Web-DBMS solutions are attractive for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the ever-increasing ubiquity of high speed internet access. Mobile database architecture leverages the presence of cellular data connections with higher reliability and speed. Web-DBMS solutions are similar in concept, as they provide access to a corporate database property virtually anywhere, and have the added features of being platform-independent and easily accessible via a Web URL.
In times past, corporate databases were typically accessible only to those onsite and through a specific application or platform. As the demands for mobility and the prevalence of heterogenous user platforms (e.g., Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, Android) have grown, Web-DBMS solutions have risen to meet the resulting challenges. Platform independence is a key advantage in Web-DBMS solutions. A web browser and Java client are typically all that are required, both of which can be acquired through various methods free of charge. This virtually guarantees the user has the basic technical ability to access the Web-DBMS portal. In addition, there are no proprietary front-end applications that require a specific operating system or libraries to be installed. Even in an internal platform-homogenous environment, Web-DBMS solutions simplify access to corporate databases, requiring no special deployments or configurations to be completed by a central IT department.
Scalability and deployment are double-edged swords here. An advantage of housing the application layer server-side is the ability to rapidly deploy user access simply by providing the Web URL for the front-end portal. However, given the ease of deployment, scaling up the number of users must be balanced with scaling up the back-end application servers to handle the increased load. In addition to load handling, the solution must also take replication into account and address the issues inherent in Distributed DBMS implementations.
The move to a Web interface includes the adoption of HTML for the front-end programming language, which brings standardization into the picture as a key advantage of Web-DBMS solutions. HTML is a ubiquitous language across all web browsers. More recently, XML has emerged as a standard for data exchange, following the path of HTML. Of course, particular vendors are introducing proprietary features into this standard landscape, which may impact the availability of a Web-DBMS solution if not properly handled (Connolly & Begg, 2015). Another feature in the scope of standardization is the ability to deploy to each user in the exact same way by providing a single Web URL. Companies may also implement single sign-on capabilities, which increases the measure of standardization inherent in a deployment.
When a user visits that particular Web URL, they may be presented with a simple graphical user interface (GUI) and do not have to be familiar with the inner workings of how that GUI interacts with the various components of the solution. A user simply sees the designed GUI for their application. There is no need for various end-user network configurations beyond perhaps a simple proxy URL, and the GUI itself can be designed with the end user’s needs specifically in mind. Of course, the development tools for the GUI and various layers of the solution are relatively immature. The majority of internet development environments to date are little more than text editors (Connolly & Begg, 2015). This disadvantage will likely disappear quickly as technology catches up.
Some key disadvantages present in Web-DBMS implementations are the same issues present in Mobile-DBMS implementations; that is, bandwidth, reliability, and security. Although high speed internet access has spread quickly across the country, dead spots and dropped connections are still a major constraint. With these risks come questions of transaction management and disaster recovery in the event of a network partition. In terms of security, when a Web-DBMS solution is location-agnostic and requires only a web browser, the solution must address questions of basic web security as well as the security standards of the organization.
References
Barik, P. K., & Ramesh, D. B. (2011). Design and development of virtual distributed database for web-based library resource sharing network for Orissa technical and management institutions. International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology, 1(1), 51.
Connolly, T., & Begg, C. (2015). Database Systems – Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation, and Management (6th ed.). London, UK: Pearson.