Backend applications

Looking from a different point of view, there are some limitations to frontend applications:

• They are used via clients (for example, browsers), which run on end user devices; therefore, they have restricted resources to run applications.
• When they run within a browser, the data they use is exposed and easily accessible.
• They run specifically for the end user.

So, how can you leverage a database application that holds common business data managed by several users? Or, how about a resource-hungry application that needs to run complex business logic concurrently accessed by several users? How can you securely check whether the user is authorized to make the change they attempted?

To handle requirements such as these, we need applications that run at the backend - that is, a (virtual) machine that runs possibly somewhere else and can deal with these requirements. In a traditional SAP Business Suite world, backend applications are mainly the...