## MS BackOffice Unleashed

- BackOffice Positioning in the Market
- BackOffice and Intranets
- Key BackOffice Technologies
- Current BackOffice Components
- Planned BackOffice Components
- Integrating BackOffice Components with Each Other
- Integrating BackOffice with Your Applications
- Summary

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Microsoft BackOffice as an Intranet/Internet Server Suite

Why mention "Intranet/Internet Server Suite" in the title of the first chapter of a book? Some might argue that the Internet is the hottest topic in the computer industry these days and that everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon to help sell computers, software packages, and, of course, books. Actually, there is a justification for this mention of the Internet and intranets—they are about the only thing that you can get Microsoft executives (and those of most other big computer firms) to talk about these days. Going beyond mere talk, these network technologies are where a high percentage of the development talent is allocated. The result is that whether you like or want to link to the Internet, you will find many of its technologies and standards creeping into the computers and operating systems that you will be buying in the future.

BackOffice was a product line conceived well before the Internet craze that has seemed to dominate the industry recently. Why try to confuse a discussion of electronic mail and database management systems with the Internet? The two worlds—the client-server local area network (LAN) environment and the Internet—are surprisingly compatible, trying to accomplish very similar goals, and they actually need one another to continue their evolution. Microsoft and other vendors have realized this and devoted a lot of effort to adapt their products to work in this brave new world.

This may not be obvious to all observers. They could argue that Microsoft is making billions delivering operating systems and desktop applications. There are many examples of software firms that have destroyed themselves when they go on a binge of buying other companies or try to expand their product lines to cover every application imaginable. They could also argue that the Internet has grown up quite nicely, powered largely by UNIX workstations and servers using technologies developed by governments and universities. This "free-thinking" culture would seem incompatible with the hard-nosed business application environment found in the large software development firms.

One of the most interesting explanations of how these two worlds are, and should be, merging is in Microsoft’s Intranet Strategy Whitepaper, published by Microsoft in June 1996. For those of you who already have access to the Internet, you can find this paper on the Microsoft World Wide Web site ( www.microsoft.com). The key focus of many information system projects today is to provide access to information. This is not just the neatly structured information that you would find in a relational database management system. It includes information stored in the form of a published document or even complex data such as an image or full-motion video. The problem faced by many information systems professionals these days is to integrate the many dissimilar forms of information that relate to a given business and provide tools that enable people to access all the types of data that they need to get their job done.

How hard can this challenge be? We have standard electronic file formats to hold audio, video, and graphic files. Word processors have been around for decades that can store text and even text/graphic documents. Database management systems have also been around for decades that can store neatly organized data, such as the columns in an accounting general ledger. The challenge lies in providing a single, simple interface to all this data at the same time. A related need is the capability of storing this information so that it can be accessed quickly, easily, and securely.

The "front" office tools made by Microsoft, Netscape, and all the other players in the desktop software arena provide the user with the door into the network. There are a lot of good people working in this field, and they are turning out some good front-end tools. However, front-end tools are not enough. There needs to be the back-end, server-based tools that provide access to the information. The purpose of BackOffice is to provide the places to store the information that these users are seeking.

By the way, if you want to ignore the intranet/Internet concepts and build just basic, client-server applications, BackOffice will do that job. It will also provide you with basic electronic mail. The SNA server will provide access to mainframes and their data using traditional IBM protocols. Systems Management Server fills important needs in traditional LANs for client configuration and support. However, you may want to take a look at the Internet extensions that are being built into the BackOffice products. The millions of Internet users around the world could be very wrong and we will some day find out that the World Wide Web and other Internet interfaces are really useless, but I doubt it. It seems much more likely that people will continue to clamor for this interface to their information stores, and you will be asked to build systems that have to support these interfaces. BackOffice will be waiting for you when these needs arise.

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BackOffice Positioning in the Market

BackOffice is an ambitious undertaking, even by Microsoft standards. It encompasses everything from a server operating system (Windows NT) to a suite of specialized server applications. Behind the scenes, Microsoft has spent quite a bit of time working with various standards bodies to get their standards adopted (or even get any standard adopted) to enable them to build a suite of products that can work in a wide variety of environments and with a wide range of other software products. Each of the applications in BackOffice is a technically complex undertaking in itself. Microsoft is trying to offer a full-featured product in each of these areas that can be extended from LANs, through intranets, and even through the Internet itself.

It's useful to look at a little history to figure out how server suites are going to evolve. Just a few short years ago, WordPerfect and Lotus 123 were dominant products in the desktop industry. There were a few other products that were roughly comparable in terms of features, but the majority of users were sticking with the two products that they were all used to. This made sense because people were not as PC-savvy as they are today, and it did not make sense to force these people to learn new products when there was no discriminator to cause organizations to make a switch.

Then along came the Windows operation system. Actually, it sort of evolved rather than suddenly appearing. The first couple of versions were received without any great enthusiasm. With version 3 of Windows, Microsoft finally had a product that started to generate enthusiasm among buyers. The standard interface and application standards (that is, the menu structures looking similar) enabled you to use many Windows applications after having spent the time to learn the basic user interface of the first one. Microsoft bet heavily on this new user interface and designed a series of Windows-based products. At the same time, the desktop product leaders stuck with their DOS-based products, taking a more cautious approach to building Windows versions of their tools.

Eventually, however, almost everyone was coming out with Windows-based products. It was getting more difficult to find DOS-based products that offered the full feature set of a "modern" application. It was actually easier to develop Windows applications than DOS applications, because the Windows environment provided many more services to the applications than DOS. For example, in DOS you had to build printer drivers to handle the hundreds of different printers that are available on the market. In Windows, you relied on the operating system to provide the printer drivers and you wrote to a standard interface. It was not particularly easy to learn the new environment that had so many more user interface and services options that you had to learn, but once you learned the environment, it was much easier to develop applications that were better than anything you could have dreamed of doing under DOS.

With its Windows-based products, Microsoft started to pull even with the other office automation software product vendors in terms of sales. Microsoft led in sales of Windows-based products, and the old leaders had the advantage in sales of DOS-based products. Windows itself continued to evolve and provide new capabilities, chiefly in the areas of network support and application integration in the form of Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). These technologies met a need that many users were asking for, because they enabled desktop applications to work with one another. For example, you could easily share data between your spreadsheet and word processor. You could link to a standard financial model stored as a spreadsheet located on the server. This enabled you to have a very tightly integrated environment on your desktop rather than hoping that you had the right filters or import routines for your DOS applications.

Microsoft took the high ground in this area when it came out with its Microsoft Office suite, a combination of spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation graphics package with a few integration tools and common components. This integrated package, wherein the tools worked together and used the much easier and finally reliable Windows environment, finally offered users the incentive that was needed to make them change from their old tools. These tools have become the standard in many businesses. Even the old office automation desktop leaders saw the wisdom of the suite concept and integrated their products into suites in the Windows environment.

Many in the computer industry would argue that Microsoft is an evil empire destroying the true pioneers and little companies with its magnificent marketing machine. They usually go on about there being some magical hidden interfaces to the operating system that enable Microsoft to write its applications in a small fraction of the time that it would take others to do it.

I often find this save-the-little-guys attitude somewhat difficult to understand. To me, computer applications are nothing but a bunch of ones and zeros. I just want tools that get the job done. Microsoft has, over the years, seen some great market opportunities to provide the products that people really want. The Windows environment and the Microsoft Office tools helped me get that job done so I bought them. Remember, it is not like Microsoft can get sloppy. If it does, companies like Oracle and Netscape will gobble it up for lunch.

With this history in hand, let's consider the current computer environment. There are established server vendors who have been leading their fields for quite some time (Novell and the various UNIX vendors). A new technology has recently broken through that has the potential to revolutionize the server environment—the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. Users also want a single interface to the server world, much as they have a single interface in their desktop world. Many would prefer the same interface to both the desktop and the servers.

The next major evolution in computer environments will come on the server side. It will not just be a server upgrade. Instead, Microsoft and other vendors are correct in their vision of a fused information environment where your desktop computer is a gateway to a vast array of information. It will no longer be your problem to know where things are. There will be simple tools and search engines that enable you to say what information you want. The desktop tools, operating system, network, and servers will then do what it takes to get that information to you in the format that you prefer. Figure 1.1 is my rendition of this brave new world. Hey, integration was a big-win theme in the desktop computer environment. Imagine what it could do for a world-wide information network.

FIGURE 1.1. Integrated information environment.

There are several means to accomplish these integration goals. The UNIX world is all about collages. The operating system and most of the applications in the UNIX environment are composed of a number of different programs that work together to accomplish all the goals of the system. Here, you would find a number of different vendors making the various Internet and communications packages that work separately to get the job done as opposed to a single product family produced by the operating system vendor. Many business information systems shops have had some difficulty with this model, because you have to deal with smaller vendors whose support varies from great to poor. You also have to learn each of the products individually and provide support staff for each of them. This raises support costs, and if you choose one of the smaller vendors, you may not be able to provide the level of support for the product that your internal customers are used to. Complicating the support picture for these product vendors is the differences between the many vendors of the UNIX operating system. The various flavors of UNIX are close, but not identical.

Microsoft has taken an integrated environment approach, hoping to appeal to businesses that are looking for that integrated solution. It has simplified its support picture to target on operating systems that are built to function optimally for the integrated suite of applications. Microsoft has also looked for opportunities to share tools between the applications in this suite. For example, you have the need to monitor the performance of databases and mail systems just as you have to monitor the performance of the operating system. Microsoft has extended the operating system’s Performance Monitor tool to accommodate the needs of SQL Server and Exchange Server so that you do not need to learn different tools for performance monitoring (and, by the way, not waste time writing the same application over and over). Microsoft even extended this concept to enable you to interface your locally developed applications into the monitoring environment so that you can monitor everything from one application. You will find this integration and programmatic interfaces in many locations in the Windows NT and BackOffice environments.

That covers the integration strategy for BackOffice, but what services does BackOffice provide? That is evolving as this book is being written—there are immediate plans to double the number of products in the BackOffice family). Some of these products also may become part of the operating system itself and not be sold separately. Remember when you had to purchase networking software separately from your operating system? Modern operating systems such as Windows 95 and Windows NT come with the most common forms of networking built into the operating system. You can count on the continued evolution of the BackOffice and Windows NT Server operating system for some time to come.

However, it is important to consider what is currently in the BackOffice environment to get an appreciation of where this product family is targeted in the marketplace. Here is a list of key functions of the BackOffice family (see Figure 1.2):

- A server operating system that provides the basic file storage, peripheral handling, and network transmission capabilities for the product suite.
- An intranet/Internet server suite to provide the basic functions of a World Wide Web server and a File Transfer Protocol server. There is also a Gopher server to facilitate looking for information that is not available through standard Web services.
- A relational database management system that can handle the storage and retrieval of organized collections of data common to most business environments.
- An electronic mail system to handle basic messaging functions facilitating communication between users and between applications. This package can be extended to serve as groupware (software designed to facilitate collaboration by exchanging messages in more of a dialog format and also supporting forms for data collection and display).
- A connectivity solution for legacy mainframe environments. This package acknowledges that there is a lot of data on IBM mainframes and AS/400 computers that run in their own network environments. This package provides the bridge into those environments.
- A management solution for computers on the network. This product enables you to control inventory, update software, and provide better help desk support.

FIGURE 1.2. Functions of the current BackOffice family.

As mentioned earlier, Microsoft is already working to extend the functions of this product family. Key components of this expansion include the following:

- An Internet proxy server that provides controlled access to the Internet
- An Internet merchant server to provide support for retail operations over the Internet and intranets
- A media server that enables you to have real-time access to audio and video information stored electronically on a server
- A catalog server that provides access services for large published information collections

Remember, these products are very much market-driven. There are a number of vendors out there, such as Netscape and Oracle, that are pushing their own visions of the future. They have substantial talent and will probably put some products on the market that you have not yet dreamed of, but will want in your future information systems environments. Microsoft, being market-driven, may well adopt some of these technologies as it did with the Java scripting language and the entire World Wide Web concept, both of which were developed by groups outside of Microsoft. If things did not change in the computer field, everyone could become an expert and that would depress all our salaries.

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BackOffice and Intranets

Here is a bold statement: an intranet is a logical evolution of the LAN. Microsoft has defined an intranet as "the application of Internet technologies on internal corporate networks" (Microsoft’s Intranet Strategy Whitepaper). Perhaps it is simply borrowing some really good ideas from someone else when it makes sense. Let's explore some of the background related to intranets so that you can appreciate how the BackOffice components are designed to support the intranet in addition to traditional LAN environments.

Actually, Chapter 7, "Windows NT Server Overview," explores intranets in more detail, but this chapter clarifies the positioning of an intranet. This will help you understand many of the decisions that Microsoft made when designing the various components of BackOffice.

Many years ago, Sun Microsystems stated that the network is the computer. Earlier operating systems were designed before the days of modern computer networks. The large IBM mainframe and minicomputers that evolved in the '70s and '80s were designed to support a network of relatively "dumb" terminals, whose only function was to display the characters and graphics that were sent to them and send the keystrokes that were made by the user to the central computer. All the brains of the operation were centralized in the big host computer.

There are a few practical problems with this architecture. The components of a given computer have certain capacity limits of how much information they can process. It would cost much more than twice as much to build a processor that was twice as fast as its predecessor, if it were possible at all with a given technology. Therefore, the larger computer environments became extremely expensive when compared with the smaller workstations that were entering the marketplace in the '80s.

Users on these workstations, however, suffered from a lack of ability to share information (which was easy on the mainframe because everyone was using the same computer). The solution to this problem came with several computer networking technologies that have been developed to enable computers to communicate with one another on a peer-to-peer basis. The peer-to-peer networking emphasizes sharing of information among equals. In client-server networking, the server tends to have the information and the client and server share the processing load. This is in contrast to older host-based systems where the central computer had all the information and performed all the processing, and the terminals were really too stupid to bother with. These modern network technologies have evolved into a fairly advanced state over the years and are now an effective, reliable, and fast means of communications between workstations, servers, and even the central computers such as mainframes.

There are a number of network technologies that you may run across. New technologies are being created and some older ones are dying out. Chapter 9, "Planning a Server," covers some of these technologies in a little more detail. For now, let's take a broad look at two categories of computer networks—the local area network (LAN) and the wide area network (WAN). This is a big simplification, but it is good enough for this introductory discussion.

A LAN consists of a two or more computers, some wiring, network interface cards (NICs), and network concentrators. There are a few additional complexities, but, again, this is good enough for now. Figure 1.3 illustrates this basic conceptual system. The network interface cards enable the computers to transmit the appropriate signals to the computer network and receive information destined for them. The network concentrators are electronic devices into which you plug the wires running to the various computers. They electronically join the signals from the computers and therefore make network transmissions possible. .

FIGURE 1.3. Simplified view of the local area network.

Although it was great to get everyone at a particular location connected, there was more that needed to be done. The WAN came into being to enable individuals at several locations to communicate with each other. A wide area network starts with local area networks at the various locations. A device known as a router is attached to some communications equipment to transmit signals between networks. Figure 1.4 illustrates this very simplified view of wide area networks. The other key component in a WAN is the communications lines between the two facilities. In a LAN, you travel over relatively short distances and can therefore use a higher transmission capacity cable than would be economically feasible for most wide area networks. This is the key issue for almost everyone except the network professionals when it comes to distinguishing between LANs and WANs.

FIGURE 1.4. Simplified view of the wide area network.

Some of you may be a little bored right now with this simplified introduction to networks, especially if you are the network expert at your location. However, if you are from a non-network environment and are being thrust into the BackOffice environment, you need to be indoctrinated in the technology and terminology.

One of the hottest discussion topics in the computer arena today is the Internet. Many BackOffice components have been designed to work in an Internet environment, so I want to discuss this subject briefly for those who have not had the pleasure of working on the "Net" yet.

The Internet was started by the United States government to support research projects in the Department of Defense. Research dollars were provided to determine the most effective way to link computers over a wide area. It took a lot of work to come up with the hardware, transmission protocols, and simple services that formed the beginning of the Internet. The basis of this network was the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which enabled everyone to talk to one another. Several government agencies implemented these types of wide area networks, as did many universities and other members of the academic community. The users of these networks began to develop new add-ons to the basic technology. Much of the work came in the form of services that went beyond transmission of data to the beginnings of true information services that enabled you to find and access the data that you needed.

These networks began to connect to each other, and new networks came into being that were connected to this collection of networks. This is what is now known as the Internet. It is actually a collection of networks that is very loosely governed by its users. Much of the communications technology that ties the various networks together is funded by governments, but more commercial users are tapping into this backbone to get the information they need to run their businesses.

This network connection view—the Internet transmission system of the Internet—is actually only half the picture. The other view lies in the information technologies that it provides. For a while, people were thrilled with the idea of being able to log on to remote computers and transfer files to and from them.

Fortunately, however, these computer types became impatient with trying to find other sites that contained the information that they wanted, coordinating accounts and passwords and all these other headaches. Early attempts were focused on cataloging information and providing search capabilities to these catalogs. That was better than it was before, but not perfect. The next major advance came with the implementation of the World Wide Web. This technology enabled you to display text and graphics. Most important however, it implemented the concept of hypertext links wherein you could click on a line of text that was underlined (or a picture) and be taken magically to another computer that contained the information described by this link. Although the various other services of the Internet are important and heavily used, it was this Web technology that has led to the explosion in the use of the Internet by computers running a wide range of operating systems and locations around the world.

Suppose you are about to install or upgrade a local area network. You could build your own information repositories and data search tools. You could buy tools from a favorite vendor that implements that vendor’s proprietary tool set and communications protocols. On the other hand, you could buy a series of tools that are designed to work with millions of computers available. These protocols and products have been tested to work on a wide variety of platforms and are the result of thousands of users and developers trying to achieve better presentation formats. If you choose this option, welcome to the world of intranets.

One of the best things about intranets is that you have the option of connecting to the Internet. Perhaps you trust only a few users to get out to the Internet (fearing the rest will spend their days surfing the Web). Perhaps you want to have one set of tools to let your users access data in Poland and the data in your office. Finally, you may not want them to access the Internet at all (at least today). The good news about intranet tools is that you can install them today and provide as much Internet access as you feel comfortable with and still have the option to expand that access in the future.

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Key BackOffice Technologies

There are a few underlying technologies that support BackOffice that you may never see directly, but should know about. How many of you actually turn on network monitoring equipment to determine which protocols your system is using? Probably not that many. That is perhaps the best feature of these technologies—they work without a lot of user intervention.

What technologies do I mean? An amazing amount of work has gone into developing the Windows and Windows NT environment. The key technologies to focus on for this discussion are the following:

- Network communications
- The Windows application programming interface
- Specialized Microsoft application programming interfaces
- The Windows graphical user interface standards
- The Windows NT security environment
- The Windows NT administrative environment
- Compatibility products
- Object linking and embedding and COM
- ActiveX

The capability of connecting to most of the common network technologies in use today (except for SNA, which is covered by SNA Server) is built directly into the Windows NT operating system for all applications to use. This makes it easy for you to adapt this operating system for use in a number of environments, ranging from the UNIX world (TCP/IP-based networking) to the Novell environment (which is based on the IPX/SPX protocols). More importantly, you do not need to worry about protocols when it comes to installing the various BackOffice applications (or even when developing your own applications). That is a job for the operating system. The operating system networking subsystem is also smart enough to figure out whether there is a common protocol with which to talk to another computer and then set up communications based on that protocol.

This established Windows application programming interface (API) enables you to run the vast majority of applications that were designed under Windows and Windows 95 on the Windows NT operating system. With the substantial number of applications that are commercially available in this environment, this can be a significant benefit. It also means that there is a fairly large pool of programmers who understand how to build applications in the Windows NT operating system environment that can be used to interface with BackOffice. Try to find a reasonably priced programmer who works in a highly-specialized environment such as the SAP Financials package.

The Windows API provides you with the basic constructs for interacting with the operating system itself. However, how do you interact with the other BackOffice applications if you want to build extensions yourself? Microsoft provides a number of specialty APIs that are designed to interface with the BackOffice family. For example, the Message API (or MAPI) is used to build the capability of sending electronic mail messages to Exchange Server from your applications. The ISAPI (Internet Server API) is used to interface your applications, such as databases to BackOffice’s Web server.

Another point that is just as important as an ease-of-use technology that is built into BackOffice (as well as most major Windows applications) is the Windows graphical user interface standards. These are published by Microsoft to provide standards for navigation to various functions within an application and other "look and feel" properties. This is the key to allowing users to pick up new applications quickly. It comes from the fact that the basic features are all in the same place, and all the user has to learn about is the features that are specific to the new application (such as how do you set up the properties of a particular electronic mail service).

Next on the list of enabling technologies for BackOffice is the Windows NT security environment. In the old days, programmers had to devote a lot of time building complex security schemes into each application because the operating systems were not very secure and there was no way to access their security systems. Windows NT was designed with a fair degree of security built into it (it is C2-certified by the United States government). It also provides mechanisms for applications to query the operating system to determine the security privileges of the current user. BackOffice has been built to make extensive use of Windows NT security. This greatly simplifies the implementation of BackOffice servers.

Just as important to the administrators of the BackOffice tools as the security environment is the administrative environment. Although there are certain functions that are unique to a given server (such as shutting down the Web server) and that require separate control consoles, the standard Windows NT administrative tools are used whenever possible. Thus, when you set up users for the operating system, you are also setting them up for access to BackOffice components. When the BackOffice applications need more information than is provided with the standard operating system account (as is the case with user profile for electronic mail use in Exchange Server), a dialog pops up to get that additional information when you are creating the user account with User Manager.

Another key technology from the Windows NT operating system that is beneficial to BackOffice is the compatibility products that enable NT to communicate with a wide variety of servers and clients. Although the SNA Server, which enables you to talk to IBM mainframes and AS/400 computers, is sold as a separate product, many of these compatibility products are built directly into the Windows NT operating system. This includes compatibility with the large world of UNIX workstations and servers. It also includes compatibility with the largest installed base of LAN servers that are based on Novell Netware. Finally, there is even compatibility with the Apple Macintosh network environment. This provides a lot of connectivity for the BackOffice suite without having to add any nonoperating system components.

There are several more-technical enabling technologies for BackOffice, including Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and its parent the Common Object Model (COM). These are actually some relatively complex internal technologies; however, they have a simple goal. Imagine the capability of running functions from your spreadsheet while working in your word processor. If your applications are OLE-compliant, this is just what you can do. This technology is being extended to enable you to call functions from within applications that are running on other computers on the network. This technology is used heavily within Microsoft products, although you may not be able to see it working directly.

The final key technology on which the BackOffice suite is based is relatively new (Spring of 1996). It is referred to as ActiveX and it is actually a series of components that deal with presenting various forms of media to the users. The first thing that you may notice is the vastly improved video playback capabilities of the NT 4.0 and later operating systems. This may not apply immediately to most of the servers, but it probably will. One current implementation of ActiveX is in the area of the Web clients that are serviced by the Internet Information Server. The latest Web browsers enable you to transmit videos to your users for display within the Web browser.

You will probably see these technologies directly only on rare occasions or if you are a programmer. However, you should understand that they are there supporting you. They make your job as an administrator, developer, or even user much easier. The good news is that this ends the sections in this chapter that provide background material related to BackOffice. The final sections deal with BackOffice itself to give you an overview of what lies ahead.

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Current BackOffice Components

This basic overview covers the BackOffice family as it existed in July 1996. The next section discusses some of the products that have been announced for this family. Figure 1.5 shows the current BackOffice product suite. As you can see, the Windows NT Server operating system is the basis for all of these products. The Internet Information Server is actually bundled as part of the operating system, although you have the option of installing it. The rest of the products are purchased separately, although some depend on other members of the BackOffice family (such as SMS being based on SQL Server).

FIGURE 1.5. Current BackOffice suite.

First, let's look at the Windows NT Server and what it brings to the table. It is a full-featured operating system, and is designed not only to support the file server and print server roles typical of Novell Netware servers, but also to be an applications server much like a UNIX server. It is also very much a network operating system, with most of the network connectivity built directly into the operating system itself, not as an afterthought as in Windows 3.1. Part II, "Windows NT Server," covers this topic in more detail.

Figure 1.6 shows the basic functions provided by the Windows NT Server Operating system, which include the following:

- The environment in which the applications function
- Interaction of the users with the applications
- Interaction of the applications with one another
- Connection to other computers through various forms of networking, including local area networks and modems
- A security system controlling user access
- Administrative and monitoring tools

FIGURE 1.6. Basic functions of the Windows NT Server operating system.

Microsoft Mail Server is a part of many BackOffice installations. It is the latest evolution of the original electronic mail system and has been around for a number of years. Mail Server is somewhat similar to Lotus cc:Mail, because it functions with a series of data files located on a shared network drive. These files are accessed by client software that is run on each of the client workstations. It has the blessing of simplicity in the older environments where sharing network drives and printers was about all network operating systems could do. Part IV, "Exchange Server and Mail," covers Microsoft Mail in more detail.

Figure 1.7 shows the functions of Microsoft Mail Server, which include the following:

- Sending and receiving mail with other users
- Sharing information through public folders that are, in effect, bulletin boards containing information to be shared by a project team
- Connecting with other, external mail systems (that is, cc:Mail) through the use of gateway products

FIGURE 1.7. Basic functions of Microsoft Mail Server.

Next on the list of products in the current BackOffice environment is the Exchange Server product. Some may have questioned my calling Mail Server the latest evolution of the Microsoft’s original mail system when Exchange Server has actually just come on the market and is much newer than Mail Server. Perhaps it is just a matter of terminology, but I consider Exchange Server to be more of a revolution as opposed to an evolution in mail products for Microsoft. Instead of relying on simple file sharing, it relies on more sophisticated interprocess client-server communications to interact with clients. Its architecture closely resembles that of a database management system. Part IV also discusses Exchange Server in more detail.

Figure 1.8 illustrates the basic functions of Microsoft Exchange Server, which include the following:

- Sending and receiving mail with other users
- Sharing information through public folders, which are, in effect, bulletin boards containing information to be shared by a project team
- Providing programmatic interfaces that enable developers to build mail capabilities into the applications that they develop; this includes providing mail services to Microsoft applications such as Internet Information Server
- Providing excellent connectivity to Internet mail systems
- Connecting with other, external mail systems (that is, cc:Mail) through the use of gateway products

FIGURE 1.8. Basic functions of Microsoft Exchange Server.

The Internet Information Server (IIS) provides the World Wide Web, File Transfer Protocol, and Gopher capabilities in the BackOffice family. In an interesting move, Microsoft decided to include IIS as part of the Windows NT Server operating system, although you do have the option of whether to install IIS. This probably reflects a general trend to make Internet/intranet as easy as access to your local hard disk drive. The IIS components function as separate Windows NT services that rarely require any attention, but seem to get the job done. They access information stored in directories on the hard disks of your server. Part III, Internet Information Server," covers IIS in more detail.

Figure 1.9 illustrates the basic functions of the Internet Information Server, which include the following:

- Enabling users on the network to access World Wide Web documents (and applications) that are stored on this server
- Providing an enhanced File Transfer Protocol server that enables users to upload and download files from this server, which are located in directories specifically designated for this purpose
- Providing a tool that enables users to locate information stored on the network that they may be interested in
- Providing management services that enable administrators to control access and monitor loading to these services, which may allow general Internet users access to your server

FIGURE 1.9. Basic functions of the Internet Information Server.

Many of the servers in the BackOffice family are designed for a wide variety of uses in a large number of environments. The SNA Server on the other hand, is a specialist. Its main function in life is to connect local area network (intranet) environments to IBM mainframe and AS/400 environments. Many locations that have both these environments rely on IBM mainframe terminal connections (separate wires running to cards and software in the PC that turn highly intelligent personal computers into really dumb terminals) or use network utilities such as telnet and FTP to connect to the mainframe (which often is difficult for the mainframe that was not designed for this type of processing environment). Part VII, "SNA Server," covers this server in more detail.

Figure 1.10 illustrates the basic services provided by the SNA Server, which include the following:

- Enabling access to files stored on the mainframe
- Providing terminal connectivity to enable users to run jobs

FIGURE 1.10. Basic functions of the SNA Server.

The next-to-last product in the current BackOffice suite is Microsoft’s server database management system, known as SQL Server. It is a fairly traditional relational database management system. The primary architecture for databases built using SQL Server uses the client-server model. In this model, a process on your local PC communicates requests to, and receives responses from, a process on the server. The server processes, then updates, the data files and takes care of other administrative tasks. This server is discussed in more detail in Part V, "SQL Server."

Figure 1.11 illustrates the basic services provided by SQL Server, which include the following:

- Storing organized collections of data into tables
- Responding to queries and data updates sent by users
- Executing software stored within the database
- Providing utilities for performance monitoring and administration

FIGURE 1.11. Basic functions of SQL Server.

The final product in the current BackOffice suite is relatively new. Systems Management Server supports the need of information systems organizations to support large numbers of client workstations distributed on a network. Often, support costs make up a very high percentage of the total costs of a network of computers. Systems Management Server is designed to support the most common and time-consuming support functions.

Figure 1.12 shows the basic services provided by Systems Management Server, which include the following:

- Client workstation hardware and software inventory
- Automated software installation from servers to client workstations
- Remote system troubleshooting, including the capability of controlling that workstation remotely
- Network application management

FIGURE 1.12. Basic functions of Systems Management Server.

The current BackOffice components work together to provide the more common services needed by users and developers. Someday, some of these services may be bundled into the base operating system itself (just as network interfaces used to be purchased as add-ons to the operating system and Internet Information Server is currently bundled with the Windows NT Server operating system). The key theme that integrates the various BackOffice components is that they are common components and applications that run on servers or that provide the foundation for other server applications. They are built strictly for the Windows NT operating system, and they extend its capabilities.

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Planned BackOffice Components

Microsoft BackOffice is currently a fairly complete and powerful system to support most server-based needs. However, time marches on and BackOffice has to keep pace with it. Because of various trends in the industry and Microsoft’s goal of extending the capabilities of smaller, PC-based servers into the realm traditionally occupied by UNIX servers and even larger computers, there are already a series of powerful extensions to the BackOffice family that will make it even more powerful. These will move fairly quickly through the beta testing process and may be available for download from the Microsoft World Wide Web page if they are still in beta while you are reading this.

The first is Microsoft’s proxy server, which is code-named catapult. The term "proxy server" may seem somewhat confusing for those of you who do not work in the network and security fields. It is a key component in the Microsoft networking strategy, however, because it solves at least some of the security problems associated with connecting your precious little network to larger networks, especially the Internet. You do not want any of those famous Internet hackers getting into your computers and doing mischievous or even damaging deeds. The proxy server acts as a traffic cop for network traffic, enabling the signals from the right workstations using the right protocols to pass while blocking other signals.

The next product is Microsoft’s Merchant Server. Again, the terminology here seems to be somewhat imprecise. Databases have been serving merchants for years. This server is designed to provide some features that enable businesses to conduct business transactions while transmitting their signals over the Internet. This can be a scary thought. Imagine what it could be like if someone could listen in, get the credit card number that you are transmitting, and start ordering things with that number over the telephone. The Merchant Server provides support and programming interfaces for encryption, payment, order caching, and address information. It is designed to be easily linked to product information and order databases and also interfaces to legacy order processing systems.

The next new component to the BackOffice family is a media server designed to enable the distribution of audio and video over future computer networks. Current cable companies distribute a large number of video channels over their networks. The general concepts of storing digital video and audio information are fairly well understood. The real challenge is the building of computer networks that can support the enormous demands of a large number of video transmissions. With the media server product, Microsoft hopes to be ready in this market when the network world catches up to the dreams of the user community for media transmission over computer networks.

The final component of interest is Microsoft’s Viper product. It is designed to better support the needs of online transaction processing. Business transactions have been processed online for a number of years, and most of them have gone quite smoothly. This product is designed to implement many of the algorithms that developers currently have to write to ensure that the transaction has completed successfully before the remote computer tells the user that it has completed. This requires some sophistication as distributed databases and complex computer networking schemes are implemented.

One final note on the subject of additions to BackOffice—expect even more changes. Microsoft is a market-driven company. The Internet and intranet worlds are evolving rapidly. There are a number of very bright people working at Microsoft and other places to make this environment better. As new ideas and standards come up, you can expect Microsoft to adapt its product suite to meet the consumer’s demands. One small example of a new, unexpected product that went into beta testing during the week of this writing was a small tool that helped users move Web pages that have been authored locally to their servers. This is a really great idea to help automate the process of building and testing Web pages. It may even become a built-in feature of future Web page authoring tools and Web servers. Yes, sometimes watching technology evolve can be really fun.

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Integrating BackOffice Components with Each Other

Much of the work involved with integrating the various components of Microsoft BackOffice has already been done by Microsoft. For example, the Systems Management Server is built to use the SQL Server database. All these components (with the exception of the older Microsoft Mail Server product) are built into the common architecture, administrative, and security schemes of the Windows NT operating system. Your main challenge is learning how to use these components together to your best advantage. The chapters in the rest of this book go into more detail on these products and prepare you to use them to their fullest capability. After that, it is up to you.

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Integrating BackOffice with Your Applications

Perhaps you are a really talented programmer. There is no software algorithm that is beyond your abilities. You can even write your own operating system, given enough time and budget. However, the real world rarely has enough time and budget available. Therefore, one of the key design features of BackOffice offers you the ability to have its functions accessed by other programs. This can save you a lot of time. Why write complex message handling applications when you can simply interface your code to Exchange Server? Why write a series of complex data selection and update algorithms going against custom-designed files when you can use SQL Server for those tasks and instead concentrate on the user interface and business logic portions of the application? Part VIII, "Integrating BackOffice," discusses the programmatic interfaces to the various BackOffice components that you can use to save yourself a lot of work and produce better applications (remember, Microsoft has more programmers working on its BackOffice components than most of you have in your entire company).

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Summary

This chapter provides you with a brief introduction to BackOffice. The remaining chapters are devoted to the details that you will need to set up, administer, and use BackOffice to your best advantage. It is a powerful suite of products that can be purchased as needed to meet your local needs. Feel free to skip over those sections that are not applicable to you. For example, I do not have the slightest idea as to how SNA Server functions (don’t worry, the author who wrote those sections does). I am nowhere near a mainframe environment and do not want to complicate my job any further. However, the SNA Server could be the most important section for administrators who have the task of linking their local area networks to the mainframe. You may have no interest in the SQL Server section (perhaps your organization has standardized on Oracle as the database management system). Therefore, you can skip the sections that are not applicable to you, and the authors promise not to get offended if you skip the chapters that we slaved over for so many hours.

Before we get into the details of each of the products, it seemed appropriate to cover some common ground that is applicable to all the products in the BackOffice family. The rest of this first section of the book is devoted to covering these common topics. Chapter 2, "Integrated Architecture," presents the overall architecture of the BackOffice family to give you an idea of the components that are shared by all family members. Chapter 3, "Security Environment," discusses the security environment and how it can be used to control access to the services of BackOffice. Chapter 4, "Monitoring Environment," discusses the monitoring tools that you can use to see how well your system is performing and areas where it might need a little help. Chapter 5, "Administrative Environment," covers the tools that help the administrators set up and keep the BackOffice environment running smoothly. As stated earlier, Chapter 6, "Intranets," discusses the subject of intranets, which are like the Internet, but have a number of advantages that you might want to exploit. So, without any further ado, on with the rest of the book.