Pendragon Forms Enterprise Edition Server Details

Powerful management features enable different workgroups to share a single server installation. Strong security features protect data in transit between the server and mobile users.  Wireless access features make data available anywhere.

Server Technology

Pendragon Forms Enterprise Edition runs under the Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems, and is based on Active Server Pages and proprietary synchronization technology.  Microsoft's Active Server Pages, built-in to Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), are used to view and edit form design information and data through a Web interface. 

Pendragon SyncServer technology enables concurrent TCP/IP network synchronization via LAN, WAN or Internet to a Microsoft SQL Server database or other ODBC data source.  168-bit triple DES (3DES) encryption ensures the security of data synchronized from a PC cradle, Ethernet cradle or wireless modem.  128-bit SSL encryption secures data used by the web interface. 

The central Configuration Database stores form designs, user and group configurations, and synchronization logs.  The database also stores information about which forms belong on which devices.  In simple setups, the Configuration Database is used to store the users' database tables.

A field mapping utility can be run separately to map forms designs to external ODBC data sources such as Oracle or DB2 database engines.

Scalability

The server software is intended to support as many as 4000 users and up to 256 simultaneous synchronizations per machine.  Additional capacity can be obtained by creating groups of Pendragon Forms Enterprise Edition servers around a single database server.

Pendragon Forms Enterprise Edition uses Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 (or MSDE) for its Configuration Database.  Optionally, additional server databases may be used to store user data.

Security

Pendragon Forms Enterprise Edition uses its own authentication scheme, enabling the use of a wide range of back-end data sources, and reducing the cost of database server licensing.  Each user in each database may have a unique password used to authenticate the user and encrypt communications.  Synchronizations use challenge-response MD5 digest authentication to protect the password from snooping.  Synchronization sessions are logged in a global server log, and an authentication history is stored in the Configuration Database.

Web access is secured with optional 128-bit SSL while the Pendragon SyncServer client software uses DES or 3DES.  The encryption protocols ensure a safe connection even on networks that don't have an intrinsic security layer.