications and data out to the remote offices, effectively making all applications locally available yet centrally manageable," Olofson says.
PeerDirect Remote Office`s core components include application distribution technology to combine a centralised server and remote agents for managing remote application deployments.
The application distribution server automatically distributes software and software updates to remote workers, requiring no manual intervention from IT. A Web-based distributed management console enables end-users to manage and monitor distributed databases and applications. The console can be branded and embedded in new or existing applications to provide centralised management of application updates across numerous remote locations.
It also enables the central management of database schema updates and rolling upgrades, eliminating the need to disrupt application availability by "bringing down" databases for updates, Parry says.
Data synchronisation technology includes PeerDirect`s bi-directional, heterogeneous replication engine. The PeerDirect Replication Engine enables the distribution of synchronised databases across remote enterprise locations.
The replication engine provides two-way, read-write replication between any combinations of databases from all leading vendors. The engine is capable of distributing and synchronising partial datasets and can mobilise select pieces of data that are required by a remote user or office - making more efficient use of periods of connectivity. The engine can be deployed in "managed" distributed environments by enterprise IT departments or embedded into ISV applications.
"Centralised application architectures make no sense in highly distributed work environments," Parry says. "PeerDirect Remote Office leverages the computing assets on the edge of the network, while minimising the network as a core application requirement. This ensures that remote offices always have uninterrupted local access to applications."
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