This whitepaper discusses how ACom3, as an internet application, is able to manage high volume transaction environments by using the concept of Work Units to distribute processing.

The majority of Internet applications focus on user interaction and quick responses to user requests. However, interactive functions are only a part of what makes an application successful - in order to maintain fast responses to user requests, many application's business functions are best performed in a batch. For example, the processing of large transaction files is squarely in the domain of batch processing.

Historically, batch processing has been the arena of mainframes and batch processes were managed by automated schedulers. The focus of batch processing is:

• Minimal operator input
• Ability to process large numbers of transactions
• Comprehensive process monitoring

UOW processing provides the application with the ability to fully utilize the computing power available to it. The volume and complexity of transactions in the enterprise class application are growing. Distributed processing over multiple servers provides increased throughput and better operational flexibility than single threaded applications relying on one powerful server.