Introduction
Imagine that your employees can't communicate with one another. Peers and co-workers are unable to collaborate on any level. The only interaction outside of their isolation comes in the form of synchronous communication with their direct manager. Each day, they prepare their work and ship it off to the boss, one project at a time. Of course, the boss is everything in their world. So they do nothing until they hear back from the boss. The boss is very popular. Everyone in your organization gives work to the boss and sits idly by, waiting to hear back. As you may imagine, the boss is completely overwhelmed. And every now and again, the boss breaks down into a pile of trembling putty-completely shut down. When this happens, no one does the work, and nothing gets done until someone jumpstarts the boss.

The Client/Server Model
That is how the client/server model operates. The server is in charge; it's the boss. The boss, or the server, controls all the work performed across the network. If a network component fails, the server is unreachable. When servers are overloaded, or attacked by hackers, they fail. The result is extremely expensive considering lost productivity and revenues; not to mention potential future lost revenues due to customer inconvenience. When you add the cost of supporting the client/server model into the mix, you have to wonder why an arcane design is tolerated, and why no one has taken the time to come up with a more efficient and logical architecture. Well, someone has.

Paragentec™ Application Foundation
Paragentec's™ leading edge grid development platform, the Paragentec™ Application Foundation (PAF) allows for the development of fault-tolerant applications that save time and money and operate at an unsurpassed level of flexibility with minimal administrative overhead. The net result is an increase in ROI and an added level of control over software behavior and administration that was not possible under the client/server model. The product of more than ten years of design and development, the PAF marks the end of the client/server model and the beginning of an extremely dynamic era of exciting new software products.

Grid Computing
To date, grid computing development and research has largely been limited to hardware, and mostly focused on Web-based applications. Software application of grid design has been mostly academic. However, grid applications are far more robust, secure and controllable than applications built under the client/server model. There are numerous advantages to the PAF grid architecture:

Adaptable to any Business Model
The PAF allows for application development on a distributed architecture with no hierarchy. Network nodes act as collection points. When one node goes down, others pick up, efficiently moving data and balancing the load.

Flexibility
Applications can be rapidly deployed in a variety of ways to support any organizational structure using the grid design. Paragentec's™ PAF grid platform facilitates integration with any pre-existing application or software product.

Lower Support Costs
The PAF grid platform requires minimal support because it is self-healing. Components are able to find each other on the network and make repairs. If a link goes down, the architecture's redundant components will take over. This means the system is operational 24 X 7.

Fault Tolerant
Since data and processes are distributed, the PAF grid architecture provides an unsurpassed level of redundancy. If a server goes down, one of the network components takes over and seamlessly assumes its functionality.

Though certain applications may require central collection, they can still operate in a grid environment. The grid model eliminates the architecturally unsound single point of failure of the client/server model. Collection points store data and can be configured to support any computing model. The PAF represents a major paradigm shift, and drastically lowers costs associated with network and enterprise application, operation and support.