Distributing database applications

C++Builder provides support for creating distributed database applications using the MIDAS technology. This powerful technology includes a coordinated set of components that allow you to build a wide variety of multi-tiered database applications. Distributed database applications can be built on a variety of communications protocols, including DCOM, TCP/IP, and OLEnterprise.

Creating multi-tiered applications
A multi-tiered client/server application is partitioned into logical units which run in conjunction on separate machines. Multi-tiered applications share data and communicate with one another over a local-area network or even over the Internet. They provide many benefits, such as centralized business logic and thin client applications.
In its simplest form, sometimes called the “three-tiered model,” a multi-tiered application is partitioned into thirds:

Client application: provides a user interface on the user’s machine.
Application server: resides in a central networking location accessible to all clients and provides common data services.
Remote database server: provides the relational database management system (RDBMS).

In this three-tiered model, the application server manages the flow of data between clients and the remote database server, so it is sometimes called a “data broker.” With C++Builder you usually only create the application server and its clients, although, if you are really ambitious, you could create your own database back end as well.
In more complex multi-tiered applications, additional services reside between a client and a remote database server. For example, there might be a security services broker to handle secure Internet transactions, or bridge services to handle sharing of data with databases on platforms not directly supported by C++Builder.

C++Builder support for multi-tiered applications is based on the Multi-tier Distributed Application Services Suite (MIDAS)