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GUI ScreenIO Client/Server Layer
Your applications look and behave exactly as if they were running locally. In fact, your application is completely unaware that it's running remotely ; the GUI ScreenIO Client/Server Layer handles all of the details, requiring no changes to your applications.* (Well, Ok, your application can determine if it is running under the client server layer if this is necessary). A Single user Test version of The GUI ScreenIO Client/Server Layer is distributed with GUI ScreenIO. Sites may deploy applications to distributed audiences by purchasing a license to the Server. Benefits of the GUI ScreenIO Client/ServerApplication DeploymentApplications can be deployed more easily when large amounts of software and huge databases reside only on a single server. This, in many cases, can eliminate complex database synchronization between sites. The only thing you need to install on user's machines is our freely downloadable Client, no matter how many applications you deploy. Costs can often be reduced if expensive database engines are used as they only need be installed on the server. Backup of data can now be centrally managed. The Server is very economical to license, and annual license fees are minimal. Software version managementThe GUI ScreenIO Client/Server Layer make it far easier to manage your software applications. Because the software is only installed in one place - on the server - software upgrades are simply a matter of copying the new software to the server. Access ControlYou can control access to your software and data, too. It's possible to restrict access to specific clients or even to specific IP addresses or subnets. You can set up Individual User Ids and Passwords and Applications, or a single menu for all users. Its your choice. You can even control the number of times a user can access the software, and thereby license the use of the software on a subscription basis. You can offer trial or evaluation systems hosted from your site to demo software to potential users. EfficiencyClient/server computing is also very efficient, since only the panel data is sent across the network. All of the data files remain on the server, and all of the actual processing occurs on the server. The clients only handle the user interface. Even a modest machine can serve dozens of applications simultaneously to numerous users scattered all over the city, the country, or the world. SimplicityThe Server can be ANY windows platform. (Windows 2000 or XP preferred for performance reasons). There is no complex Web server (such as Microsoft IIS or Apache) involved. You don't need a networking rocket scientist to set it up. You can have a web deployment up and running in as little as 5 minutes. SecurityAll servers include our Secure Server option, where all communications between the client and server use RC2 block encryption to virtually eliminate the risk of eavesdropping on your data stream. There's no need to use finicky VPNs, private networks, leased lines, or third party encryption layers such as SSL (Secure Socket Layer). Your data is protected right out of the box. Each client connecting to a server negotiates a unique encryption key, preventing snooping. Each job re-negotiates this encryption key so that the encrypted data is ever-changing. RC2 encryption is approved for export by the US government. Users can be assigned unique User-ID and passwords, and custom tailored menus can be offered for each user. In more generic situations, you can use a common menu without the need to customize it for each user. This may eliminate the need for a separate security component within your application. In still more lax conditions, you can just give your users the "Default Password" which provides a standardized menu for all users (the "Default Menu"). Finally, you could choose to set the Default Password to spaces and handle security (if necessary) within your application. The security model is Flexible, and Robust. Remote Server MonitoringYou don't even have to get up from your desk to Monitor the server. We provide a Server Monitor that can be run on any workstation to check on server availability and workload. How does the GUI ScreenIO Client/Server Layer work?Client/server applications run on the server, but interact with users (clients) across a network. The client and server may be next to one another on a local area network, or thousands of miles away over the Internet. When your application (running on the server) calls GUI ScreenIO to display a panel, the GUI ScreenIO server layer sends the panel data across the network to the client, where it is displayed. The client handles all of the interaction with the user; moving from field-to-field, mouse movements, scrolling lists, and so on. The server is free to process other applications while it waits for a response from the client. (This means a moderate powered server machine can service many clients.) When the user does something that will require the application to do some work, such as pressing a button or selecting a menu item, the client sends the panel's data back to the server. The GUI ScreenIO server layer passes the panel data to the application, the application processes the data, and then, most likely, displays another panel - and the cycle continues. This cycle is repeated until the client is finished with the application. This is dramatically different than Microsoft's Terminal Services, or PC-Anywhere, or VNC. With these products, simply moving the mouse at the client floods the network with a massive packet stream, swamping your bandwidth. Most users simply can not afford the bandwidth necessary to run Terminal Services for more than a very few clients. Further, with these other packages, your remote clients can do just about anything they could do if they were sitting at the server's keyboard. Including rebooting the server, or accessing things you would rather not give them access to. These problems disappear with GUI ScreenIO Client Server layer. Clients can only access the list of applications on their individual menu or the Default Menu (if any). Network transmissions to and from the server happen only when an Event is triggered (Function key, Menu item, Button click, etc). And this traffic is very small and highly optimized. We also provide a user configurable Job Termination mechanism which prevents idle users from tying up your server. This Job Timeout feature allows you to prevent users from tying up server seats and handles communication failures by shutting down the associated jobs in a graceful and controlled way. Read our White Paper on job termination. Related topics:
* Restrictions:
Other Considerations:
Want a Demo?Download our free client, and send email to screenio@gmail.com asking for access to our test server. |
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