NonStop Systems Introduction

Requirements of ZLE Systems
NonStop Systems Introduction—527825-001
2-13
Support for Expansion and Growth
Support for Expansion and Growth
ZLE systems be scalable; that is, must be able to grow and change as the business
that uses the system changes. As the business grows or changes, the ZLE system
must be able to integrate new applications, standards, and business processes. And it
must do so without experiencing any loss of performance. A flexible ZLE system must
have the following characteristics:
•
It must be able to support increasing numbers of users and applications and larger
databases without requiring any changes to existing applications and databases.
•
It must be able to incorporate new applications to support new business functions
without requiring significant changes to existing applications or major redesign of
databases.
•
It must maintain zero latency as the number of users and applications grows.
•
It must be able to support the variety of applications and systems in use throughout
the business.
•
It must be expandable so that processors, disk drives, communications lines, and
other hardware can be added in reasonable increments to support the growth of
the business.
•
It must be able to integrate and interoperate with other vendors’ systems so that
businesses can build on their existing investment in software and hardware.
•
It must be configurable to support a wide variety of industries:
telecommunications, finance, retail, e-commerce, insurance, transportation, and
others.
Moreover, scalability must extend to all components of the ZLE system, including the
database, database software, and the hosting hardware platform.
Figure 2-4 on page 2-14 shows an example of a growing ZLE environment.