HASP: High Availability Standards Proxy

Abstract

This document challenges the effectiveness of a client-server architecture with regard to schema application, evolution, and communication between two or more parties over a computer network. An alternative architecture, HASP (High Availability Standards Proxy), is proposed as a solution to enhance reliability via a relay, or proxy-based approach. Fundamentally, a HASP is a schema registry that sits outside of a client and server's network boundaries, and through which messages are relayed. The HASP's availability for both (or all) parties through the internet opens up interesting possibilities for schema arbitration: the ability to negotiate, validate, version, inform, and evolve shared data structures through the facilitation of a third party.