Hi:
You are correct, the SAS/IntrNet Application Dispatcher and method of invoking SAS programs is very like a stored process executing on the Stored Process Server. In fact, since SAS/IntrNet existed before the SAS Platform for Business Analytics (BI Platform), the Stored Process Server and Stored Process Web Application were designed to act very like the Application Dispatcher and broker programs of SAS/IntrNet.
Not everyone who has the BI Platform ever used SAS/IntrNet. So, it's not a choice of one versus the other. Some folks got SAS/IntrNet and kept developing with it because the Common Gateway Interface and HTTP streaming results suited their needs. Other folks wrote their own front ends and implemented their own security models. So, some folks who have invested a lot of development to get SAS/IntrNet integrated with their web applications may choose to continue using them instead of switching to the BI Platform. On the other hand, what comes with the BI platform is the fact that a stored process can execute on many different client applications, not just in a web browser and the BI platform has the metadata and the metadata security.
Sites that already have working SAS/IntrNet programs can switch to the BI Platform and because of the way that streaming results work with the Stored Process Server, they can leverage their existing code and pretty easily turn SAS/IntrNet programs into SAS Stored Processes....which means they get the metadata, the metadata security model and the ability to execute their programs on different platforms. I don't see many students going from the BI Platform to SAS/IntrNet -- most of what I see is going in the other direction. So I don't hear about this as an "either/or" choice. I usually hear about it as a "stay with SAS/IntrNet or move to newer BI technology" choice.
I don't really think you can compare performance -- two fairly different architectural models -- SAS/IntrNet does not have the metadata, nor the ability to submit programs from other client apps while the BI Platform does have that model. So, performance wise, I think you could only compare a Dispatcher program running under SAS/IntrNet with an equivalent stored processes running on the Stored Process server via the Stored Process Web Application. You might want to check with Tech Support to see whether they have any guidelines for benchmarking and coding such a comparison or search for SAS Global Forum papers to see whether anyone has written about such a benchmarking scenario.
cynthia
