Web-Based Computing Takes Work

By Richard Adhikari

hile Web-based computing can eliminate much of the complexity of client-server architectures, it still requires effort.

It's true that a business can provide access to multiple legacy databases through a browser, but this presents its own problems. For one, it's imperative to ensure that applications are doing what they're supposed to be doing.

"Many mainframe applications were developed 20 years ago and have business rules embedded in them," says analyst Michael Barnes of the Hurwitz Group Inc. in Boston. "But over the years, they've become so modified that nobody knows what they're doing or what alg orithms are in place."

Making sure applications consistently adhere to a company's business rules will become more important as organizations open their applications to business partners through the Web, Barnes says. "If your suppliers and customers have a problem with your data, it reflects badly on you and may negatively affect your business."

Also, it's a fallacy that companies don't need to train people after giving them a browser to access applications. "You still need to train people in using the new Web applications," says Ian Campbell, director of collaborative and intranet computing at market research firm International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass.

While browser access is fine for casual users who may need to access applications occasionally, users such as accounting staff need client-side, targeted front ends that are often proprietary to their applications when working with accounting applications "because the browser today has limitations as to what it can do within any application, " Campbell says.

Furthermore, Web-based applications can't meet all critical business requirements yet. Federal Express Corp. in Memphis, Tenn., is equipping its legacy systems for the Web. But Winn Stephenson, VP of network computing at FedEx, says the shipper still does a lot of application development in client-server. "That's still the place to go to when you have a real complex application that needs a lot of performance," he says.

Web applications, he adds, are better for functions such as FedEx's Internet Ship package, which lets clients use browsers to access FedEx shipping and tracking systems worldwide using the Web.

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