For most of us, especially given these tough economic times, for the Web to

have become the platform of choice for enterprise application development

seems like a no-brainer. But to paraphrase The Return of the Living Dead,
maybe we need more brains.
Sure, Google has a vested influence in pushing computing into the cloud. Unless
your company is also a leading provider of Internet information services,
however, you don’t have as much incentive.
Web development is popular because it’s fast, versatile, and relatively
inexpensive — and it’s certainly easy to find developers. But that doesn’t mean
the alternatives don’t have advantages of their own, and in some cases the
Web’s weaknesses might outweigh its strengths. In the interest of healthy
debate, here are five reasons why concentrating your development efforts
on browser-based apps might not be the best idea.
1. It’s client-server all over again.
Web applications encourage a thin-client approach: the client handles UI
rendering and user input, while the real processing happens on servers. What
sense does that make when any modern laptop packs enough CPU and GPU
power to put yesterday’s Cray supercomputer to shame?
Concentrating computing power in the datacenter is fine if you’re a Google or a
Microsoft, but that approach puts a lot of pressure on smaller players. Scaling
small server farms to meet demand can be a real challenge — just ask Twitter.
Furthermore, security vulnerabilities abound in networked applications, and the
complexity of the browser itself seemingly makes bugs inevitable. Why saddle
your apps with that much baggage?
2. Web UIs are a mess.
The Web’s stateless, mainly forms-based UI approach is reliable, but it’s not
necessarily the right model for every application. Why sacrifice the full range of
real-time interactivity offered by traditional, OS-based apps? Technologies such
as AJAX only simulate in the browser what systems programming could do
already.
And while systems programmers are accustomed to building apps with
consistent UI toolkits such as the Windows APIs, Apple’s Cocoa, or Nokia’s Qt,
building a Web UI is too often an exercise in reinventing the wheel. Buttons,
controls, and widgets vary from app to app. Sometimes the menus are along
the top, other times they’re off to the side. Sometimes they pop down when you
roll over them, and sometimes you have to click. That inconsistency hurts your
development budget, but it hurts usability more.
3. Browser technologies are too limiting.
Why give up the full range of languages, tools, and methodologies that systems
programming has to offer? JavaScript has evolved into a respectable general-
purpose language, but it can hardly be expected to be all things to all people.
User interface code written in such languages as C++, Objective C, or Python
can often be both more efficient and more maintainable than code written for
the Web paradigm.
What’s more, HTML and CSS are clearly deficient when it comes to rich
interactivity. Witness the proliferation of multimedia plug-ins such as Flash,
QuickTime, and Silverlight. Relying on these outside dependencies increases the
complexity and support cost of your applications. Why bother? These tricks
wouldn’t be necessary if you weren’t trying to shoehorn interactivity into the
browser instead of sticking to the desktop.
4. The big vendors call the shots.
Recently, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz described the browser
as “hostile territory” for independent developers. It’s a world divided between
giants, he said, with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on one side and Google’s
stake in Chrome and Firefox on the other.
Schwartz’s statements may be self-serving, but he does have a point.
Increasingly, the evolution of Web standards is being driven by major browser
vendors — new features are implemented first and standardized later.
Independent developers have little genuine input into the future direction of the
Web. And that’s to say nothing of the ongoing bickering between the various
vendors. Does it make sense to rely on client-side software that’s such a
moving target?
5. Should every employee have a browser?
At one point, a computer on an employee’s desk was for work. Today, every
Web-enabled PC is a gateway to shopping, TV and movies, games, music,
online chat, and countless other diversions — up to and including more illicit
activities, including porn and copyright infringement — to say nothing of making
them vulnerable to phishing and malware attacks.
You could make a case that it’s unwise to allow employees unfettered access to
the Web if your company values productivity, particularly in high-turnover
environments such as help desks and call centers. But if your internal
applications are Web-based, you’ll need to either host them onsite or maintain
careful router or firewall rules to prevent abuse of your Internet services.
Is the case against Web apps cut and dried? Of course not. For many
applications, Web-based development and deployment remains the cheapest,
fastest route to market. But in our zeal to cut costs by sticking to Web
standards and technologies, it’s important to understand the trade-offs, too.

The web GIS advantage

By utilizing the Internet to access information over the web without regard to how far apart the server
and client might be from each other, web GIS introduces distinct advantages over traditional desktop
GIS, including the following:
01. A global reach:
02. A large number of users:
03. Better cross-platform capability:
04. Low cost as averaged by the number of users:
05. Easy to use:
06. Unified updates

Disadvantage of web gis
01.Reliability issues
02. Geodata is expensive
03. Bandwidth issues
04. Limited screen space
05. Complex to develop
06.  Immature development tools
07. Copyright issues
08. Privacy issues

Types of web maps

A first classification of web maps has been made by Kraak in 2001.He
distinguished static and dynamic web maps and further distinguished interactive and view
only web maps. Today there an increased number of dynamic web maps types, and static
web map sources.
01. Analytical web maps
Analytical web maps offer GIS analysis. The geodata can be a static provision, or needs
updates. The borderline between analytical web maps and web GIS is fuzzy. Parts of the
analysis can be carried out by the GIS geodata server. As web clients gain capabilities
processing is distributed.
02. Animated and realtime
Realtime maps show the situation of a phenomenon in close to real-time (only a few
seconds or minutes delay). They are usually animated. Data is collected by sensors and the
maps are generated or updated at regular intervals or on demand.
03. Collaborative web maps
 Collaborative maps are a developing potential . In proprietary or open source collaborative software,
users collaborate to create and improve the web mapping experience. Some collaborative web
mapping projects are:
•Google Map Maker
•Here Map Creator
•OpenStreetMap
•WikiMapia
04. Online atlases
The traditional atlas goes through a remarkably large transition when hosted on the web. Atlases can
cease their printed editions or offer printing on demand. Some atlases also offer raw data downloads
of the underlying geospatial data sources.
05. Static web maps
Static web pages are view only without animation or interactivity. These files are created once, often
manually, and infrequently updated. Typical graphics formats for static web maps
are PNG, JPEG, GIF, or TIFF (e.g., drg) for raster files, SVG, PDF or SWF for vector files. These
include scanned paper maps not designed as screen maps. Paper maps have a much
higher resolution and information density than typical computer displays of the same physical size,
and might be unreadable when displayed on screens at the wrong resolution.

Introduction
Web technology is the development of the mechanism that allows two of more computer devices to
communicate over a network. For instance, in a typical office setting, a number of computers plus
additional devices such as printers may be interconnected via a network, allowing for quick and
convenient transmission of information. The processes involved in web technology are complex and
diverse, which is why major businesses employ whole departments to deal with the issue. Web
technology has revolutionized communication methods and has made operations far more efficient.

Disadvantages of web technology

Matters involving web technology can be very complicated, and it would be difficult for someone
without relevant experience to sort a network problem out. This means it is necessary to employ
someone with the specific skills to solve network issues, which costs money. Additionally, the
existence of a network provides the opportunity for an attack on the computer system. Weaknesses
in a network could be exploited; important information could be stolen or destroyed and malware
could infect the various network systems. For this reason, network security is another issue that
must be considered when using web technology.
Advantages of web technology
The main advantage of web technology is that it offers convenience and a high speed of
communication in the computer world. Whether in the office or the home, processes using a
computer are more swift and straightforward with the use of a network. Web technology allows
messages to be sent around a system, whereas before it may have been necessary to employ a
runner or leave your workspace to communicate a message. It is clear to see how web technology
reduces costs and makes a company more efficient, raising business potential.