abstract | - Anyware is the result of combining traditional software, hardware and connectivity (or networking) and business intleigence to deliver the benefits of traditional computing to any user in any connected location, on any device with a browser. Anyware is similar in concept to the legacy approach of the Mainframe_computer or Mini_computer, in that the processing is done in a central location, and only the input and results are entered or displayed at the user terminal. There are however a number of significant differences. Network connectivity is rapidly becoming ubiquitously available through wired networks, optical fibre, wireless networks and hotspots(802.aaa,b,g,n), Wimax and 3g (HSDPA). In addition, there has been a massive uptake of browser enabled devices, such as pda's phones and of course traditional PC computers and laptops. This means that almost any user, in any location can connect to the internet. Similarly, rather than having a single, centralised processing computer or mainframe, companies like Google and Amazon.com have typified the move to massively parallel processing where processing power, and storage, is available as a computing resource "cloud". The combination of these factors, along with the availability of low cost of free, open source server software (examples are Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Ruby, Jasper reports, etc) has significantly lowered the barriers for entry so that small companies or even individuals can create robust applications, incorporating functionality and business logic that is attractive to a very large but dispersed audience. The scalability of low cost servers or Cloud_computing means that large volumes of user can be serviced at the same time. The end result is that anonymous users can make use of these business or social computing solutions at any time and from any location, where in the past they would have had to combine the elements of software, hardware and appropriate business logic. Hence the emergence of a new aspect of computing combining these elements to deliver these capabilities, known as "anyware".
|