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The next generation LIMS architecture
Use of the most modern advances in web technology enables organisations
to achieve the full value proposition of a LIMS
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The next generation LIMS architecture
Use of the most modern advances in web technology enables organisations
to achieve the full value proposition of a LIMS
Use of the web in commercial Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) has been a reality for many years, but only the most recent web technology delivers 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 economise 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, and the 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 realisation of the web’s true benefits.
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 a 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.
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 newer technologies enable the delivery of RIAs without reliance upon either proprietary extensions or virtual machine software frameworks.
Open web standards have now 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 of web solutions.
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 that are 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 Ajax components involve literally no locally-executing business logic, they require no code download of any kind, and they 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 the customer to gain real value from deployment of a strategic application via the internet.
More importantly, the customer has positioned itself to take advantage of the coming wave of new technologies that will define the future look of computing.
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 rationalise 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.
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.
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.
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 is 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 to 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 organisation.
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 optimise 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, and many more.
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.
Each of these trends offers a compelling argument for the next generation web-based LIMS architecture, and is equally damaging for software designed using technologies of the previous generation.
As we move forward, successful systems will be those that offer real improvements in the way that they can be centrally administered, managed and deployed.
This will make platform independence and a zero footprint absolute necessities.
An application that requires hundreds of MB in available local memory and a specific version of a particular desktop environment cannot meet this mandate.
Successful systems will also need to optimise 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.
It is essential, as the underlying technologies and standards converge and stabilise, that companies position themselves to leverage them effectively and derive from them the competitive advantage that 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, and will bring 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 your organisation to leverage these new technologies, and to realise the full value proposition of a modern LIMS.
Warren Jones
LabWare – Asia Pacific Sales Manager
warren.jones@labware.com
www.labware.com