Architecture

We built the Escape Online 5 application using the Microsoft's .Net architecture, so that we could develop client/server services that communicated in a completely secure manner. We utilize all of the standard .Net resources for security, add our proprietary encryption cipher and give you six additional data communication encryption schemes to employ.

Escape Online uses an SQL database on an application server, according to the architecture shown below.

Our client program is a lightweight presentation engine. It has no business logic (much like a browser). It just knows how to put up our menus, lists, forms, help, etc. It can easily be installed with various one-click methods, from a web page, using an installer, any way that works. Once installed, it is 100% auto updating. All data and business logic is provided to the client app in real time.

Some of the main advantages of this model include the following.

  • Changes to one tier are largely independent from another, allowing the application to evolve easily to meet new requirements.
  • Network bottlenecks are minimized because the application does not transmit extra data to the client, only what is needed to handle a task.
  • When business logic changes, only one tier has to be updated.
  • The client is insulated from database and network operations. The client can access data without having to know where data is on the network.
  • The system is database independent. The system is not tied to a vendor specific database because the database is accessed only by a small number of tiers. This independence has been further enhanced because the data layer Escape Online 5 is using is standard SQL, which is vendor independent.

This segmented model makes Escape Online 5 basically infinitely scalable. User's client programs connect to a server upon login. The particular server they are assigned to is managed by a load balancer, or can be set up to be just random. Server hardware (and virtual OSs) have progressed so much over the past few years it is not possible to say what is an ideal configuration. Advances like SSDs and multi-core CPUs make a server much more powerful.