enterprise class

Submitted by admin on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 09:27
Console of BRLESC-II computer
  1. introduction
  2. what it is
    1. business critical
    2. highly available
    3. fast
    4. high capacity

introduction

This design for an LIC is enterprise class. It can be trusted with business critical services.

what it is

The LIC is an enterprise class e-commerce marketplace. Enterprise class basically means big and clever. It also means that the LIC is a multi-tier hosting environment, able to reliably cater for thousands of customers a day.

At the other end of the scale from enterprise class is SOHO class (Small Office Home Office) where everything might run on one computer, catering for dozens of customers a day.

Business people expect a few things from enterprise class products so the LIC has these attributes. Starship Enterprise

  • The LIC has the disk space to hold a lot of data. It might have 1GB of documents or a database with 10 million rows.
  • It has the CPU horsepower to process the data.
  • Many people can access the data concurrently.
  • These people can use a lot of different ways to access the data, such as hundreds of different web forms and interface screens.
  • It is integrated with other business applications. It may be connected to an enterprise network where a bunch of enterprise applications live.
  • It is a business critical and highly available environment.

Here's a little more detail on that last line of managerial jargon. And if that's not enough, I throw in a couple more buzzword attributes.

business critical

The LIC contains business critical systems. If an operation within an organisation is essential to the organisation's success then that operation is "business critical". People who are old enough to remember the moon landings call this "mission critical". The LIC can house business applications which process information that is critical to the business functioning properly such as product payments. Internet sales can be a large source of revenue for a business.

highly available

HA (High Availability) is a promise that a thing is almost always ready for use. The LIC is always available: all day, every day. Due to the critical and sensitive needs of applications, it is imperative that this environment be available all the time, even when maintenance is taking place.

fast

The environment is configured to allow for efficient and prompt processing of business information. Internet customers are not patient and they do not wait.

high capacity

The LIC is built to handle a lot of complex transactions. The LIC is in fact over-engineered for most people's needs. If a new web project has a budget of less than $10,000, it may not need the LIC. A single computer may do the job.

It is a complex platform. Wherever possible complexity is minimised because complexity leads to confused people which leads to broken things. Broken things must be fixed by the support team.