Brandie Tarvin (8/23/2010)
It bothers me that data latency is an issue in this situation. The main problem I see is network hubs going down or your clients having modem lines instead of fiber. You're going to have data latency issues, whether you build them into your system or not. It takes time for data to move from client site to your site and back to client site. There is no 1 second magic bullet, no matter how hard you look for it. There's gonna be lag.You can't promise instantaneous responses because you don't control all the environments and the data is spread out so far between clients. And if you try to promise it, and don't deliver, that's going to make your company take a serious reputation hit.
Talk to your bosses. Make it clear that no matter what solution is implemented, that data latency of some sort will be a real, and uncontrollable, issue.
Ok, awesome warning. I was aware of the fact that I can't garantee anything and my bosses are aware of this, but I do need to maximize the chances of a fast connection.
Also our situation might be a little unique. I'd say that 99% of our clients are located within 400 miles of the main office. And 100% are in Canada (Québec, Ontario).
So did you experience that latency problem when doing something similar worldwide, or even locally (assuming each client has T1 access in his building or fast cable connection)?
Also keep in mind that for each of the separate clients, we might exchange 5-20 MB of data (after encrytion) over an 8 hours day. With each transfer being at most 20 KB total (extreme case). So even on a slow connection, 20K shouldn't be all that big of an issue (I'd think)!
I'm ok with 1 sec to connect even if I'd prefer 0, but I don't want it to to sporadically jump to 5-10 secs while the clerck waits on his data.