BusinessObjects Enterprise Architecture Overview

At the highest level, BusinessObjects Enterprise has four main tiers: the client tier, application tier, BusinessObjects Enterprise Server tier, and database tier (see Figure 25.1):

Figure 25.1. The client, application, server, and data tiers compose an enterprise business intelligence infrastructure.

• The client tier consists of Web-based and installed applications. You can alternatively categorize these applications into end-user applications such as the Web-based InfoView, which enables end users to access data, management applications such as the Web-based Central Management Console, and content creation applications such as Crystal Reports or OLAP Intelligence. In the majority of cases, the client tier for a BusinessObjects Enterprise user is a Web browser.

• The application tier consists of application processingtypically on an application server, using the BusinessObjects Enterprise Software Development Kit (BOE SDK). The BOE SDK provides a programmatic interface to the BusinessObjects Enterprise server tier. These server-based programs are processed on an application server, such as BEA WebLogic, IBM's WebSphere, a Servlet container like Apache Tomcat or Microsoft .Net server. This application tier could provide an application centered on BusinessObjects Enterprise functionality, like InfoView, or an application that uses BusinessObjects Enterprise functionality as part of a greater application (for example, an online banking application that provides full-service banking for customers, and provides detailed statements via BusinessObjects Enterprise).

• The server tier consists of services (in Windows) or daemons (in Unix) registered with the BusinessObjects Enterprise Framework. (They are generically referred to as either services or daemons as these terms are interchangeable.) Although this chapter uses the term "service" or "daemon" for technical accuracy, you might see references to these services as "servers" as well, for instance the Central Management Server. The server tier is usually subdivided into the intelligence and processing tiers.

• The data tier is comprised of two parts. First is all data sources from which an organization can pull data. This data can be in a database, an application, a programmatic data source, XML, a Web service, or a variety of other sources. The second part is that which is offered as part of the BusinessObjects Enterprise solution, specifically, Meta Data services via Business Views and Universes and data connectivity via ODBC and native drivers.

With a high-level understanding of the role of the client, application, server, and database tiers, you now consider each one in depth.