But it's a sad fact of IT life that ideas rarely translate easily into working technology. Life Time pursued some dead-end vendors and architectures.
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Bertch was key in deciding to use Java and J2EE as the core development environment. Everything had been developed using Visual Basic and other Microsoft products, but it was decided that the Microsoft environment could not support Life Time's goals for MMS--spiraling licensing costs and Microsoft's failure to deliver new software architectures on time (can you say .Net?) spurred the move. It was a bold decision--more than $1 million had been spent on contract labor, development and infrastructure to support a Microsoft solution. But Bertch felt the company had no choice. He says he firmly believes that none of MMS' success would have been possible had they stayed with Microsoft.
The company considered off-the-shelf member-management systems, but none could meet Life Time's requirements. The only viable alternative was Java, even though it would require heavy development and customization. This choice spelled the end for many contractors working on the Microsoft platforms. A wholesale body-and-skill swap took place, and soon the seats were filled with Java developers. Zempel credits the strong Renaissance relationship as the reason Life Time was able to make such a strategic shift. (Renaissance has been acquired by Boston-based Aquent.)
MMS 1.0 had two main architecture components: a client configuration based on Windows 98 running Internet Explorer 5.0, and a Web, application and database server infrastructure. The clients were local to each club; the server architecture resided at corporate. The Web servers, running Apache 1.3, served client requests, while the Tomcat 3.1 code handled servlets being fed to the application server. The application server ran BEA Systems' WebLogic Server 5.1, which controlled all EJBs (Enterprise JavaBeans). FreeBSD was the core OS on which the Web and application servers ran. The file server's performance characteristics and the cost of FreeBSD made this setup a no-brainer for Life Time. The database was Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, and directory services were handled by Sun ONE Directory Server (formerly Netscape LDAP and iPlanet Directory Server) running on Windows NT 4.0.
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