VISUAL NEWSLETTER – JUL 2004
Many clients often operate their Libra Software from
remote locations. In some cases this is accomplished by copying Libra to a notebook
computer or CD-ROM to transfer it to the remote site. If you are the only user
of a particular database or you are merely experimenting with reporting options
and such, this may be practical. If you want to merge data entered from another
site with your active central database back at the office this becomes more
difficult however.
Occasionally users need access from home to information
stored on the central server. More frequently, remote offices need similar
forms of access to link or consolidate information. In the past Mini &
Mainframe computers were designed to be used in conjunction with expensive
leased lines to accomplish this goal. With the advent of the Personal Computer
this technological link needed to be re-established. In the DOS days this was
accomplished by products such as Carbon Copy. Under Windows, Pc-Anywhere is the
most commonly used product of its sort.
Pc-Anywhere is a $200 communications product that allows
users to connect to computers at the office via conventional phone lines or the
Internet. It provides a relatively simple and inexpensive remote access. Its
primary limitations are speed and instability over phone lines. Both improve
substantially with high speed internet access.
The instability of such products led many companies to
establish distributed models with their remote branches. In this case each
branch office would have its own Network and Accounting Software Databases
which were separate from the head office. At regular intervals, at least once a
month, data would be transferred electronically or physically via diskettes, CD’s or tapes to the head office to be merged
with the central databases.
In recent years products like Citrix and Terminal
Services have emerged to fill the gap left when companies migrated to the
Personal Computer. Similar in operation to Pc-Anywhere, they are faster and
more stable. We have several clients using these technologies to connect their
Libra users.
This stability and speed allows the centralized accounting
model to become more viable. Its main drawback is its relatively high cost.
Server licenses often cost several thousand dollars. Citrix runs on Windows
2000/2003 server platforms. This in turn
would connect to other servers that actually house and run the centralized
application. The speed of the server required depends on the number of
concurrent connections that you need.
What makes this model desirable is the centralization of high-end
computer hardware and technical support. A company’s processing system can be
upgraded from a single location. Experienced technical personal can monitor and
correct technical difficulties more quickly. All databases can be monitored,
consolidated and backed up regularly and that is highly desirable.
This can also reduce software-licensing costs in some cases as the
software is only installed at one site with fewer concurrent users at any one
time. Several new companies have recently cropped up to offer this sort of
internet access to software. In this environment you would dial in to their
site to run the software and pay a software rental fee.
The main
drawback to the centralized approach is that your eggs are effectively in one
basket. If the server goes down it goes down for the whole company. High quality
servers with redundant components can offset this. Battery Backup/Surge
protection is very important in these environments.