Database-centered client/server applications fall into two categories: Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Online Transaction Processing (OLT...
Database-centered client/server applications fall into two categories: Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Online Transaction Processing (OLTP). These two client/server categories provide dramatically different types of business solutions.
OLTP systems are used to create applications in all walks of business. These include reservation systems, point-of sale, tracking systems, inventory control, stockbroker workstations, and manufacturing shop floor control systems. The number of clients supported by an OLTP system may vary dramatically throughout the day, week, or year, but the response time must be maintained. OLTP applications also require tight controls over the security and integrity of the database. The reliability and availability of the overall system must be very high. Data must be kept consistent and correct.
OLTP systems, the client typically interacts with a Transaction Server instead of a Database Server. This interaction is necessary to provide the high performance these applications require. Transaction server come into two flavors:
OLTP applications ran on expensive mainframes that stored massive amounts of data, provided minimum downtime, and were the pride of the enterprise and the MIS shops. In general, all the data collected by an OLTP system is of direct use to the application and people that are creating this data. They understand exactly what this data means. The application typically provides a sophisticated graphical interface to view and manipulate the data with transactional controls. The members of the organization understand how the data is structured. They can create sophisticated built-in reports and manipulate the data for their production uses. The last thing the OLTP people want is to give outsiders access to their precious production systems. These outsiders often don’t really know what they want, and they may be issuing long ad hoc queries that can slow down the entire production system, corrupt the data, and create deadlocks.
Information Hounds
The first consume of this technology are business people making strategic decisions – pricing and market analysis- that depend on the availability of timely and accurate data. The ability to access information and act on it quickly will become increasingly critical to any company’s success. Raw data becomes information when it gets into the hands of someone who can put it in context and use it. High impact, high value decision-making involves risk. Making decisions using old, incomplete, inconsistent, or invalid data puts a business at a disadvantage versus the competition. Information is becoming a key component of every product and service. For example, analysts use information to spot the trends and shifts in buying patterns of consumers. Information Sleuthing is an iterative process. The sophistication of queries increases as the information hound grasps more of the nuances of the business problem. The hound needs the ability to access information for multiple combinations of “what if” situations.
OLTP systems are used to create applications in all walks of business. These include reservation systems, point-of sale, tracking systems, inventory control, stockbroker workstations, and manufacturing shop floor control systems. The number of clients supported by an OLTP system may vary dramatically throughout the day, week, or year, but the response time must be maintained. OLTP applications also require tight controls over the security and integrity of the database. The reliability and availability of the overall system must be very high. Data must be kept consistent and correct.
OLTP systems, the client typically interacts with a Transaction Server instead of a Database Server. This interaction is necessary to provide the high performance these applications require. Transaction server come into two flavors:
- OLTP Lite provided by stored procedures,
- OLTP Heavy provided by TP Monitors.
OLTP applications ran on expensive mainframes that stored massive amounts of data, provided minimum downtime, and were the pride of the enterprise and the MIS shops. In general, all the data collected by an OLTP system is of direct use to the application and people that are creating this data. They understand exactly what this data means. The application typically provides a sophisticated graphical interface to view and manipulate the data with transactional controls. The members of the organization understand how the data is structured. They can create sophisticated built-in reports and manipulate the data for their production uses. The last thing the OLTP people want is to give outsiders access to their precious production systems. These outsiders often don’t really know what they want, and they may be issuing long ad hoc queries that can slow down the entire production system, corrupt the data, and create deadlocks.
Information Hounds
The first consume of this technology are business people making strategic decisions – pricing and market analysis- that depend on the availability of timely and accurate data. The ability to access information and act on it quickly will become increasingly critical to any company’s success. Raw data becomes information when it gets into the hands of someone who can put it in context and use it. High impact, high value decision-making involves risk. Making decisions using old, incomplete, inconsistent, or invalid data puts a business at a disadvantage versus the competition. Information is becoming a key component of every product and service. For example, analysts use information to spot the trends and shifts in buying patterns of consumers. Information Sleuthing is an iterative process. The sophistication of queries increases as the information hound grasps more of the nuances of the business problem. The hound needs the ability to access information for multiple combinations of “what if” situations.
