System Architecture
SaaS (Software as a Service) or Hosted Services, sometimes referred to as the ASP (Application Service Provider) model has been gaining ground as the demands of maintaining networks and legacy systems have become more onerous. The ASP model of software on demand, supplied across computer networks such as the Internet means that the complexities and costs of software are passed over to the ASP. In addition, issues such as upgrading or scaling are eliminated, by placing the onus on the ASP to maintain an up-to-date service.
A few years ago SaaS would have been a leap of faith but now there is a realization that such offerings push the key buttons of low total cost of ownership, rapid return on investment and faster time to market.
Web services
The 360 Dynamic Scheduling Engine is built with these modern concerns in mind and is interfaced via .net Web Services so the servers can be hosted either at a customer’s own data centre or remotely, depending on what works best for the business. The number of servers required depends entirely on the size of the mobile workforce and the complexity of the scheduling requirement.
Much of the power of the solution is in the Enterprise-Class architecture. The 360 DSE utilizes arrays of processors, which can reside on different machines in different physical locations if required. The 360 DSE harnesses the power of all the processors it has available allowing it to intelligently handle any size of scheduling problem in real time.