Designing the System Structure › Choose a Client/Server Style › Distributed Processing

Distributed Processing

With the distributed process alternative, the presentation logic and user task support logic reside on the workstation with the presentation management component. Business logic and data manipulation logic reside on the server with the data management component.

Any but the most simple of client/server transactions use some form of distributed processing. Some DBMS vendors have developed a mechanism called the stored procedure, which provides a degree of logic distribution. While this limited form has value, it is not as useful as the more flexible approaches that provide greater choice and support wider distribution.

These alternatives form a good conceptual foundation for simple client/server transactions, but business processes may require significantly more complex configurations. For example, an application may require data to be present both at the client and at the server. This may result in data manipulation logic being required at both locations.