I continually get asked about:
SaaS, Web Based Applications, CITRIX, Terminal Services,
and Remote Desktop Services.
I want to take some time to explain what these are, what they mean to you, and my recommendations.
DEFINITIONS
First off, the definitions of these products are;
Software as a Service (SaaS) is software that is deployed over the Internet. It is normally a subscription based service or a “pay-as-you-go” model. In a typical setup the customer runs a web based application which accesses and updates a database which is normally stored in a third party data center. There is normally a monthly charge for the software as well as a fee for keeping the customers’ database in the data center. All the customer needs is a PC with access to the Internet. The data center does the backup and maintains the database.
A Web Based Application is software that is designed to run on a web browser such as Internet Explorer. The software company often hosts the application. You log into their web site and you are up and running. The application looks like a web page because it is. When you buy something online, you are probably using a web based application. The application accesses and updates data from the database stored in the data center. This also called Cloud Computing. You can be anywhere in the world and run your application as long as you have Internet Access.
At CSI we normally recommend that you run Visual Shop locally on your own server in your plant. We say this because a finishing or heat treating plant basically does all of its work in the plant with the exception of trucks that they run and sales people. We do use web based applications but I will explain that later. We feel that the there is very little benefit to using a web based app for your job shop management software.
The biggest SaaS application in use today is SalesForce.com. Why, because salesman operate out of the office. It is a great technology but makes little sense for heat treaters and finishers to run Plant Management Software that is web based. The cost to do so is simply too high.
Web based software requires you to give up;
Speed, Control, and Functionality for very little benefit.
SPEED
If you install a network in your plant today, it will be a gigabit network which is 1,000 megabits per second. Compare that to your internet speeds.
For example;
- T1 leased line is only a guaranteed speed of 1.5 megabits per second down and up.
- Cable modem will typically give you UP TO 30 megabits per second down and UP TO 10 megabits up.
- DSL is typically UP TO 6 megabits per second down and UP TO .765 megabits up.
A T1 used to be the gold standard of Internet connections. However, it is getting old and its speed of 1.5 megabits is now considered very slow. Its advantage is reliability and the speed is guaranteed.
With cable, DSL, and other Internet connections, the speed is not guaranteed and neither is the uptime of the line. Most of the speeds advertised use the words “UP TO” which basically promises nothing.
At my office we have a 50 megabit down and 10 megabit up business cable line. We have never seen those speeds. We usually average around 30 down and 6 up.
The Internet is simply no match for an in house network.
An in house network is over 600 times faster than a T1. Plus you are subject to the bottlenecks on the internet that occur from time to time.
Think of it as pushing water through a pipe. An in house network is a 22” water main, a T1 is a straw, and cable is a garden hose. Then every once in a while, someone kinks the hose or breaks it.
If you do over 30 orders a day with 5 users or more, it simply is to slow. Add to this the fact that more and more of our customers are scanning in purchase orders, storing blue prints, taking part pictures, sending emails, and uploading all kinds of documents to the database.
For example: If you take part pictures, you need to upload them to the database. A single picture can easily be a 3 megabyte file. Upload times for a 3 megabyte file with no other users or traffic on the system are;
| In House Network (1,000mbps up) |
Less than a second. |
T1 (1.5mbps up) |
16 seconds |
DSL (768kbps up) |
32 seconds |
Cable (10mbps up) |
5 seconds |
Add a bunch of other users on the network and everything really starts to slow down.
CONTROL
If the server in your plant breaks, you pick up the phone and get your IT guy in to fix it. You are in control. It is your server, network, PCs and most of all your data. It is all located in your building. You do the backups and make sure they are done properly.
With SaaS the problem is often out of your control. It could be; your internet provider, the place in the cloud that has your data, the web application itself, or the internet is simply running very slowly today due to a bad storm in Idaho.
And let us not forget the fact that your data with all your customers and processes is on someone else’s server in the cloud. The data is not encrypted. What if their system crashes? What if they have an unhappy employee. I can guarantee you that the agreement you signed with them strongly limits their liability.
Then you have to deal with hackers, viruses, and spam.
FUNCTIONALITY
Web based applications don’t have the same functionality that Windows based applications have. For example; In Visual Shop, as you enter the customer name in order entry, we are automatically narrowing the list of customers as you type in characters. This requires several calls to the database but you don’t see it because the network is so fast. With SaaS, each database call might take 1 to 5 seconds to turn around.
It is also not uncommon for one of your customers to have over a 1,000 part numbers on file. To produce a drop down pick box on a web based application might take 5 to 10 seconds to load.
Web based developers know this and develop their applications accordingly. Web based apps such as checking, airlines, and purchasing general merchandise often display a form require you to enter all the data and press the “submit” button. Then the data is validated while you wait. Once the data is validated, errors are displayed, you correct them, and press “submit” again. They can’t do real time validation as you enter the data because the Internet is simply to slow.
With Visual Shop, data validation is done as you type the data. We can do this because it is so fast, you don’t notice it.
In addition, Windows Apps are full featured as they run on Microsoft Windows and they take advantage of all the features that Microsoft provides.
SaaS apps must be able to run on several different platforms and browsers so they are often limited in the programming features that they can support.
Integrating your system with other devices such as; process control equipment, scales, testing equipment, tracking stations, and other non browser devices can be difficult if not impossible to do and they also we eat up more of your valuable Internet bandwidth.
I know that some SaaS providers allow you create an internal Internet and then run their application off of a server located in your building. This helps but the application is designed around the Internet and while it may run faster, it still suffers from the lack of functionality designed into the application itself.
SaaS CSI Style
While we can and do run Visual Shop with a subscription model, instead of using a web based app we use Remote Desktop Services (RDS), we restrict its usage to very small companies that do under 20 orders a day. Also, we elect to host the database rather than have some third party do it. This way we provide our customers with 1 person to call for database and software. Since we host it, we don't want to overload our servers with customers that have a high volume and a lot of users.
RDS / CITRIX
Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and CITRIX. This method solves many of the problems of web based applications. With RDS you are running a windows application which can be located right next to the server with the database. It has all the processing speed and features of a windows application running in your office. CITRIX is very similar to RDS. CITRIX also owns GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and others.
Let’s say you have two plants. At your main location you have a database server and an application server for RDS. You have 10 users at the main location logging into the database server. At your remote plant you need to have 10 PC’s log on to Visual Shop and all you have is a 1.5 Megabit T1 line. With RDS, this will work just fine. Not quite as fast as having a local server but acceptable. Here is how it works.
When you log on to Visual Shop with RDS, you are actually running the application in the RDS application server which is located in your main plant next to the database server. All the processing and database calls are done there. What RDS does is act like a remote; monitor, keyboard, and mouse. It is only sending your screens and data input. It is extremely efficient. 1 RDS session takes only 60 to 100 KB of bandwidth. So 10 users over a T1 line will only use around 1 Megabit of it 1.5 Megabit capacity.
Again, the remote user is only sending input keystrokes and receiving your screens and the changes on the screens that occur. Extra bandwidth is required for printing and of course for uploading pictures and other documents.
But a 1.5 megabit line can usually handle about 10 users with acceptable performance.
Plus you get all of the advanced features of a windows application.
We have several multi-plant customers using RDS and CITRIX with good results. We also have several customers that use RDS in the plant and PC’s in the office. Because with RDS you can use a thin client rather than a PC and you can lock it down to only run Visual Shop. No surfing the Internet allowed.
A REAL EXAMPLE
(Added August 2010)
My wife works at a doctors office and this is their SaaS experience.
There are two doctors, they have 2 offices, and they regularly visit a couple of the area hospitals.
All their paperwork was manual and they wanted to switch to an electronic system so they signed up with a company that had medical records & billing software. It was an SaaS system. It made sense to do this since the doctors float between two offices and the hospitals. With this system they can simply logon from wherever they are and do what they need to do. It was a good fit.
In the offices they do patient charting, prescriptions, scheduling and scheduling. One office does all the billing.
Each office had a T1 line which the software company said would work just fine. They purchased laptops and tablet computers as specified by the software company.
They did the training and then they started using it.
I don't know where the software company is located but the cloud server was in Nashville and the doctors operated in the North West Suburbs of Chicago.
At first they kept getting "SERVER NOT FOUND" error messages about 10 to 20 times a day. They would reboot, wait a couple of minutes, and try again. The software company blamed it on the local computer company. The local computer company ran traces and blamed it on the cloud server. After about 6 weeks it turned out to be a piece of equipment at the cloud servers site in Nashville. That problem was cleared.
Anyway, everyone starting using the system in both offices. At the main office, things slowed way down and the system would literally stop. The software company blamed the local computer company again. The local computer company determined that the T1 was not fast enough for the software. At certain times of the day they would have 9 users doing a lot of work at the same time. They would also scan and upload documents.
The 2nd office also experienced very slow response but it would only occasionally come to a stop.
Unfortunately for them, the only Internet service available other than a T1 was DSL. So they put that in with the T1. So now each office had two broadband connections. The WIFI users on one connection and the PC's on the other. It helped, but it was still very slow. It didn't stop, but it was often unusable.
To improve the speed, they had the person that did the billing work at home instead of at the office. This way she was on her home Internet and not the offices.
They also spread out the times that they do some of their tasks so not everyone is on at the same time.
At times it still runs very slow and most people just learn to live with it except maybe one of the doctors that almost threw the laptop across the room. He has no patience. He kept hitting the same keyboard button waiting for a response which never came.
To sum up:
They had to add additional broadband service at both offices.
One person now has to work at home.
Some of the filing (data uploads) is now done after regular hours instead of during the day. This results in additional payroll costs.
It still slows down periodically and they don't know why. (Actually, some days the Internet is just slow).
And finally, this is a true story.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
Unfortunately this example happened to CSI in April, 2011.
We have employees located in 4 states. Because of this we use a cloud based phone system.
The problem we have is outages that are not related to our Internet and hardware in our offices. Some times they take the system down for updates. Other times like this, it just dies.
So late in April, 2011, our phones stopped working. We didn't realize until someone sent us an email letting us know. So we send the phone company an email to complain that our phones are dead and this is their initial response.
Some xxxxxxx customers have been experiencing issues with call processing and access to our user interface today. Our Network Engineers have been working on these issues, identified the root cause, and implemented a solution. We expect service to steadily improve over the next 45 minutes or so.
We will provide a follow-up message to explain the nature of the service interruption. We know that this has been a major disruption to your business and appreciate your patience.
Best Regards,
Customer Care
There is really no one to talk too. We were down about 3 hours. Then we got this.
We apologize for the continued delay. Improvements to call quality and access to our online user interface are taking longer than expected, however the issue has been addressed, and improvements should continue.
We will provide a follow-up message to explain the nature of the service interruption. We know that this has been a major disruption to your business and appreciate your patience.
Best Regards,
Customer Care
We were down about 4 1/2 hours. If you called us during that time, you were lost in the cloud.
We never got an email saying we were down. We only got an email when we sent an email to them. We are one of many thousand customers they have.
We never did get the emailing explaining what happened.
ONE LAST WORD
At CSI we do have web based apps that we write. Our customer portal is a web based application. We also have Visual Anywhere which is a web based app for your salesman. These apps are designed to be used over the Internet for people that are outside the plant.
But to run you’re whole shop on a web based app
simply makes no sense.
Marshall Handelsman
President
Cornerstone Systems Inc.
June 2010
Updated August 2010.
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