Hosting an Enterprise Financial Forecasting Application with Terminal Server Published: June 2003

Solution Overview ● Situation ● Poor remote WAN performance ● Solution ● Hosting application through Terminal Server ● Benefits ● Out-of-box solution ● Quick and easy application deployment ● Scalable solution

Products and Technology ● Terminal Server Component of Microsoft Windows Server Operating Systems ● SQL Server 2000 ● Microsoft Excel ● SRC Software Advisor Series applications

Situation ● Reporting Critical Business Data ● Financial IT group aggregates company-wide budget and forecasting data, reports to senior management ● Team uses SRC Software Advisor Series applications ● Excel front end ● SQL Server data depository

Situation ● Infrastructure Limits Worldwide Deployment ● Poor WAN performance ● Large file transfer requirements ● Alternative solutions more costly

Solution ● Host application using Terminal Server component of Windows Server Operating Systems ● Acceptable WAN performance ● Substantial cost savings and benefits

Preparing for Terminal Server Hosting ● Memory requirements ● Stress and load testing ● Simulated WAN Test

Stress and Load Testing ● Incremental increase of users to simulate load ● Scripted test with live users to simulate workflow ● 87% reported no application degradation during max loads ● 50 concurrent users per server deemed optimal

Simulated WAN Test ● Quantify user experience using WAN simulator ● Bandwidth ● Saturation ● Latency

The Production Environment Japan Terminal Server running SRC SQL Server Redmond London Clients Terminal Servers running SRC Data WAN

Application Growth Over Time Year Operating System Hardware Configuration Concurrent Users Supported 2000Windows 2000 Server4 processor Pentium 500 MHz server, 2 GB memory e*BIS Windows 2000 Server4 processor Pentium III Xeon 700 MHz server, 2.5 GB memory Windows Server processor Pentium III Xeon 1.4 GHz server, 8 GB memory Over 100

SRC Application Accessed Through Terminal Services Client

Business Benefits ● Cost Benefits ● IT Administration Benefits ● User Satisfaction

Best Practices ● Scale appropriately for expected total user demand ● Determine acceptable latency ● Evaluate your application for hosting suitability ● Limit the terminal server role to that of terminal server ● Configure server settings appropriately to secure a hosted environment

Best Practices ● Review configuration settings ● Configure and monitor disks appropriately ● Monitor hardware requirements ● Strive to minimize latency ● Deploy upgrades carefully

Summary ● Scaleable, fast and easy to deploy ● Resolves WAN limitations and enables world-wide deployment ● Only requires one full time technologist ● High stability results in higher user satisfaction ● Provides Global access to key financial information

For More Information ● Additional content on Microsoft IT deployments and best practices can be found on ● Microsoft TechNet ● Microsoft Case Study Resources

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