Here is the scenario of our application requirements in a nutshell: Our user-base will eventually be around 3000 people connected via a network, and 1500 people primarily disconnected with laptop devices running Windows XP. We are considering writing our application as a Java WebApp, hopefully enabling the same application to be available to both sets of people. Those who are connected 100% of the time would use a browser to access the WebApp hosted in our data center. Those who are disconnected 90% of the time would use a browser to access the same application hosted on their local laptops running Tomcat or some other Servlet/JSP container. Tomcat, the JRE, and our application code would therefore need to be distributed to 1500 machines, with ongoing support and health monitoring as appropriate.
Has anyone heard of this type of Mass Deployment of a Servlet/JSP server before? Are there any Whitepapers or Success Stories that address such a deployment? Have any of you gone through such a scenario before (deploying Tomcat on client machines), and can offer some advice? Any help would be greatly appreciated. john... PS. Details concerning Databases and other required systems have already been solved. Likewise, it is not the deployment of software that is challenging, but rather entering into uncharted waters. Having knowledge that this has been done before would be greatly appreciated.
