Alfresco 4: Performance and Reliability

Paul Hampton Director of Product Marketing

Maidenhead, UK Global Headquarters Atlanta, US Headquarters

Alfresco is now the largest open source content management company in the world.

Founded in 2005, with offices in London & Atlanta Over 3.5 million community downloads 250+ global channel partners 2,500 customers in 55 countries, including…

The Alfresco Platform

Document Management Records Management Web Content Services Enterprise Collaboration Open Source Platform

Alfresco is now the largest open source content management company in the world.

•  10 month average payback period •  $1.3 million in IT & training cost savings •  53% ROI in three years •  Flexibility and Open Standards praised

ECM in the 1990’s

Devices Content Location

Files Types Have Changed

•  More file types –  Office files (MS Office, Open

Office, iWork) –  PDF –  Video –  Images –  Audio –  Drawings –  Scanned paper

Content

Devices

New Technology

•  New technology being used –  Laptop (PC and Mac) –  Tablet –  Smart phone

•  Different form factors •  Different capabilities

Location

Working Habits Have Changed

•  People are mobile –  Office –  Home –  Hotel –  Coffee shop –  Train –  Airport

•  More collaboration outside the firewall

ECM Basics

•  Components –  Application –  Application Server –  Content Store –  Index –  Database

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tent

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Index

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Application Server

Alfresco

Storage Policies •  AKA Information Lifecycle

Management (ILM) •  Dynamic storage based

on business policies / lifecycle rules o  i.e. Current versions on fast

(expensive) drive. Superseded versions on slower (cheaper) drives.

o  Define business rules

•  Reduced cost without impacting performance

SSD $$$

FC Drives

$$

SATA Drive

$

Policy Rules

Policy Rules

XAM Content Connector •  A solution for ‘Fixed

Content’ – content that will never be changed

•  Extend Alfresco o  Use Content Addressable

Storage o  Support the XAM compliant

stores o  Designed to work with

solutions from EMC, HP, IBM, Hitachi, Sun, etc.

•  Alfresco Enterprise only feature

Alfresco Standard Configuration

•  Easy install –  All on one server

(single CPU) •  But…

–  Single point of failure –  Limited performance

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Index

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Application Server

Alfresco

Improving Reliability

•  Alfresco Enterprise uses clustering –  Alfresco –  Application Server –  Index –  Content Stores –  Databases

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Con

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Index

Application Server

Alfresco

Clustered Alfresco •  Clustered Alfresco

servers –  Share database and

content store •  Load balancer distributes

load between servers •  Point of failure

–  Application Server ü

–  Index û –  Database û

–  Content store û Can make use of high availability disk (i.e. SAN storage)

•  Used to synchronise content between content stores

•  Supports two modes –  Inbound –  Outbound

•  Point of failure –  Application Server ü

–  Index û –  Database û

–  Content store ü

Replicated Content Stores

Example – Inbound

•  Content is copied on read

•  Pulls content from secondary content store when needed

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Example – Outbound

•  Content is copied on write

•  Push content from primary store to secondary store

•  Synchronous or Asynchronous

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Database Clustering

•  Use native DB clustering

•  This is specific to the DB and OS

•  Two options: –  Master / Slave –  Master / Master

Replicating Content

Store

Database (Master)

Database (Slave)

Fallover

Database Clustering

Alfresco Index Server •  New - Separate

Alfresco Index Server •  Based on Apache

Solr –  Stand alone server

•  Point of failure –  Application Server ü

–  Index ü –  Database ü

–  Content store ü

SO WHAT ABOUT SCALABILITY?

Application Clustering

•  Alfresco is two separate applications –  Alfresco –  Share

•  These can be on separate tiers

Share

App Server

Load Balancer

Share

App Server

Scalability

Share

App Server

Load Balancer

Share

App Server

Share

App Server

Share

App Server

… building on a strong foundation

•  10x faster* user dashboard queries

•  3-4x faster content uploads

•  25% faster loading the Document Library

•  50% faster loading Document Details

•  Significantly improved search and indexing times

•  Proven platform, deployed at 2500+ enterprises

* Improvements over Alfresco Enterprise 3.4

WHAT ABOUT WORKING OUTSIDE THE FIREWALL?

Alfresco in the Cloud

•  Hosted service •  Multitenant

–  Private network –  Invite external people

•  Free 10GB storage •  Premium accounts

–  Storage –  Admin features

•  Plans to sync content

Summary

•  Alfresco has been designed to be... – Scalable – Reliable

•  Multiple options for deploying Alfresco •  Alfresco configuration tools simplify

configuration

QUESTIONS?

Alfresco Mobile http://bit.ly/alf-ipad Alfresco in the cloud http://cloud.alfresco.com

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