I don't have any experience with the so called distributed application nor with the n-tier architecture, but as far as I know, the web services is the answer to such issues for implementing it with the cross platform ability since extensive use of XML for communication.

Data must be converted to ASCII before transfered between machine, does this make extra overhead?

Does web service solution is secure because the data is stripped ( can be read from simple ASCII viewer like notepad ) ?

Thanks...

Precision is not truth!

Yes, marshalling the data to XML takes some overhead. However, this is usually offset by the value of building the web service.

Security in a web service is determined by how it is implemented and secured by the developer (for example, HTTPS and using authentication)- it's no more or less secure because it's in XML.

Both of these concerns should be addressed by the Architect of the solution.


Hal Levy
I am here to help you, not do it for you.
That is, unless you hire me. I am looking for work.