Most legacy applications are designed with a client-server architecture. These applications are rich in business knowledge and represent best practices in the industries for which they were developed. However, due to the technology stack used in their development, they lack the touch of the twenty-first century. The user interface on the client is closely tied to the server, making changes to either forces a reciprocal change on the other. At the time these applications were designed, twenty-first century technologies were not main stream or only in an embryonic stage. Making changes to these older client-server applications to embrace twenty-first century technologies can be done, but it is costly and time consuming.

Different generations approaching problem solving with different tools and techniques is not a new problem. Society has been dealing with the “generation gap” forever. Youthful exuberance brings high energy and new, revolutionary ideas while the more mature generation brings experience, wisdom, diligence and perseverance. History has proven that young energy balanced with mature experience can produce beneficial results; information technology is no exception. Your applications need the maturity found in the business logic of the older client-server applications, but your users need the high energy, new revolutionary tools, and techniques of the current generation in order to compete in the twenty-first century.

OpenLayer succeeds in providing the beneficial results from matching the maturity of time-proven client-server applications with twenty-first century technologies - thus providing the best of both worlds. OpenLayer’s architecture does not require any modifications in the application or its core technologies, keeping the quality uncompromised while providing the bliss of new web technologies; for example, being available anywhere, anytime via the web or having the ability to integrate with mashups and other third party web services.

With OpenLayer, you effectively convert your client-server application into a web application by replacing the current user interface (UI) with OpenLayer. No changes are required in the application.