Hmmm, big American corporation... Actually, we have 57 employees and two locations. We are about as low-budget as any company I have ever worked for. So if we can do it, anyone can!
Here's what we do. Our main office has a T-1 line, it's about $800 a month I think. The branch office has a small sales staff and warehouse, roughly 15 workstations total. They have a business DSL connection, about $120 a month. The database application is sales order entry and inventory control with integrated accounting. In addition, they have email and web browsing. The database application is server based in the main office, and connects to the branch over the internet using telnet and terminal emulation software. The applications are text-based, so the traffic is minimal. Security is handled by firewall access to specific IP addresses only. Our reliability has been exceptional. We once experienced a router failure in the main office, it took about 4 hours for the ISP to configure a new one for us and deliver it. Other than that we've never had an outage lasting more than 2 minutes. We have been using this configuration for about 3 years. We are less than 1/2 mile from the ISP, I don't know how much difference that makes. The DSL has been just about as reliable as regular phone service. The thing that makes this work so well is that the database application is text based. All data manipulation is performed on the server, the actual amount of data passed over the internet is minimal. However, the applications themselves are very sophisticated, fully integrated and highly customized for our business model. You mention that the Oz system runs on an AS400. I would think it highly probable that it is text based also? If so, you should have no problem making this work. If you're stuck with a client-server model, well, I don't know. How are you doing it now? Brian -----Original Message----- From: William Treloar [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 2:40 PM To: MSWinNT Discussions Subject: RE: Running a DB server over another country Well I don't know, maybe in NZ we are a little behind big American Corps. but certainly talking among any IT people here, it is unheard of. revolutionary in NZ only maybe. Running Cost is always a big factor when you connect from one country to another, so maybe that is why we don't do it. Obviously bandwidth and reliability of median are 2 big factors when looking at such a system. So to those that have critical communications lines for such purpose in their business can you please tell me from your experience by explaining what type of median you use and how reliable it is...Server based, Client/Server whichever. Any other traps worth mentioning will be much appreciated. Cheers. William. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, 4 July 2002 05:46 To: MSWinNT Discussions Subject: RE: Running a DB server over another country Maybe I'm missing your meaning, but I don't see anything revolutionary about a centeralized database accessed by client machines, regardless of their location, or the platform upon which it is running. My concern about the connection speed would be based upon how much data is being passed over the wire. If the application is written to do server-based processing and the data entry and retrieval functions are merely input and display screens, 64K is more than adequate. If the database is written such that all processing is done on the client machines then the amount of data traveling over the network can become absurd. I know Microsoft pushes client-server as the model for their database, but it's really not appropriate when working with terabyte or even gigabyte sized databases. No matter how fast your internet connection is, it won't be enough. -----Original Message----- From: William Treloar [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 9:32 PM To: MSWinNT Discussions Subject: Running a DB server over another country Hi All, I have recently been over to Australia looking at their DB system when the question was raised by Top doggie over there, why not use their AS400 mainframe database server via 50 odd client connections in New Zealand. Yes, 50 people all over NZ, connect to aussie system in Australia for our order entry/GL system I suggested that this was rather revolutionary ( I have not heard of this among my peers). We currently use a 64k VPN ipsec connection between the Australia and New Zealand, I suggested that we need a median more stable such as Frame Relay. Can anyone tell me if they have a set-up similar to this or heard anything like this and what are the traps to look out for. TIA. William. ------ You are subscribed as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% ------ You are subscribed as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% ------ You are subscribed as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% ------ You are subscribed as [email protected] Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
