1. Alfresco 4:
Performance and Reliability
Paul Hampton
Director of Product Marketing

2. 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…

3. The Document Management
Alfresco
Platform Records Management
Web Content Services
Enterprise Collaboration
Open Source Platform

4. 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

5. ECM in the 1990’s
Content Devices Location

6. Files Types Have Changed
• More file types
Content
– Office files (MS Office, Open
Office, iWork)
– PDF
– Video
– Images
– Audio
– Drawings
– Scanned paper

7. New Technology
• New technology being used
Devices
– Laptop (PC and Mac)
– Tablet
– Smart phone
• Different form factors
• Different capabilities

8. Working Habits Have Changed
• People are mobile
Location
– Office
– Home
– Hotel
– Coffee shop
– Train
– Airport
• More collaboration outside the
firewall

9. ECM Basics
• Components
– Application Alfresco
– Application Server
Application
– Content Store Server
– Index
– Database
Data Base
Content
Index
Store

10. Storage Policies
• AKA Information Lifecycle Policy
Rules
SSD
Management (ILM) $$$
• Dynamic storage based
on business policies / Policy FC
lifecycle rules Rules
Drives
o i.e. Current versions on fast $$
(expensive) drive. Superseded
versions on slower (cheaper)
drives.
o Define business rules SATA
• Reduced cost without Drive
impacting performance $

11. 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

12. Alfresco Standard Configuration
• Easy install
– All on one server Alfresco
(single CPU)
Application
• But… Server
– Single point of failure
– Limited performance
Data Base
Content
Index
Store

13. Improving Reliability
• Alfresco Enterprise
uses clustering Alfresco
– Alfresco
Application
– Application Server Server
– Index
– Content Stores
Data Base
Content
– Databases
Index
Store
13

14. 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)

15. Replicated Content Stores
• 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

16. Example – Inbound
1 5
• Content is copied on ?
read
• Pulls content from 7
secondary content
store when needed 2
4
3 6

17. Example – Outbound
1 6
• Content is copied on ?
write
• Push content from 7
primary store to
secondary store 2
• Synchronous or
Asynchronous 4
3 5

18. Database Clustering
• Use native DB
clustering
• This is specific to the
DB and OS
• Two options:
– Master / Slave
– Master / Master
Database Database
(Master) (Slave)
Replicating
Content
Fallover
Store
Database Clustering

19. 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

20. SO WHAT ABOUT
SCALABILITY?

21. Application Clustering
Load Balancer
• Alfresco is two Share Share
separate applications App Server App Server
– Alfresco
– Share
• These can be on
separate tiers

22. Scalability
Load Balancer
Share Share Share Share
App Server App Server App Server App Server

23. … 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

24. WHAT ABOUT WORKING
OUTSIDE THE FIREWALL?

25. Alfresco in the Cloud
• Hosted service
• Multitenant
– Private network
– Invite external people
• Free 10GB storage
• Premium accounts
– Storage
– Admin features
• Plans to sync content

26. Summary
• Alfresco has been designed to be...
– Scalable
– Reliable
• Multiple options for deploying Alfresco
• Alfresco configuration tools simplify
configuration

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

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