Building a website backend in c#, compiled to a binary

Question

I am creating a novel website that integrates web feeds from around the internet. I want to build a backend that does CPU intensive analysis of the web data on a regular basis, which will eventually add the results continuously into a database.

This database will be accessable by the website through a normal asp.net backend that will server the page up to the client.

Is it advisable, and best practice, to build the complex CPU operations in c# binaries that run continuously on the server?

Answer 1

Sounds like you want a .NET executable that either runs on a schedule (cronjob-style) or that schedules itself. In any case it's wise to have it completely separate to your website process. It sounds like data-generation and data-serving are separate concerns, so they should be kept separate. This also means that you can move it off the web-serving machine if load becomes an issue. If you're updating a live database remember to take transactions into account.