The external interface requirements can be divided into four categories based on what the Epi Info™ 7 software is interfacing with. Because the application is interactive, the User Interfaces are paramount. Less obvious is Epi Info™ 7 reliance on Software Interfaces, particularly to the MS Access (or SQL Server) database application. The RDBMS stores all clinical data records created using Enter, the details of the forms created in Form Designer, as well as maps, layers and locations. Hardware Interfaces are managed by the operating system but the Communications Interfaces must support traffic to remote databases, such as SQL Server for project data and GIS data servers to update live maps and convert addresses to geographical coordinates.