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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Web Based Applications Vs Traditional Applications - Which Platform?


By: Carly Tebbet

Do you need custom software, but aren't sure whether it should be web-based or traditional? Want to learn about web-based software? For businesses or individuals who wish to develop custom software in order to help organize their work or their lives, the old method was simply to pay a programmer or programming company to develop it, then to install it on their home machines. However, in today's modern world, you have another option: to install the program on a local machine, then to run the application directly from that machine. This may seem like a strange and counter-intuitive form of outsourcing, but as you will soon see, there are very real advantages to using web-based software to run your business.
If your software is web-based, all the processing power is server-side, rather than client-side. If you or your workers computers don't have the highest quality processing power, it doesn't matter. The only computer that needs to be fast is the server running the software. This means that you and your workers don't have to keep updating the computers in order to stay up to date. Client-side computers just have to be powerful enough to connect to the Internet.
In addition, regarding installation and making updates, with web-based software you only have to update the program on one machine. This ensures greater flexibility with your business - you can test out certain features a lot more easily, and switch around how the business is run more quickly. Especially if there are a lot of systems using the software, if it's web-based it can save a lot of time lost to updates. In addition, all the data from all the computers is collected in one place, so it's easier to back up. If you have an employee who is lax about backing up company data, you don't have to worry about losing vital information.
Web-based software is also more flexible in that it allows your workers to work from home. If you have any clients, they can check the status of projects, provide immediate feedback to your business, and stay in touch. Interactivity always creates more interested clients, and interested clients translates into repeat clients, which is always good for your business.
On the other side, windows application development for windows based computers (as opposed to web-based application) is best if the software will use specialised hardware such as scanners, imaging devices, or other information-gathering devices. If what you need requires your system to have a specific piece of hardware, the software should be locally-based, rather than web-based.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
Carly Tebbet, a self confessed IT geek, explains the importance of choosing between web application development and traditional software application development when developing new software.

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