Progress redefines corporate IT architectures with PeerDirect

Progress Software South Africa has launched PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise, the first product suite that enables companies to deploy data and applications directly to remote offices and mobile workers.

PeerDirect Corporation is a newly formed operating company of Progress Software Corporation that develops and markets patented technology for distributed application deployment and management.

PeerDirect lets remote users enjoy the same application performance and availability as workers in the central corporate office.

Most business applications today are centralised, requiring mobile and remote workers to have continuous network connectivity to a data centre, says Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software South Africa.

"This model of application deployment has two significant limitations," notes Parry. "Mobile workers can`t access critical data when they`re in the field and need it most; and network outages and performance problems can prevent remote business locations from accessing critical applications, which can disrupt operations."

Slow response times and other issues associated with network latency can create a poor user experience that discourages application use.

In contrast, PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise allows organisations to move business applications to regional offices, desktops and notebook computers, creating superior information flow across the enterprise so applications and data are available when workers need them.

With PeerDirect, previously centralised applications can be used by remote workers when disconnected, as if they were online and connected to the data centre.

PeerDirect implements distributed application deployment while retaining centralised control over applications and data, avoiding the problems and high IT support costs associated with earlier attempts to gain the benefits of distributed applications.

PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise accomplishes this by synchronising, distributing and replicating corporate data and applications across multiple locations, while providing IT departments with a centralised console for easy administration.

"PeerDirect enables us to deploy applications and data directly to our field offices, leveraging our unique software architecture and platform for maximum business impact," says Albert Prast, CIO at RoTech, a leading supplier of durable medical equipment. "PeerDirect has enabled us to deploy and support fully synchronised databases across all of our remote offices, delivering enormous application performance and high availability to our end-users. In addition, we can maintain full centralised control over all our corporate data."

Already in production at many sites, PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise is based on proven technology, including version 6.0 of PeerDirect`s patented replication engine. This allows automatic bidirectional data synchronisation between any combination of databases, including Oracle, Microsoft, Progress, IBM, Sybase, Informix and the PostgreSQL open source database.

This means companies can choose the best price/performance database for remote application deployment, rather than being forced to use the offering of their existing database vendor.

For example, a company can maintain its Oracle database in the corporate data centre, deploy open source databases in remote offices, use Microsoft databases on mobile computers, and synchronise the same application over all these databases.

PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise also improves system availability and resiliency, by providing built-in system redundancy. The software automatically replicates and synchronises, so if one of the PeerDirect-managed applications or databases goes down, its workload is moved to another synchronised and replicated system elsewhere. And when the local system comes back up, it is automatically updated by the other systems without human intervention.

"The central database has played a key role in corporations for many years. Yet, to maintain the integrity of the database it has been necessary to keep all relevant data in one place. This has inhibited flexibility for distributed organisations or those with mobile workers. The alternative has been expensive, complex and error-prone attempts at data movement and satellite database management. As a result, companies have never had a practical way to deploy true distributed applications," says Carl Olofson, programme director for information management and data integration software at IDC.

"IDC has long suggested that the ideal approach is one that has corporate data managed centrally, but deployed locally. The approach taken by the PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise suite addresses this requirement by enabling synchronised distributed data for an application architecture in which companies can effectively use the people and low-cost hardware resources in all their remote locations."

PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise comprises the following components:

* The PeerDirect InnerEdge Server is a replication technology suite used in a central, corporate data centre (the "inner edge" of the enterprise), which works in conjunction with existing databases. This integrates data sources, providing end-users with superior application performance, and also provides built-in database redundancy, eliminating the need for an expensive failover infrastructure.

* The PeerDirect OuterEdge Server is used in remote or mobile offices (the "outer edge" of the enterprise). This deploys the data and applications to remote locations, extends the reach of the IT organisation and allows centralised control of decentralised resources.

"We aim to free companies from the tyranny of centralisation, allowing our customers to deploy truly distributed applications that enable disconnected use and stay up and running, even if there are network or database problems," adds Parry. "By allowing customers to manage their applications centrally and deploy remotely, we are giving network architects more efficient ways of designing information flows."