Michael Hendry wrote:
> Adrian Midgley wrote:
>> Colin Brown wrote:
>>> Atos Origin do have the renewed "Infrastructure" support contract for
>>> NHS Scotland, which includes running the Managed Servers that have
>>> been trying to host GPASS and GPASS Clinical, so on that platform
>>> they inevitably have control over access for 3rd party suppliers.
>>>
>>>
>> Not to the source code. Not inevitably.
(I should have said SNHS rather than SGPC, given where the decision is
actually made.)
> Because Atos Origin controls the Managed Servers, it also controls the
> executables that are run on them.
>
> With a local server you can install and run what you want, on a managed
> server you've got to take what Atos is gracious enough to allow you to use.
1. Which doesn't in any way necessarily limit access to source code,
and therefore has no relevance at all to who might inspect such source
code for faults; write (or pay someone else to write) corrections; test
such corrected executables on a test system (even in a single practice
system with a local server, you test stuff...preferably not on the
production server with the working copies of programs and data) debug
them and present them (via CVS or in less easy ways) for merging into
the production system. IE there is an absolute disconnect between
control of (access to) source code and control of operational servers
conflation of them is misleading, and much if it is carefully crafted
disinformation from companies.
2. Servers. It is highly likely that Atos has a (farm of servers
constituting a cluster) server which runs only GPASS - in fact it is
likely split ito three layers, a back end database, a layer running
GPASS against them, and at the front either load-balancing or just
possibly some caching to speed response. To add another application one
adds a separate set of servers, likely enough to be in a completely
different data centre. This is a description of the Internet if we take
it to its logical end. The implication that everything has to reside on
one server, and thus one authority must control everything in case they
upset that one server is carefully crafted disinformation which
regrettably continues to circulate. _On_ the Internet - see above.
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A
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