Infotraq Cloud is designed to create, run and manage lifecycles of documents, files, tasks, business flows, messages and various unstructured data within an organization in compliance with the ‘cloud move’ and multi-site, multi-project, multi-location practices.
The data stored in Infotraq Cloud shall be in one of the two forms – file or SQL record. The files are stored in the file system. All the other information is stored in SQL database.
The nature of the data stored apart from files – documents, tasks, flows and various unstructured data – suggests the use of the new generation NoSQL databases. The column names and the type of data stored on the columns differ in each unstructured data record. Column based databases are designed to handle this behavior.
On the other hand, considering the integrity of the data stored, lack of proper ACID compliance of NoSQL databases leaves no room but the choice of a reliable database. XML data type is used to enable the extensibility and expandability of column-based database in a row-based database.
Microsoft SQL Server is chosen to store non-file data utilizing XML data type processing features extensively.
The cloud infrastructure by definition enables users to access data from any server that is being connected. In a default implementation all data is copied between all servers constituting the cloud.
In Infotraq Cloud implementation of cloud, there are two main changes due to very probable connectivity issues, the location of the servers and requirement for fast local access; synchronization schedule and data synchronized.
In most cases, the servers at the sites are not located at datacenters where there is few to none internet connectivity problems. The bandwidth of the connection may be limited and should be utilized at certain times of the day.
Each server is considered as the publisher and the subscriber of the cloud infrastructure. Only site specific data is transferred to each server in order to decrease the use of bandwidth and resources at the sites.
Microsoft Active Directory is used for permissions and roles. Infotraq Cloud accounts and Microsoft AD accounts shall be used together. For Microsoft AD accounts, authentication is provided by Microsoft AD instance. If the connection to AD server is not available, cached information is used.
• For security reasons, HTTPS is the preferred protocol. If HTTPS is not possible, HTTP is used.
• Minimizing firewall and proxy issues, HTTPS/HTTP is the communication protocol among all components used in Infotraq Cloud.
• IIS is used as the web server.
• Web APIs are used for all actions.
• File synchronization is handled by Infotraq Cloud services. Based of defined routes files are transferred between servers. Web APIs are also used to send files.
• Row based SQL data where conflict does not occur is transferred using Microsoft SQL Server Merge Replication. The schedule for replication is defined based on the connection quality.
• Document related SQL data is transferred by Infotraq Cloud services. Conflicts are resolved by Infotraq Cloud replication services. The schedule is defined based on connection quality.
• Continuous replication scheme shall be set for both synchronization tasks.
