UMDS Design Features

29West designers conceived the UMDS architecture after hearing large customers ask how they could reach desktops on diverse local area networks from their high-performance messaging backbones. Desktop users often need to participate in the enterprise message topic space, but are hampered by their slower machines and diverse network topology, which might not even be multicast capable. 29West's two-tier architecture enables easy access to LBM's streaming messaging model (tier one) by desktop applications in the second tier.

Figure 1
Figure 1: UMDS Architecture

Client Server Model

Implementing a client-server model in the UMDS tier, 29West designers created the UMDS Server as the pivot between the two tiers. Running on a server class machine like other LBM applications, the UMDS Server can easily share the high-speed, multicast topic space while allowing 29West messaging traffic to flow to interested desktop applications. The UMDS Server is not an extraneous daemon or server and adds only slight latency to messages traveling between your high-performance message backbone and desktop applications.

UMDS traffic between the Server and desktop applications flows over TCP. This brings any desktop group into the topic space by avoiding the task of transforming all LANs into multicast-capable networks. Desktop applications can exchange messages with each other as well as with the LBM message backbone. Configuration and administration have also been centralized in the server, avoiding an increased burden on corporate desktop services.

Simplified API

Pondering the possible challenges of desktop application development in larger enterprises, the 29West designers greatly simplified the UMDS API. This not only speeds the design, development and deployment of desktop messaging applications, but aids the support and enhancement of those applications over time.

Commodity Hardware

While many vendors have introduced specialty hardware to push data to slower, minimally controlled machines, 29West's UMDS efficiently extends its high-performance messaging model over commodity, server-class machines. The dramatically low price point offered by UMDS is characteristic of 29West messaging and indicative of our unique, innovative design.

Resulting Benefits of UMDS Design

  • 29West high-performance messaging can reach any group of desktops in the enterprise.
  • Short learning curve for desktop application development teams.
  • Administration centralized in UMDS Server.
  • No specialty hardware needed