Next-generation Architectures Offer Significant ImprovementsModern Web advances enable achievement of LIMS full value propositionSteven M. Neri
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| Figure 1: Three generations of technology in Web-based application delivery |
Although use of the Web in commercial laboratory information management systems (LIMS) has been a reality for many years, only the most recent Web technology is delivering the true benefits possible with browser-based deployments.
Over the course of the past decade, the Web has been pursued and practically mystified within the LIMS marketplace by suppliers and consumers alike. There are many reasons why this has occurred, ranging from legitimate attempts on the part of users to simplify and economize their software deployment and system management paradigm, to opportunistic attempts on the part of software suppliers to redefine and reposition themselves and their products within a highly competitive niche market. Reasons notwithstanding, time and experience have shown that previous-generation Web technologies suffered limitations that prevented them from delivering the full benefits of the Web. Application software products built on these technologies, while sometimes innovative, have fallen far short of the mark.
The next generation of Web solutions sets the bar high for developers, but offers the full measure of value for customers. Next-generation Web solutions are different than their predecessors in two essential ways. They deliver a fully interactive user experience with all of the functionality of desktop applications. However, they do so in an entirely browser-independent manner and with a true zero-footprint. These are the defining and essential characteristics of the modern rich internet application (RIA):
• browser independence
• absolute absence of any downloaded code, such as proprietary runtime components or other desktop-like widget sets.
These two key attributes form the basic criteria for the next generation of Web-based LIMS solutions and are the crucial prerequisites for realization of the Web’s true benefits.
Early RIA approaches
The notion of rich internet applications has been with us for years, and previous attempts to deliver RIAs have relied upon the technologies previously available to solution developers, which necessitated the use of proprietary extensions of one kind or another. In some instances, these came in the form of applets or plug-ins that served to mimic the richer user experience of a desktop application. In other instances, application virtual machines and other abstractions, or software frameworks such as Microsoft’s proprietary .NET Framework, were adopted as a way to overcome the page-request nature of the Web. While these approaches accomplished the goal of bringing the attributes of an RIA to the user, they failed terribly at delivering real benefits to the business. This failure was due to the fact that they did not meet the primary business goals of Web deployment, namely improved software management, simplification of the technology landscape, and the inherent benefits of cross-platform computing.
These systems enabled users to run their application in a browser, but they did nothing to make the administration or control of that application across the enterprise any more efficient. Nor did they free the business from a reliance on very restrictive desktop hardware and operating system requirements. In effect, they reduced the browser to nothing more than an alternative “thin-client” deployment approach, and often resulted in delivering less functionality, and at greater cost and complexity, than other more robust thin-client architectures.
New technologies
Such an approach to application software development is no longer necessary, and its inherent drawbacks and limitations can be avoided and overcome. The Web has continued to evolve and mature, and the previously available technologies have been superseded by newer, more effective ones. These technologies enable the delivery of RIAs without reliance upon either proprietary extensions or virtual machine software frameworks. Open Web standards now have emerged that make it possible to deliver RIA-like Web applications that run in all modern browsers without the need for proprietary run-time frameworks or plug-ins. Web standards such as Ajax and HTML 5 have emerged, and Web browsers have matured and become much more compliant with them. The result is that the rich functional interface needed for complex applications such as LIMS may now be delivered with complete browser independence, and with no downloaded code of any kind.
Application products that adopt these technologies are often referred to not only as RIAs, but also as Web 2.0 applications, as a way to denote that they are members of the newest and most modern Web solutions. Figure 1 characterizes the three generations of technology in Web-based application delivery.
The use of Ajax components is the key to what makes these applications so special. Ajax (shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a group of interrelated Web development techniques used to create interactive Web applications that offer all of the session richness and functionality of a locally executing application. The things that make Ajax technology so indispensible to the next-generation LIMS are that they
• involve literally no locally-executing business logic
• require no code download of any kind
• are completely browser independent.
In other words, they enable the customer to deploy a richly functional LIMS application across their entire enterprise without regard to desktop hardware, operating systems or browsers.
The next-generation LIMS based on the use of these technologies achieves the previously unmet goals of browser-based application deployment:
• simplified management of enterprise software assets
• a more flexible hardware and technology mix
• the ability to run in any device form factor, whether that be a desktop PC, a wireless tablet device or a new Netbook computer.
By delivering on these goals, the next-generation LIMS system enables organizarions to gain real value from deployment of a strategic application via the Internet. More importantly, the organization has positioned itself to take advantage of the coming wave of new technologies that will define the future look of computing.
Notable trends
Looking at large strategic applications, such as LIMS, and at the future of computing, there are certain trends that seem indisputable to the informed observer. One notable trend is that businesses will continue to look for ways to streamline and rationalize their software portfolios. This will result in more and larger enterprise-scale projects, including those involving their LIMS. These projects will look at ways of displacing many of the point-solution systems that have become commonplace, by incorporating their roles into the functional footprint of the LIMS implementation.
It will not do for LIMS suppliers to simply announce the availability of broad-sweeping new features or even of whole new categories of product offerings. They will need to demonstrate that they can deliver these solutions with integrity and high levels of customer satisfaction, while maintaining the health and stability of their existing business and customer base. Accomplishing this requires adopting an additive model of product development.
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| Figure 2: An example of an additive approach |
An additive approach continually builds upon the preceding product code base, and incorporates new technologies intelligently and without disruption. This results in product continuity over an extended period of time and a virtually indefinite product lifespan, thereby protecting the customer’s investment. It also increases code quality and enhances customer support. All of these advantages contribute to improved customer satisfaction and long-term customer retention. By contrast, a strategy that essentially dead-ends the existing product by introducing a replacement that ostensibly features “new and improved” technology does little more than cause disruption and confusion for both the supplier and its customers and, in the long run, generates mistrust and dissatisfaction. The graphic provided as Figure 2 offers an example of a very successful additive approach.
Another trend is that operating systems will continue to evolve and diversify, with further penetration of both Linux and other OS platforms such as Apple’s OS X into the commercial domain. The diversification in operating platforms will both drive, and be driven by, the continued proliferation of wireless devices and other novel form factors.
Looking to the future, we also can anticipate that novel computing devices will result in new and potentially complex device-specific operating systems and other locally-aware services and technologies. The Web will continue to play an ever increasing role, and such paradigms as the Mobile Web and the Semantic Web will drive Web standards that are open and vendor independent. Finally, cloud computing will grow in significance, resulting in multi-system software applications, mandating interoperability among applications and increasing the importance of user-configurable and standards-based Web services.
Web services
Web services are an aspect of the next-generation LIMS whose importance cannot be overstated. For nearly two decades, LIMS systems have been regarded as the vehicle by which companies could consolidate and distribute essential operational and strategic data. To a great extent, this ambitious goal has gone unsatisfied, as the result of a multitude of factors ranging from network infrastructure issues to shortcomings in the data schemas and data transfer abilities of many commercial LIMS offerings. The next-generation LIMS delivers a capability to both publish and consume Web services and does so in a way that empowers customers to author these Web services themselves without reliance upon their LIMS vendor. This breakthrough paradigm places the customer in a position to use their LIMS as one of the key components in an enterprise data sharing model that delivers data on a system-to-system basis, in real time, throughout their organization.
The goal of LIMS as much more than a data repository is achieved by the next-generation LIMS architecture, enabling the LIMS not only to optimize laboratory work processes, but also to disseminate data instantly to the vast array of business applications whose efficient operation is greatly enhanced by such a real-time receipt of LIMS data. Examples include
• environmental monitoring systems
• CAPA systems
• industrial automation and robotics systems
• MRP and ERP systems
• CRM systems
• instrument data systems
Configurable Web services, as offered by the next-generation LIMS architecture, will enable customers to leverage emerging technologies such as service-oriented architecture and the enterprise service bus to achieve highly effective application integration on an enterprise-wide scale.
View to the future
Each of the trends described previously offers a compelling argument for the next-generation Web-based LIMS architecture, and an equally damaging view of software designed using technologies of the previous generation. As we move forward, successful systems will be those that offer real improvements in a way that will allow them to be centrally administered, managed and deployed. This will make platform independence and a zero footprint absolute necessities. An application that requires hundreds of megabytes of available local memory and a specific version of a particular desktop environment cannot meet this mandate.
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| Figure 3: A deployment made possible by next-generation LIMS architecture |
Successful systems also will need to optimize a company’s flexibility and range-of-choice in regards to the adoption of new wireless devices and other computing form factors. To do so, they must not be bound to a specific browser, software framework or any other mix of proprietary components. Rather, they must offer the same rich user interface regardless of browser or device, providing true cross-platform computing flexibility. Figure 3 depicts the type of powerful, flexible and standards-based deployment that is made possible by next-generation LIMS architecture.
It is essential, as the underlying technologies and standards converge and stabilize, that companies position themselves to leverage them effectively and derive from them the competitive advantage they can provide. The technologies and trends discussed in this article have set the stage for dramatic changes in enterprise computing. Wireless bandwidth is exploding. New device form factors will continue to appear at an accelerated pace, bringing with them new types of applications, new origination points for key operational data, and dramatic changes in the expectations of users. The change agents are in place, and the stage is now set. The next-generation LIMS architecture can position organizations to leverage these new technologies and realize the full value proposition of a modern LIMS.
Steven Neri is Director of Business Development for Life Sciences at LabWare. He may be reached at editor@ScientificComputing.com.