l
to allow SQL queries for those that want it, have them hit read-only views
of the database and charging extra or doing some extension of basic and
advanced lists functionality so you can do what most users will need anyway=
.
Makes sense now why BB was so inquisitive about moving customers to the ASP
model over the last couple of years (at least in my interactions with them.=
)
Performance is by far the largest concern for me and also putting the
internet connection in the critical path to data. I=B9m pretty new to RE and
FE (only a couple of years now and minimal interaction after updates and
moves to decent server environment) but it doesn=B9t seem like a very
efficient client/server system as it sits on gig ethernet, so one would hop=
e
the re-engineering of it for ASP would be an improvement. In regards to
having your internet connection be a critical point of failure, it seems
most schools in general don=B9t see this as an issue as they move everything
over to Google, etc. to get it off their internal support plate. I am
guessing many schools will welcome this as another way to remove local
servers, support, backup, etc. from their own internal responsibility so th=
e
BB move probably makes sense. Totally eliminating the local install option
though is what I would object to.
Jonathan
................................
Jonathan Mergy <jmergy@lwhs.org>
Director Of Technology
Lick-Wilmerding High School
755 Ocean Ave, SF CA 94112
P:415.585.1725 x365
http://www.lwhs.org
From: Thomas Phelan <tphelan@peddie.org>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:16:45 -0400
To: ISED-L <ISED-L@listserv.syr.edu>
Cc: Jonathan Mergy <jmergy@lwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Blackbaud Version 8
The main difficulty will be for any customizations or tools that require
direct access to the SQL data. However, my hope is that direct access won't
be necessary. In place of direct access to the SQL data Blackbaud will
provide a web service layer to allow access to data. So, for example, if yo=
u
application needs to pull information about a student, instead of running a
complex SQL query to grab the data you need, your application will ask the
web service to provide you with the object you need (e.g. a student object)=
.
This approach means your app is less likely to require modification with ne=
w
versions of Blackbaud, and more importantly, it allows you to take advantag=
e
of Blackbaud's business logic so your custom apps will be able to safely
write back data to the db something which would be very dangerous to do
without BB's business logic.
Two downsides I see to this approach are potential performance issues and
lack of access to a test platform. Some of my apps would almost certainly b=
e
very slow if I had to pull data from a web service. What I'll probably do
for these is build local tables of the required info (e.g. grades, grade
reports) on a schedule after hours by making calls to the web service. By
far my biggest concern regarding Blackbaud's move to SaaS is the lack of
access to a test server with our data. We regularly load our data on a test
server of BB to do everything from test new ways of doing things and major
changes, to training new users, to recovering data from a mistake (e.g.
faculty member deletes major section of his/her gradebook) when rolling bac=
k
the whole database is not an option. I have voiced this as a concern and am
waiting for a response.
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