Server Applications

Table of Contents

• General Overview
• A Broad Choice of Analytic Facilities and Configurations
• Functionality and Applications: The Advantages of WebSTATISTICA Server
     A software system that makes STATISTICA available "everywhere"
     A powerful, enterprise-wide collaborative-intelligence system
     Advantages of the distributed processing, and multi-tier Client-Server architecture
     STATISTICA Client
  
• Compatibility with Industry Standards
  
• Architecture of the System (A Technical Note)
  
• Competitive Advantages
  
• Web-enablement offered in all STATISTICA products
  
• WebSTATISTICA Demo Movie
  
• Q & A

General Overview

Overview (technical language). WebSTATISTICA Server is a highly scalable, enterprise-level, web-based data analysis and database gateway application system, built on distributed processing technology and fully supporting multi-tier Client-Server architecture configurations. WebSTATISTICA Server exposes the analytic, query, reporting, and graphics functionality of STATISTICA through easy to use, interactive, standard web interfaces. It is offered as a complete, ready to install application with an interactive, Internet browser-based ("point and click") user interface, allowing users in remote locations to interactively create data sets, run analyses, and review output. However, because of its open architecture, WebSTATISTICA Server also includes development kit tools (based entirely on industry standard syntax conventions such as VB Script), allowing IT departments to customize all main components of the system, or to expand it by building on its foundations, for example, by adding new components and/or corporation-specific analytic or database facilities.

A Broad Choice of Analytic Facilities and Configurations

The WebSTATISTICA Server system is offered as a complete solution that includes the analytic functionality of the respective selected STATISTICA product or any combination of products, starting with STATISTICA Base and up to all enterprise systems: SEWSS , SEDAS, and Data Miner.

The minimum installation of the WebSTATISTICA Server software includes the analytic functionality of STATISTICA Base and it is bundled with a license for 5 concurrent users (minimum).

Customers can either order a specific version of WebSTATISTICA Server including the analytic functionality that they require (e.g., STATISTICA Base for 10 users), or they can add the Web Server functionality (as described in this section) to some or all of the seats of the currently licensed STATISTICA product (e.g., add the Web Server functionality to 20 out of 50 existing licenses of SEDAS).

Functionality and Applications:
The advantages of WebSTATISTICA Server

1. A software system that makes STATISTICA available "everywhere"

Perhaps the clearest advantage offered by the WebSTATISTICA Server technology is that it makes the power of any of the STATISTICA family of products conveniently available via any computer in the world as long as it is connected to the Internet. Thus, WebSTATISTICA Server applications add a new dimension and an endless array of new possibilities and applications to the entire line of STATISTICA data analysis, data mining, and quality control software.

For example, the most recent data and reports (e.g., updated via queries to the specific parts of the corporate data warehouse) - with options to interactively drill down into the results and interactively obtain additional, specific insights about the business - can now be made available to authorized employees wherever they are and regardless of the type of computers to which they have access. Wherever there is the Internet (which means virtually ...everywhere), there is now also access to the query, reporting, and analytic tools of the most comprehensive data analysis system available.

2. A powerful, enterprise-wide collaborative-intelligence system

Another, equally important way to take advantage of the WebSTATISTICA Server functionality is to use it as the core and natural extension of any of the STATISTICA enterprise systems (SEWSS, SEDAS, or the Data Miner).

Specifically, WebSTATISTICA Server can act as a core of an enterprise-wide network system allowing the participants to work collaboratively, quickly share results (reports), as well as scripts of analyses or queries. User or group permissions (see the Technical Note below) can be used by the administrators to manage access of specific groups of users to specific data or reports. The accessibility of its tools via the Internet makes WebSTATISTICA Server a perfect system to facilitate collaborative projects of employees working at different locations or branches of a corporation (even on different continents), or employees who are telecommuting or traveling Advantages of distributed processing, and multi-tier Client-Server architecture. Moreover, regardless of whether users reside physically close to the location of the WebSTATISTICA Server (e.g., in the same building) or far away (e.g., on a different continent), they will benefit not only from the collaborative work tools but also the options to offload the computationally-intensive or time consuming tasks to the server computers. Specifically, because usually the most powerful, multiprocessor CPU's (and/or multiple computers) are used as servers, the users may offload computationally intensive tasks, and, for example, run "in the background" queries that will scan terabytes of data on remote servers and perform time consuming long sequences of analyses or reports, while keeping computers of the end-users completely free to do other tasks. Because of its distributed processing architecture, WebSTATISTICA Server scales in a highly efficient manner to take advantage of multi-processor CPU's and/or multiple computers, and therefore users can take full advantage of multi-tier Client-Server architecture, where:

• Tier 1 - is the UI on the client computer (a plain browser or STATISTICA client, see STATISTICA Client, below),
• Tier 2 - is the WebSTATISTICA Server software and the implementation of the "business intelligence" that it may contain (specific queries, scripts of custom/proprietary analyses, etc.), and
• Tier 3 - are STATISTICA data bases (e.g., SEWSS) or other corporate repositories of data.

STATISTICA Client. While no components of the STATISTICA system are necessary on the client computer (only a browser), having a copy of STATISTICA installed on the client side adds new possibilities. One could ask, "Why would I want to use the WebSTATISTICA Server if I have a copy of STATISTICA installed on my laptop?" The answer is that having STATISTICA installed on the client computer will allow you to take additional advantage of the multi-tier Client-Server architecture (see above) and work interactively with STATISTICA installed locally while offloading certain time consuming tasks to the server machine(s) and/or exchange data and output between all the three tiers. For example, a click on a small button placed optionally (depending on the user-configuration) next to every output object (table, graph) sent to your browser by the WebSTATISTICA Server system will offer to you an option to download that object (a STATISTICA table or a graph) to the client computer in its native STATISTICA format (in .STA or .STG file format) so you can work with it offline using the locally installed STATISTICA tools.

Compatibility with Industry Standards

The unsurpassed compatibility with industry standards is another in the long list of unique advantages of the WebSTATISTICA Server.

WebSTATISTICA Server can be deployed on any of the popular Web server platforms (e.g., a UNIX-based Apache or IIS), therefore, it will conform to the existing, local security protocols (fire walls) as required by the corporate client. However, if desired, the Web server system software can be installed as part of the deployment of WebSTATISTICA Server (in that case an IIS system is usually recommended).

WebSTATISTICA Server uses advanced proprietary technology developed at StatSoft to ensure its high performance and scalability (e.g., up to multiple, multiprocessor STATISTICA Server computers working in a distributed processing environment). This technology is built on StatSoft's years of experience providing high performance, scalable enterprise systems to major corporations in the US and around the world. However, WebSTATISTICA Server is still based on the industry standard communication protocols (e.g., XML) to ensure (a) its platform independence, (b) smooth transition to future technologies, and (c) to guarantee ease of customization by the client. Note that the ease of customization is additionally boosted by the fact that industry standard VB scripts are used to define the specific analytic operations and all output in STATISTICA.

Architecture of the System (A Technical Note)

Although the general design uses - in a typical configuration - two "machines," the Web Server (e.g., a UNIX-based Apache system) and at least one STATISTICA Server (optionally scalable to multiple STATISTICA Servers):

In many cases, the STATISTICA Server could be installed on the same machine if desired (when IIS is used as the Web host):

The design allows for a flexible, generic Web Server implementation by using a standard scripting language on the Web Server. The purpose of the Web Server is to package requests from the user (received from a browser), send these to the STATISTICA Server, and then process responses from the STATISTICA Server for display to the user (on his/her browser).

Communication between the Web Server and the STATISTICA Server is accomplished through technology based on the industry standard XML conventions. The system is fully customizable and for customers who wish to develop their own modifications or extensions of this (ready to deploy) system, it provides development tool kit facilities allowing to modify all aspects of both the scripts that are being executed by STATISTICA (on the STATISTICA Server side) and the appearance of the user interface exposed to the end-users on the (browser based) thin client side. Only the most standard, commonly known tools (such as VB or XML/HTML) are used to customize or expand the system.

The actual Web page definitions and STATISTICA scripts to be executed are stored in a designated Repository Facility on the STATISTICA Server and they are managed in a queue-like fashion. The system includes also a highly optimized Distributed Processing Manager that handles the incoming processing load and distributes it optimally over multiple threads of STATISTICA and multiple STATISTICA Server computers.

The WebSTATISTICA Server software system includes also the STATISTICA Visual Basic Web Extensions. These extensions to the SVB language allow the script writer to either let the system take care of displaying the resulting graphs and spreadsheets on the automatically generated (output) Web pages, or to customize the appearance of the generated output pages by adding in HTML directives as appropriate.

Security and authentication is a key design feature in the WebSTATISTICA Server application system. At the beginning of the session, users "sign on" to the system with their user name and password. System administrators are able to control access to data sources and scripts based either on user or group permissions. The highest level of the access privilege allows advanced users (or administrators) to execute virtually arbitrary scripts (e.g., in order to perform system administration or maintenance operations). That level require a designated (highest) access privilege, because - due to the general nature and power of the STATISTICA Visual Basic language, it gives access (to the authorized users) to all resources on the network.

Note that this system can be integrated with the "traditional" (i.e., non-Web-based) STATISTICA concurrent network or a STATISTICA enterprise system authentication scheme, so that a corporate customer can install, for example, a 50-user (total) STATISTICA enterprise system or a concurrent network with 20 of them accessible via the WebSTATISTICA Server.

Competitive Advantages

The competitive advantages of the WebSTATISTICA Server applications start obviously with the complete list of unique features of STATISTICA itself. Further, unlike the competing products, we offer a complete application (a "solution") with a Web-based user-interface and not merely a "development kit" (although the development kit facilities are also available to extend or customize the system, see above). Also, we do not require that a specific Web server software be first installed (which may or may not comply with the client's security standards and other policies). Finally, our system is controlled by industry standard VB scripts that can be easily modified by users or system administrators.

Web-enablement of STATISTICA

Web-enablement offered in all STATISTICA products. The output from all STATISTICA products is Web enabled (in a way that some other software manufacturers call - technically incorrectly - "a full or complete Web-enablement"). Specifically, you can automatically direct formatted reports with presentation-quality tables and graphs to Web servers. Users can easily record macros to perform a set of specific analyses and automatically deliver results in a variety of ways. Results can be automatically posted on the Internet or Intranet or e-mailed to specific recipients as HTML reports that can be viewed with a browser. With practically no programming skills users can set macros to run repeatedly - at specific intervals or whenever new data are found in a database. Again, STATISTICA can automatically post updated results.

WebSTATISTICA Server. The addition of WebSTATISTICA Server adds a new dimension and an endless array of new possibilities because it makes the entire operation of STATISTICA truly Web-based:

1. First of all, users can now run STATISTICA using only a Web browser - from virtually any computer in the world as long as it is connected to the Internet. They can interactively access data sets on the corporate network or the Internet, run queries, and interactively perform analyses on those data and create reports that can be reviewed interactively in the same browser on the client computer, posted on the Internet, or shared only with those who have specific access privileges.

2. Because of its distributed processing architecture, WebSTATISTICA Server scales in a highly efficient manner to take advantage of multi-processor CPU's and/or multiple server computers, and therefore users can take full advantage of its designated multi-tier Client-Server architecture. WebSTATISTICA Server can be used as the ultimate enterprise data analysis system, where users can:

(a) work collaboratively with others - in the same building or on a different continent - by sharing queries, scripts of analyses, reports, or other documents,

(b) take advantage of the centrally managed projects controlled via designated system of specific access privileges, and

(c) those who have STATISTICA installed on their client machines can offload computationally intensive tasks to the - usually most powerful (multiprocessor) - server computers, and, for example, run "in the background" queries that will scan terabytes of data on remote servers and perform time consuming long sequences of analyses or reports, while keeping computers of the end-users completely free to do other tasks.

WebSTATISTICA Demo Movie