Overview
Silverlight is a powerful development platform for creating rich media applications
and business applications for the Web, desktop, and mobile devices.
Silverlight applications can be developed quickly with the Microsoft Web Platform,
Visual Studio, and Expression Studio.
Silverlight applications are 'run' in a browser using a Silverlight plug-in. The
plug-in is a free download and works across multiple browsers, devices and operating
systems.
Based on the Microsoft .NET framework, Silverlight has extensive layout and styling
options, powerful communication protocols, robust data access, and support for user
interaction and high-definition media.
Benefits
- Runs in the browser (with desktop richness)
- Cross platform support - Runs on all major browsers on Mac, Windows and Linux
- Integration made easy - Quickly integrate with existing back-end systems
- Enhance existing assets - Perfect for enhancing existing web sites and SharePoint
- Engage users longer - Impressive media experiences with high-definition video -
delivered both live and on-demand via IIS smooth streaming
- Be creative - Include new capabilities such as Deep Zoom
Silverlight is perfect for:
- Companies looking for a robust, scalable solution for displaying high definition
streaming video as part of their offerings.
- Enterprises who develop line-of-business (LOB) applications and require rapid development
and deployment of new features.
- Businesses keen to integrate their development investments with other systems including
SharePoint, Office and web sites.
- Business managers who need a technology investment that is future-proofed, fully
supported by Microsoft and able to be built on in future projects.
- Users who require inviting user interfaces in their applications.
Key Technologies
Silverlight 4 is the latest version of Silverlight - released by Microsoft in April
2010.
With its productive developer tools and comprehensive designer tools, Silverlight
allows businesses to develop line of business applications and web sites that are
both highly functional and beautiful to use.
Designers typically use Microsoft Blend to design the User interfaces whilst developers
use Microsoft Visual Studio to write the functional code.
Case Studies
SSW has been designing Silverlight based applications since version 2, including
enterprise rostering solutions and company asset management LOB applications.
SSW designed and developed a complete rostering system for a major Australian utilities
company, built in Silverlight. With up to 1000 daily users, the application is a
high performance system and has been through numerous iterations based on user feedback.
The interface is clean and simple to use. Due to the ease with which designers and
developers work together using Silverlight, changes and updates to the system have
been developed and released to the client rapidly.
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Figure: Energy Australia - developed by SSW
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Figure: A recent SSW project involved building an enterprise asset management system in Silverlight
Microsoft has numerous other
Silverlight based case studies to browse, including details of Silverlight
applications used in healthcare, legal and utilities.
Benefits
The system is able to be modified and deployed rapidly due to the streamlined deployment
capabilities of Silverlight. A simple 'package' (file) of the updates is released
to a central server, and all users are automatically updated with the new package.
Businesses have started deploying Silverlight applications as part of their line
of business (LOB) application platforms. Silverlight can be used to build entire
apps, as well as packages included in an existing application (eg an existing web
site).
Due to its out-of-browser capabilities, Silverlight provides offline functionality
to users. Users can enter information into the applications and have it automatically
synchronised when access is restored.
Integration
A key benefit of Silverlight is the ability to incorporate Silverlight into other
platforms, including web sites, SharePoint and Office.
Silverlight has proven itself to be a very efficient tool for building functionality
into SharePoint parts for SharePoint based sites and intranets.
SharePoint 2010 (released later this year) furthers the tight integration with Silverlight.
By developing key business components in Silverlight, companies are efficiently
enabling use of these objects in both standalone apps and integrated into SharePoint
projects.
Silverlight parts can also be included in Office applications such as data and charting
modules in Word and Excel.
Silverlight parts are extremely useful and simple to incorporate into web sites.
They are particularly appropriate for adding rich media into existing sites.
Migration
Silverlight is ideal for migrating/updating legacy systems including:
- Microsoft Access applications
- Existing LOB systems
SSW Capability
SSW consultants are typically engaged on Silverlight projects to achieve the following:
- Rapid development of line-of-business (LOB) application parts
- Migration of existing LOB applications from older technologies into Silverlight
- Migration of Access system into Silverlight
- Rich media integration into existing sites
- Improving workflow processes
- Increasing performance of existing system processes
- Reducing deployment headaches on deployment of application updates
Australia Wide
We have consultants available in all Australian capital cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra.