Microsoft's Connected Systems

Microsoft's Connected Systems provides an approach to organising distributed IT resources into an integrated solution, whereby critical business systems do not operate in isolation of each other. This enables the integration of information and process silos in order to maximise business agility. In the past, this has been accomplished either though time-consuming manual interventions, or through hard-coded solutions that are difficult to maintain. Connected Systems modularises IT resources, creating loosely-coupled business processes that integrate information across business systems.

Microsoft Connected Systems provide an excellent basis to build a globally distributed system and features technologies such as Web Services, .NET framework and Microsoft Servers.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005

At the heart of this Connected System is Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for managing and storing data. With features such as Failover Clustering that provides High Availability, and SQL Server Notification Services, it is possible to build a fault-tolerant, message- based system.

High Availability Server

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 can be configured to run as a High Availability Server requiring a cluster of 3 pieces of inexpensive hardware (the hardware needs to be Windows Server 2003 compliant), which guarantees server down times of only a few seconds should the Principle server fail. In short, every transaction processed on the Principle database is duplicated on a Mirrored database. Should the Principle database server fail, a Witness server switches all database requests to the Mirror, thereby allowing normal service to continue while the Principle database is repaired.

SQL Server Notification Service

SQL Server 2005 provides a Publish-Subscriber (pub-sub) service framework which provides the developer with the functionality to create and send a Notification Message to one or many subscribers as a result of a pre-determined event.

Global Structure

Each separate system could be joined to a Central database regardless of their physical locations. Each system will operate independently, making updates to the central database as and when they are required using the SQL Server Notification Service. This eliminates issues with latency and transmission speed across the globe as well as potential problems navigating strict firewalls in certain countries such as China.

Updating the Central Database

By using the Server Notification Service, it is possible to raise an event each time an important function is performed. For example, each time an entry is submitted, a Notification Message can be automatically dispatched to the Central Database’s application server.