title: Using a remote, external web service instead of a database
body: <p>I am building an ASP.NET web application that will be deployed to a 4-node web farm.</p>
  
  <p>My web application's farm is located in California.</p>
  
  <p>Instead of a database for back-end data, I plan to use a set of web services served from a data center in New York.</p>
  
  <p>I have a page /show-web-service-result.aspx that works like this:</p>
  
  <p>1) User requests page /show-web-service-result.aspx?s=foo</p>
  
  <p>2) Page's codebehind queries a web service that is hosted by the third party in New York.</p>
  
  <p>3) When web service returns, the returned data is formatted and displayed to user in page response.</p>
  
  <p>Does this architecture have potential scalability problems? Suppose I am getting hundreds of unique hits per second, e.g.</p>
  
  <p>/show-web-service-result.aspx?s=foo1</p>
  
  <p>/show-web-service-result.aspx?s=foo2</p>
  
  <p>/show-web-service-result.aspx?s=foo3</p>
  
  <p>etc...</p>
  
  <p>Is it typical for web servers in a farm to be using web services for data instead of database? Any personal experience?</p>
  
  <p>What change should I make to the architecture to improve scalability?</p>