EMC Documentum Architecture: Foundations and Services for Managing Content across the Enterprise

Transcription

1 : Foundations and Services for Managing Content across the Enterprise A Detailed Review Abstract EMC Documentum is an enterprise content management (ECM) platform for ordering the flow and delivery of unstructured business information across an extended enterprise. Based on an extensible, open, scalable, flexible, and secure architecture that meets the needs of global, distributed organizations, Documentum is a set of integrated products and services that work together. From creation to capture, organization, and archiving, the Documentum content management solution addresses a range of strategic business challenges. November 2009

2 Copyright 2008, 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. EMC CORPORATION MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. Part Number H A Detailed Review 2

3 Table of Contents Executive summary...4 Introduction...4 Audience... 4 Bringing order to unstructured business information...4 Business benefits: Beyond information silos... 4 What EMC Documentum delivers... 5 EMC Documentum: A service-oriented architecture...6 The foundation group...7 Content objects... 8 Object relations... 8 Storing content objects... 8 Repository infrastructure... 9 Connecting to an underlying storage infrastructure High-Volume Server Security services The application services group: Managing content as interrelated modules...19 Compliance Services Core Content Services Process Services The developer resources and tools group: Designing, developing, and administering information-based applications...36 Configuration capabilities Administration capabilities The experiences group: Managing end user s interactions...43 Client Infrastructure End-user application frameworks Conclusion...47 A Detailed Review 3

4 Executive summary From engineering drawings and manufacturing procedures to marketing collateral and sales presentations, business content comes in many forms. This unstructured content is critical to the smooth and efficient functioning of an organization, yet needs to be managed in a systematic way. Enterprise content management (ECM) technology captures, organizes, stores, and delivers unstructured content within an enterprise and beyond. It manages this information according to predefined business rules, policies, and procedures and establishes relationships among pieces of content so that the given items can be used in different contexts and renditions. ECM creates categorization schemas and metadata that make search and retrieval faster and more efficient. It facilitates the publication of content through multiple channels, for instance, you can publish the same set of words and pictures to a website, distribute as a fax, print as a hard copy document, and send to a wireless device. To satisfy compliance mandates, the ECM system ensures content archiving and long-term retention. In short, ECM systems automate the lifecycle processing of content. Introduction The EMC Documentum platform provides the foundation on which developers can build applications and solutions for everything from managing business documents to publishing content across multilingual websites to enabling collaboration with interactive tools. This white paper details the architecture of EMC Documentum and identifies the four primary capability groups that form the foundation of ECM strategy. It also explains how Documentum fits into a service-oriented approach to content-based applications. Recent EMC Documentum composition platform advancements are worth a mention in this section, as they represent a departure from the conventional approach of writing custom code. As businesses seek to reduce costs, complexity, and risk associated with developing applications, EMC Documentum enhances its platform offerings to address such challenges. Initially targeting case-based applications, the EMC Documentum xcelerated Composition Platform (xcp) allows organizations to build case-based applications and solutions. xcp is the new standard in application development as it combines integrated technologies, development and deployment tools, and best practices in a single platform that emphasizes configuration versus coding. xcp, however, is not the focus of this traditional architecture paper. Audience This white paper addresses application developers and IT executives who are looking to unite vertical information silos by standardizing on a service-oriented platform that can manage content assets while providing superior scalability and ease of use. Bringing order to unstructured business information Business benefits: Beyond information silos Enterprise content management systems help integrate departments and other groups that otherwise function within separate information silos. Using the ECM system, you can also share information with business partners and any other contacts within the extended enterprise. Why is this necessary and how does it add value? To be sure, the research and development department will continue to produce product specifications and patents, while the marketing department generates A Detailed Review 4

5 collateral and press releases, and the customer service organization responds to queries. Yet employees and business partners need to access, collaborate, and share such information across departmental boundaries, such as when launching new products or collaborating to create new customer experiences. Secure access to and easy sharing of such information is critical. What EMC Documentum delivers EMC Documentum orders the flow and delivery of unstructured and semi-structured business information across an extended enterprise. Based on an extensible, open, and secure architecture, Documentum is in fact a set of integrated products and services that work together in varying combinations. From creation to capture, categorization, and electronic storage, through just-in-time delivery and archiving, Documentum supplies the core technologies that are critical for managing content within your organization: Global and distributed. For enterprises with sites and customers around the world, Documentum responds to users and content regardless of physical location. It includes unique caching capabilities for high-performance management to any location in the world. To accommodate local languages and currencies, the architecture stores multilingual content and metadata in shared repositories, forming a single, virtual repository that spans geographical boundaries and languages. Extensible. Extend Documentum to meet unique operational needs by embedding business rules or custom-designed content objects. Documentum incorporates a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that exploits the capabilities of enterprise content services for integrating with disparate enterprise applications. Add customizations in multiple areas, including user authentication, rich media handling, and legacy storage support. Open. Because Documentum is standards-based, it easily integrates with both existing IT infrastructures and evolving, web-centric environments. It exploits SOAP and REST as architectural approaches to web services. There are standard Documentum APIs for WebDAV, FTP, SMB, and JDBC. The architecture is fully JEE compliant (for web-based applications) and supports the Microsoft.NET environment. Documentum integrates readily with enterprise applications and systems, including directory services using the LDAP standard. It also supports a wide range of XML-based standards. Interactive. Documentum supports interactive applications by assembling content resources around communities of interest and particular business activities. It organizes content in an intelligent manner, and turns information about people, what they know, and what they do into valuable business resources. Scalable. With support for billions of objects, 100,000 concurrent user benchmarks, and ingestion speed of 450,000 documents per hour, Documentum is the proven leader in scalability. As your content management needs grow larger and more complex, the solution manages increasing content volumes, high-traffic loads, additional users, and more complex workflow processes. It also addresses the network latency and large-scale distribution issues that face global enterprises by utilizing its underlying multiprocessor systems as well as caching and clustering environments (vertical and horizontal scalability). Secure. As organizations make repository content available to a wider range of contributors, Documentum enforces secure access designations. Access control lists define the users, groups, and roles that can access the repository or the discrete objects that it contains, as well as the operations that can be performed. Sensitive information in the repository file stores are encryptable. It also keeps network communications among servers and desktop clients secure through the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Documentum also supports electronic signatures and offers auditing of all system activities. Finally, Documentum secures roving content, those files and other objects that may be moving around the network and beyond purview of the repository. A Detailed Review 5

6 EMC Documentum: A service-oriented architecture Because of its service-oriented architecture, Documentum provides a unified environment for capturing, storing, accessing, organizing, controlling, retrieving, delivering, and archiving any type of unstructured information. It also supports the resources for managing that content across an extended enterprise, for publishing to the Internet, and for processing high-volume, content-intensive transactions. For the purpose of simplification within this paper, consider that the Documentum architecture consists of four conceptual groups: The foundation group provides platform-oriented services and is a unified environment where content is stored, accessed, and secured. The application services group provides various business-oriented, application-level services for organizing, controlling, sequencing, and delivering content to and from the repository. The developer resources and tools group provides capabilities for designing, developing, and administering enterprise-scale applications that use content within the context of business processes. This group also includes Documentum Application Program Interfaces (APIs) as well as Enterprise Content Services (ECS) for loosely coupling content-related objects with external enterprise services and mash-ups. The experiences group provides the frameworks and user interfaces for interacting with content management functionality in desktop- or browser-based applications. Each of these groups consists of a series of components, which, together, form a unified, consistent, and extensible architecture, as shown in Figure 1. A Detailed Review 6

7 Figure 1. Documentum consists of four groups foundation (bottom violet), application services (middle gold), experiences (top gray), and tools (right navy) Let us examine the capabilities of these four groups and identify how they interrelate to provide a comprehensive environment for managing content across an enterprise. The foundation group The foundation group provides platform services, such as storing, accessing, and securing content in a unified content infrastructure Documentum contains an enterprise-wide repository where the logical services for accessing content are separated from the underlying systems for storing it. To an application, the Documentum repository appears as a unified environment, though content may reside on multiple servers and physical storage devices and distributed geographically across an organization. Put another way, the operation of the repository is independent of the network typology and the underlying storage infrastructure. Documentum stores content in a consistent manner, regardless of content type, file size or complexity, and file format. Content types include, but are not limited to, the following: Ordinary business documents Compound documents (containing interlinked and highly formatted text and graphics) Web pages A Detailed Review 7

8 XML documents and components Scanned images Digitized photographs Multimedia digital assets (such as music, sounds, and full-motion video) Fixed documents (such as the outputs and reports from enterprise applications) and instant messages Collaborative content such as threaded discussions, chats, blog posts, wiki pages, votes, and notes Computer-aided design (CAD) drawings Documents and data records from enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications Virtual reality environments Content objects Content Server is an object-based system. Everything that users manipulate, whether documents, folders, security profiles, or business processes, is stored and managed as an object by Content Server. Objects comprise three parts: Content assets or source data represent the core information stored in its native format. Content attributes or metadata describe the content assets with descriptors such as keywords, owner, version, links, and creation date. Methods or operations are the instructions the system performs on content assets, such as transform, notify, and display. Out of the box, Documentum provides 100+ object types. These may be extended objects or new ones may be created. A content object s set of attributes and methods are configurable and extensible. Using Documentum development tools, developers can create new object types that behave exactly as dictated by specific business needs. Furthermore, content attributes characterize the relationships among the stored content objects. The repository organizes content around its metadata; users and applications use the metadata to interact with and retrieve relevant content. Object relations The Documentum Docbase lets you establish many types of relationships between objects. Content Server includes various system-defined relationships, such as those between a document, or a note object representing annotations to the document, or the relationship between a document and the workflow and lifecycles assigned to it. In addition, the system lets you define custom relationships. For example, you might define a relationship between two document types so that a document of one type is automatically updated whenever a document of the other type is updated. Developers can define this type of relationship and write procedures to manage it. Storing content objects Documentum works as a unified environment for storing content objects. It stores these objects in their native formats, and further encrypts as needed. This way, applications rely on a single set of services and programming interfaces to access content, regardless of where and how the system stores the content objects themselves. The repository enforces security measures to ensure that only your authorized users and applications have access to the assets and indexes of content attributes. A Detailed Review 8

9 Documentum responds to the needs of your organization. This adaptability and flexibility is particularly important for organizations that operate in multiple locations and require a distributed repository for storing, caching, fetching, and updating content, while also managing rapid access across the enterprise. The virtual reach makes it possible to implement distributed environments in various ways that ensure enterprise-wide access. It enhances system performance and maintains underlying security and compliance requirements. This provides you with many options for designing and deploying the virtual repository in ways that best meet your operational objectives. For example, a global company might host a Documentum content repository in multiple geographical regions, storing content locally to meet corporate quality-of-service guarantees. To further enhance productivity and business objectives, such a company can also support a series of branch offices in remote locations. Important documents, large multimedia files, and other content types can be distributed and cached at the branch offices, so that they are immediately available to local users (with no performance degradation associated with accessing files across low-bandwidth connections). Users at branch offices can access and modify content, as their roles require. The overall security and access controls extend across the entire enterprise environment in a seamless fashion. If need be, content stored at branch offices can be automatically encrypted for added security. Updates made by branch office workers can be synchronized with the regional repositories in a predictable manner, optimized to ensure a responsiveness experience and the currency of the revised content. The end result is a distributed virtual repository that securely manages content, regardless of geography or network bandwidth, to meet strategic business goals and objectives. Repository infrastructure The Documentum repository consists of four main components, which behave as a single entity from an application point of view: a file store containing the content assets; attribute tables within a relational database; an XML store for XML content; and full-text indexes. Figure 2 shows the four components of the Documentum repository. A Detailed Review 9

10 Figure 2. The four components of the Documentum repository: file stores containing content assets; attribute tables within a relational database; an XML store for XML content; and full-text indexes. All components behave as a single entity from an application point of view File store and RDBMS Documentum stores content attributes in a relational database for rapid query and retrieval. It stores these content assets as files in a logical file store, which in turn can encompass one or more physical file stores and connect through a variety of network typologies. XML Store The Documentum XML Store is a native XML repository for XML content. It preserves XML structure, allowing you to query content at any level of detail (for example, individual elements, attributes, content objects, or metadata attributes), even on very large information sets. The XML Store provides performance and feature advantages over relational databases and file systems through specialized XML indexing methods, caching, and an architecture optimized for XML. XML Store content is accessible through standard Documentum APIs and subject to the same policies and management as other content objects. It manages updates and additions to existing Documentum operations. You can query XML content in an XML Store using XQuery, via Documentum Foundation Classes (DFC) API calls. Query results return to the application as an XML document. XML Store also indexes content in the full-text system. Searches and queries can be performed with DQL, full-text expressions, XQuery, or any combination. A Detailed Review 10

11 Full-text indexes Documentum maintains a full-text index of all text-based content assets stored within the Documentum repository so it can rapidly search through large collections of unstructured information. The indexed content assets include documents, text files, XML components, HTML files, and closed-caption tracks of video files. The FAST Index Server search technology is embedded within Documentum. The search capability is modular, with alternate engines for market-specific Documentum offerings. For instance, the Documentum OEM edition, built for software vendors that embed Documentum in their products, offers the open-source alternative, Lucene, as the default engine. For all standard enterprise customer offerings, however, a FAST search engine is built into the repository. The full-text index, which is automatically created by an indexing process when content is added to the repository, contains: All words of the content assets stored within the repository All keywords and other content attributes (or metadata) that describe the content assets As part of the content ingestion process, an index agent forwards content to an index server, which maintains the full-text index database. Documentum ensures that query performance and scalability are not affected by repository size. To scale up for high-speed content ingestion, the indexing process can run on multiple indexing pipelines deployed on multiple CPUs. This is particularly important in content archiving applications for , enterprise reports, and SAP data. Figure 3 shows the indexing and query process flows. Figure 3. Documentum maintains a full-text index of all text-based content assets stored within the Documentum repository. It accomplishes this through a set of plug-ins and APIs for querying and indexing functions A Detailed Review 11

12 Documentum search is exposed through Documentum Query Language (DQL) and either Documentum APIs or Content Services can be used to issue query statements. In addition to searching the text within the content assets, the full-text engine also searches all content attributes. So within a single query, the search engine analyzes content on two levels, the content assets and the content attributes, and returns a unified results list. As part of its query algorithms, the search engine analyzes and normalizes text, and identifies synonyms based on a thesaurus of related terms. The search engine stores and supports multiple languages within a single index, eliminating the need for multiple, language-specific indexes. It now supports more than 70 languages. Connecting to an underlying storage infrastructure The Documentum repository transparently connects with the underlying storage infrastructure, which consists of multiple disk drives and other types of mass storage devices. You can design the storage infrastructure according to the specific reliability, security, policy, cost, and operational needs of your organization. Documentum makes no distinction between content stored in different types of environments. It relies on the file system APIs to communicate with the file system interface of the underlying file store. Documentum supports any type of storage system, from a server s local hard drives and network-accessible RAID arrays to network-attached storage (NAS) or complex storage area networks (SAN), regardless of manufacturer. The storage system is transparent to the Documentum platform. For example, full-motion video files can reside on a high-performance streaming server while text-oriented files are hosted on a file server tuned to rapidly look up filenames. If, for operational, performance, or security reasons, an enterprise manages all of its content in a relational database management system (RDBMS), then the content assets can also be stored as binary large objects (BLOBs) adjacent to the attribute tables. Documentum also provides two storage-specific services that enable system designers to enhance content storage capabilities: Content Storage Services and Content Services for EMC Centera. Content Storage Services Content Storage Services add a storage policy engine to the Documentum repository that enables eventtriggered, ad hoc, and batch execution of storage allocation and migration policies. Storage administrators can define, manage, and update the content storage policies to store live or frequently updated content on one set of devices, and archived content on another. Content Storage Services include audit events and migration logs, which enable easy reporting and chargeback capabilities. Content Storage Services can connect to Write Once Read Many (WORM) drives using the retention file store connector. For example, when content is initially created it can be automatically stored in an online storage device. Frequently accessed content can remain within a high-performance storage environment, while rarely accessed content can migrate on a scheduled basis to a near-line, more economical storage environment. Valuable content that needs to be preserved for a predetermined period of time, such as the final versions of business documents, can be automatically stored in a highly secure storage environment. Transitory content, such as successive drafts of business documents or other work-in-progress items, can be securely stored and rapidly accessed as needed, and then routinely purged when the project ends. Content Services for EMC Centera Content Services for EMC Centera is the bridge between the Documentum repository and Centera, an EMC content-addressed storage (CAS) system that ensures fast, easy, online access with assured content authenticity and petabyte scalability. The enterprise content management capabilities of Documentum function seamlessly with the EMC Centera CAS architecture to deliver an extensible and scalable foundation layer for fixed content assets. By providing these valuable capabilities on the storage level, EMC Centera complements the software-level security and compliance Documentum provides for fixed content assets. A Detailed Review 12

13 EMC Centera provides a scalable, secure storage environment for cost-effective retention, protection, and disposition of fixed content including electronic records, archives, and scanned images within an enterprise environment. EMC Centera is optimized to store long-lived and archival content. Content Services for EMC Centera relies on the plug-in architecture of the Documentum platform. The content is stored directly within EMC Centera, which serves as a file store instead of a file system of the underlying operating system. The content objects contain Centera-issued claim checks that are stored as properties of the content objects in the Documentum repository. Offering single store capabilities, EMC Centera ensures there are no duplicate or redundant versions, which improves overall storage efficiency and performance. For non-centera storage environments, Documentum also has the ability to deduplicate content. High-Volume Server Through High-Volume Server, Documentum supports data-intensive, transactionally oriented, content management applications. These services enable rapid ingestion, efficient database storage, and reliable access to content. High-Volume Server enhances the online and offline ingestion of content and reduces the metadata footprint of the database within the repository. These services include lightweight system objects, together with data partitioning and batch processing capabilities that are added to the Documentum platform. Lightweight System Objects Documentum recognizes the commonality of metadata for content objects in high-volume, repeatable situations, such as transactional or archival applications. Documentum can optimize these content objects as Lightweight System Objects (LwSOs). An LwSO is a composite object, composed of a parent object and a series of child objects (as shown in Figure 4) is maintained by the parent object. The unique metadata is then maintained by each child object. The LwSO infrastructure enables normalization of metadata whenever a large set of objects share common attributes and policies. Storing the common metadata once (as part of the parent object) saves storage space and increases overall performance. A Detailed Review 13

14 Figure 4. Lightweight System Objects (LwSOs) separate unique, application-specific metadata from common system-specific metadata, creating a parent/child relationship. The system-specific metadata, which is identical across all the similar objects, is kept in a singe parent object. The numerous child objects contain only the attributes unique to the object. As a result, the LwSOs can be stored efficiently within the HVS LwSOs can be useful when there is content that can share common system and application attributes in a hierarchical or parent-child relationship. This type of object model can improve object ingestion, as well as reduce the database footprint. Consider the case of scanned check images. A bank may scan thousands of checks in a single day. If all of the checks scanned on a particular day could share common attributes, like bank name and bank routing number, and share a common retention policy, then LwSOs could be useful. Placing the common attributes on the parent object allow the Lightweight children to share the attributes while eliminating the need to store this redundant information in the database for each child object Data partitioning Data partitioning enables related objects to be placed in distinct database partitions (or ranges) when stored within the repository. This improves the management, search, and processing of content within the repository, by ensuring that the objects are managed in a highly efficient manner. Data partitioning lets you maintain huge amounts of data in slices, resulting in better performance and manageability. For instance, range partitioning provides performance (and cost savings) benefits that increase with the amount of old data that is kept. Highly active content is maintained in hot partitions, while less active data remains in the cold partitions. Hot partitions can be backed up more frequently than cold partitions. Thus, data partitioning can reduce the time and cost of database backups and other types of very large database maintenance activities. A Detailed Review 14

15 Batch processing Batch processing speeds ingestion by combining operations that interact with the database. Large volumes of content can be ingested at a very rapid rate by streamlining the object model and by supporting bulk operations on associated metadata. In particular, batch processing reduces the total overhead associated with inserting each object individually into the repository. Objects are grouped into a batch, and then inserted into the repository in a single operation. The greater the number of objects that need to be inserted, the greater the reduction in overhead achieved. Repository operations involve process checking and validation. Ingesting objects into the repository involves such checking and validation. When ingesting a large number of objects, this checking and validation can be performed for each object. Scoping makes it possible to eliminate the redundant checking associated with an operation when performing that operation on a large number of objects. Thus, batch processing is often used with the scoping feature to eliminate redundant processing associated with repository operations. Security services Documentum provides core content security by managing access to the underlying repository. Additional security can be added via Trusted Content Services and Information Rights Management Services. The core security services include: Authentication Authorization Auditing Each fulfills a unique function within an organization s security architecture. First, Documentum builds on the underlying enterprise-wide security infrastructure to authenticate access to the repository. Next, Documentum manages access control lists (ACLs) to authorize access to content stored within the repository. Any activity can be audited using flexible auditing tools, with an audit trail stored in the repository. Documentum can then encrypt all communications between the content server and other systems such as clients, web-based applications, and directory servers. Let us examine each in turn. Authentication Documentum relies, initially, on the authentication mechanisms of the underlying operating system or database, such as a username/password challenge, to manage access to the repository. Documentum supports token-based authentication for application-level access, ensuring that client applications have valid tokens to connect to the repository and gain access to the content. Documentum includes RSA Access Manager connections for single sign-on. The authentication mechanisms are extendable to include Kerberos validation and authentication plug-ins from CA Netegrity. Enterprise identity management Documentum is designed to integrate seamlessly within an enterprise-wide security architecture; where an enterprise directory service exists, Documentum relies on it for enterprise identity management. Documentum supports connections to multiple directory services and can be integrated with many popular directory servers, including Microsoft Active Directory, Sun ONE Directory Server, Oracle Internet A Detailed Review 15

16 Directory, IBM Tivoli Directory Server, and Novell edirectory. Documentum also supports the Microsoft Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) service. Documentum uses Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to synchronize user and group identities, ensuring user identities are managed as an enterprise-wide resource without adding extra administrative burden. Documentum includes support for LDAP certification database automation, which expedites administrative tasks for identity management. Authorization Once a user or application authenticates an identity, the person or program can access the stored content based on the privileges associated with that identity. The authorization rules (also called access controls or permissions) then determine what content can be accessed or modified. Documentum assigns authorization rules through access control lists (ACLs), which are automatically applied to all repository objects when the objects are created. The ACLs can be modified manually by users as well as automatically via lifecycle changes, through business processes, and through other applications. Documentum applies authorization at the object level that every content object, version, and rendition, as well as every container (ranging from folders to storage servers) and any other object (business process, policy, audit trail, and so on) is secured by an ACL throughout its lifecycle. Three criteria for ACLs Documentum authorizes access based on one of three criteria: Explicit assignment to an individual user Membership in a user group Assignment to a predefined role Individuals, groups, and roles can own a content object managed by Documentum. For example, when developing a press release, anybody with the role of PR Manager might be authorized to create a new press release, and any member of the PR Group can have privileges to edit it. The tasks can be shared and coordinated by managing role definitions across a workgroup so that managing a press release is no longer limited to a predefined named individual. Basic permissions Documentum provides seven levels of basic permissions, or access privileges: None: Content objects in the repository cannot be seen, reducing complexity by hiding content irrelevant to predefined users. It is also an effective way to screen sensitive documents or projects, and ensure that only those people and processes with proper privileges can find object references in the repository. Browse: Content attributes (or metadata) for content objects can be viewed, but the content assets cannot be opened and read. Read: Content assets can be opened and read, but not changed. Relate: A user can create relationships between a given content object and other objects within the repository. This permission is used by tools such as annotations where each annotation is a new object that relates to an existing content object. Version: A user can make changes to a content asset but cannot overwrite an existing version; changes are saved in a new version, which can include a modified file, modified metadata, or both. A Detailed Review 16

17 Write: A user can make changes to a content object (both the content asset and the associated metadata) and save those changes without creating a new version. This level of access control is usually restricted to the content owner. Delete: A user can delete a content object. This set of permissions is cumulative: Each level automatically grants all access rights of the levels below it. For example, a user with write privileges can also version, relate, read, and browse the contents. Delete is a special case, discussed next. There are additional advanced features regarding user authorizations that are described later in this paper. Object-level delete privileges The delete object permission grants deletion privileges while denying other levels of access; that is, a user or process can delete a content object without having permission to write, version, read, or relate. This capability enables a corporate archivist, librarian, or records manager to dispose off objects from the repository according to retention policies, without being able to access any aspects of its contents. Extended permissions Documentum supports multiple, extended permissions for managing the content objects within the repository, such as: Change location: A user can change the location of a content asset from one folder to another. By default, a user with browse permission or greater has change location privilege. Change permission: A user other than the content owner can change a content asset s standard permissions. Change owner: A user other than the content owner can change the owner of a content asset. This is important when content ownership is to be reassigned, and the original content owner is unavailable. Execute procedure: A user can execute an external procedure on content assets, such as creating a rendition. By default, a user with browse permission or greater inherits execute procedure privileges. Change state: A user can change a content asset s lifecycle state. Documentum controls access to the content objects as well as secures how they are organized and categorized in the repository. As a result, Documentum provides the core security services that determine what actions can be performed on a content object. Auditing Every operation performed by Documentum can be recorded in an auditable record. The audit trail can be fully configured in the Documentum administrator (where it can also be viewed) and is secured in the repository by strong encryption. The audit trail meets the rigorous requirements of the FDA 21 CFR Part 11 regulation, considered a benchmark for auditing. But the audit trail can go further into the scope and granularity of audited events, and can be used to trace possible security breaches and optimize system utilization. Each auditable record lists both the new and the previous values associated with an event (such as the time and username when a document is checked out of the repository), enabling quick determination of what has changed. End users and administrators can also view the history of documents and other objects stored in the repository, so that they can determine how and when the information changes. A Detailed Review 17

18 Encrypted communication All communications involving Content Server such as between Content Server and an application server, Content Server and Desktop clients, and Content Server and a directory server use SSL standard encryption to prevent security breaches by eavesdropping. Trusted Content Services Documentum adds Trusted Content Services to tackle application-specific security situations beyond the authentication and authorization mechanisms provided by the core security services of the content platform. Trusted Content Services include: Encrypted file stores: Repository content files can be encrypted to prevent system-level intrusion and to secure content files stored on backup media. The encryption can be done selectively per file store, so each repository can combine encrypted and unencrypted content. Digital shredding of deleted items: Shredding irrevocably destroys content at an operating system level by overwriting the data on the storage device. Documentum shreds content stored on both file systems and CAS devices. Support for electronic signatures: Users can sign electronic documents in a manner that meets established industry standards to verify the integrity of the signed document. In addition, Trusted Content Services can enrich the underlying security model and extend authorization mechanisms through Mandatory Access Control List (MACL). This mechanism provides an additional level of security before granting an authenticated user access to a content object. Specifically, MAC can: Enforce membership rules: Ensures that a user is a member of an externally defined group before verifying authorization privileges Enforce restriction rules: Restricts a user s access privileges to a specific level even if the ACL provides for a higher level of access Apply application-level access control: Augments an ACL with an application-specific security setting Information Rights Management Services Information Rights Management (IRM) Services extend the security and access controls on documents and other types of content beyond the boundaries content platform. IRM Services secure roving content that require persistent protection across the network and wherever the content is located and stored. IRM Services add an IRM policy server to the enterprise environment, as shown in Figure 5. This server establishes the policies by which documents, messages, or other types of objects can be opened, displayed, printed, and further distributed outside the repository. Before leaving the Documentum Content Server, the content together with the usage policy is secured via encryption. Only the encrypted file (containing the content) is transferred from the repository and is available outside the security perimeter. IRM Services support Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook), Adobe PostScript, HTML, RIM BlackBerry, and Lotus Notes applications, and can be customized to support other file formats. A Detailed Review 18

19 Figure 5. IRS Services add an IRM Policy Server to the enterprise information environment to secure the content that is no longer managed by Documentum Content Server IRM Services then control the process by which the content is decrypted and made accessible to recipients. An end user needs to obtain a key to decrypt the content by accessing a policy server over the network. This policy server verifies the user s identity through its own authentication mechanism. Once authenticated, the policy server provides the end user with a key to decrypt the content. Once decrypted, the user s use of the content is limited by the predefined usage policy. For example, there might be limits on the number of times the content can be viewed, whether recipients can print or copy the document into another file, whether recipients can forward the document to third parties, or other operational constraints. The application services group: Managing content as interrelated modules Focused on building solutions, Documentum includes a comprehensive suite of business-oriented applications that provide services for managing content. These services function as interrelated modules, meaning that one service calls another to obtain needed information or functionality. Documentum provides multiple application services in support of the composition of business solutions. These are grouped around three functional areas: Compliance Services, Core Content Services, and Process Services. Furthermore, they are formally registered and cataloged in the Enterprise Content Services Catalogs, where they are then made available as componentized web services to external applications. A Detailed Review 19

20 Compliance Services Compliance Services provide capabilities for retaining content and managing content as records. These are Retention Policy Services, Federated Records Services, and Records Manager, respectively. Retention Policy Services Retention Policy Services (RPS) specify and enforce the retention of objects in the Documentum repository by attaching one or more retention policies to those objects. The retained objects, or records, are immutable, that is, they cannot be changed or deleted for the duration of the retention policy. An additional hold capability retains documents according to ad hoc events such as an audit or litigation. By applying policies to containers (such as folders) or processes (such as workflows or lifecycles), document retention is enforced programmatically, with little to no human involvement. The policies and automation tools can also be used for content disposition (or permanent archiving, or destruction), ensuring that files are appropriately disposed and helping to limit content accumulation. RPS enhances the standard Documentum controls along three important dimensions: Notifications: Notifies owners or authorities based on trigger events, such as entry into, or completion of, a retention phase Auditing: Audits and records the before and after of metadata changes during a recordkeeping action Reporting: Provides report query engines with standard recordkeeping criteria and predefined recordkeeping reports Using RPS, organizations can meet compliance regulations, legal requirements, and best practices. RPS can be added independently to any supported Documentum environment. RPS is the retention engine powering the EMC Documentum Records Manager application. Virtual Content Management (VCM) With the introduction of Virtual Content Management (VCM), the EMC Documentum platform, which traditionally provides robust infrastructure for storing and managing any kind of enterprise content in a single repository, has extended that enterprise approach to managing content in any and all repositories within the enterprise. From a central EMC Documentum repository designated as the master repository, one can manage content in any repository through the use of proxy objects created within the master but referring to objects located in source repositories, throughout the enterprise. Objects in the source repositories are securely locked down to prevent change or deletion and are managed in place. Only relevant metadata is transferred to the master for management purposes. Federated Records Services Federated Records Services (FRS) is a product built on top of the VCM framework, which provides the foundation to connect disparate records repositories spread across an enterprise. With FRS, Documentum provides a centralized location for records management and raises the level of assurance that records are being managed in a consistent and systematic manner. Using the VCM framework, FRS allows for the connection to remote (or source) repositories (Documentum, external third-party repositories, file shares) to manage their content from the master Documentum repository without necessarily importing content into the master Documentum environment. FRS provides the ability to configure which sources are to be imported, processed, and managed by the A Detailed Review 20

21 master environment. Through VCM, FRS provides an adapter to any Documentum repository. Documentum partners provide support for adapters to third-party repositories and file shares. In addition, using the VCM framework, FRS provides the ability to create a proxy object within a Documentum repository that links to the main object stored in the external repository. FRS supports the application of retention policies, mark-ups, and disposition to these proxy objects that interacts with Documentum repositories and other third-party repositories. The capabilities of the adapters and the external repository determine the level of support/enforcement Records Manager EMC Documentum Records Manager extends core Documentum content management capabilities by adding features and functionality, such as corporate file plans, classification, and file-level and field-level security. The Records Manager architecture provides recordkeeping functionality as services that can be used for electronic and physical records alike, as shown in Figure 6. Like functionality is aggregated into discrete modules. By selecting the appropriate Records Manager modules, customers can deploy a records solution that meets their unique requirements. Customers can also add additional modules if and when their requirements change. Figure 6. The Documentum records management capabilities support electronic documents, , and paper-based documents as managed records. These capabilities leverage the complementary offerings of the overall Documentum platform Records Manager leverages Retention Policy Services and the capabilities of Documentum to provide records management capabilities in a modular fashion. The modules and their capabilities are described in Table 1. A Detailed Review 21

22 Table 1. Records Manager modules and features Records Manager module Containment policies File plan Naming policies Security policies Retention policies Supplemental markings / Shared markings Capabilities Controls the number of tiers within the folder or file plan hierarchy and the actions that are permitted within each tier, such as a check-in or records declaration. Containment policies also allow or block recordkeeping governance by document type and limit the number of a record s classifications, which is architecturally equivalent to the number of links associated with an object. Provides a permanent, systemwide classification schema for records, defining record naming, organization, and descriptive metadata, specified and managed by a records administrator. A document is overtly declared as a record by storing it in a location managed by the file plan, and classified using metadata specified by the file plan. Retention is defined by the classification. Configures the naming conventions for records and the file plan by controlling what attributes are used, what date format is enforced, whether human entries get validated, how names are dynamically generated, and more. Extends existing Documentum security by adding document-level permissions that are discrete rather than cumulative. For example, the capability to grant browse capabilities to a certain user, group, or role for a specific document type such as invoices. Determines the length of time a document, folder, or cabinet is retained, based on operational, legal, regulatory, fiscal or internal requirements. For the duration of its applied retention policy, the managed object cannot be deleted, nor can it be revised in any way, although a new version of the object may be checked in. Extends access controls by adding permissions based on participation in a designated group, and restricting permissions to users who are members of all designated groups. Core Content Services The Core Content Services provide the fundamental capabilities for accessing and storing repository content. These include library services, workflow services, lifecycle services, XML services, Federated Search Services, Content Transformation Services, Content Intelligence Services, and Content Delivery Services. Library services Library services manage content in three key ways: Check-in/check-out (or locking): Capabilities ensure users with editing privileges do not overwrite one another s versions or make incompatible updates. For example, when one person is editing a document, another person cannot overwrite their edits. A Detailed Review 22

23 Versioning: Capabilities track the multiple versions of documents or other content objects, and provide the ability to revert to prior versions as required. For example, the repository can maintain multiple versions of a set of web pages, and revert to a version from a prior date when needed. Basic renditioning: Capabilities maintain alternative representations of documents or other content objects in their different formats, resolutions, or natural languages. Documentum can automatically generate renditions through Transformation Services and maintain the relationship between the original object and its renditions, ensuring the object s integrity and enabling users to manage renditions individually or collectively. For example, content initially authored as a Microsoft Word document can be rendered as a fixed formatted Adobe Acrobat PDF file, or an HTML formatted web page with associated embedded image files. Documentum includes a comprehensive suite of library services, in addition to the three mentioned above. Documentum s suite of library services, in turn, rely on an extensive set of security services to determine how users or applications are authenticated and authorized to access repository content. Workflow services Documentum workflow automates business activities and policies for repository content. A workflow is defined by a model, the sequence of steps that comprise the process, and the actions that must occur at each step. A workflow can describe a simple or complex process; it can be serial, with activities occurring one after another, or parallel, with all activities occurring simultaneously; and it can combine serial and parallel activities. Because an object s workflow state is defined by a set of content attributes attached to the object, it travels with the object. For example, a press release workflow might require an approval process involving five people and seven serial steps. Documentum persistently manages the state of multiple instances of each workflow, often hundreds or thousands of instances, by storing workflow objects in the Documentum repository. Similarly, workflow templates (definitions) are stored as repository objects so various services, such as security, versioning, and retention, can be applied. Lifecycle services Documentum defines, maps, and implements flexible content lifecycle rules according to the business policies established by the enterprise. Like workflow, an object s lifecycle state is defined by a set of content attributes attached to the object, so it also travels with the object. But instead of being defined by a flexible workflow model, lifecycle services are defined by a set of business policies or business rules. While a workflow routes a document among various users and automatic tasks, lifecycles define the business rules for changes that apply to content as it moves through predefined stages (such as draft, in review, active, and obsolete ). As you might expect, unlike workflow, each content object has only a single lifecycle. Lifecycle services automate the lifecycle policies of repository content. These services assign a lifecycle stage to the content object, and then manage the object s transition from one stage to another. An organization can extend the lifecycle stages to encompass its own operating policies (see Figure 7). A Detailed Review 23

24 Figure 7. Lifecycle services assign a lifecycle stage to a content object and then manage the object's transition from one stage to another. Lifecycle services are a powerful content management capability. Policies instigating changes in access control, logical and physical location, retention rules, labeling, naming, versioning, renditioning, and workflow and business processes can be mapped to the lifecycle stages. Different object types can have different lifecycle definitions. For example, consider the lifecycles for press releases and patent applications: When a company develops a press release, any member of the corporate communications department may edit it prior to approval. Only marketing managers and product managers responsible for products mentioned in the press release may read the drafts. Once the press release is approved, all senior managers in the company can read it, but only the director of corporate communications can change it. When the final version is published on the company s website, all prior (or draft) versions are automatically deleted from the repository after 30 days. These access policies are distinct from a workflow that routes the press release to the company managers who have to approve it before it can be promoted to the final stage. A Detailed Review 24

25 When a company creates a patent application, only designated researchers and staff attorneys can edit the content, while research directors and the corporate counsel can read it. Once the application is finalized and submitted to an external patent authority, other company researchers and managers can then read the application. All drafts of the application are automatically archived for seven years. The submitted version is automatically classified as a record and submitted to the company archives for perpetual storage in a secure storage environment. XML services Documentum provides XML services for managing XML documents in their native format within the Documentum repository. The XML services are provided through two complementary features: XML Applications and XML Store. Documentum also provides XML Transformation services, as discussed next in Content Transformation Services. XML Applications The XML Applications feature in the Content Server directly stores XML-tagged content and manages the content within the Documentum repository. Content Server preserves the hierarchical structure and links among XML components and documents. It provides the ability to automatically parse, validate, transform, map, and store incoming XML documents. It also supports several features that are essential for managing XML documents in their native format: XML content validation, automatic attribute population (extraction of metadata values out of XML element and attribute values), XML link management, and XML componentization (automatic bursting/chunking of larger documents into reusable components). XML content validation XML content validation ensures that the XML elements within an XML document are well formed and conform to a predefined definition. Documentum can validate XML documents at any time, including during ingestion into the repository. An XML document can be validated against a Document Type Definition (DTD) or an XML schema. The validation process ensures that the components, attributes, structure, types, and values correspond to the specified format. In addition, Documentum can also manage the DTDs and schemas as Documentum repository objects that can be versioned, secured, or retained as records. Automatic attribute population Documentum can automatically extract values from the elements and attributes of an XML document, and use those values to populate object metadata. This allows the XML documents to be searched via DQL and to trigger workflow, lifecycle, and policy events. Documentum also supports two-way attribute population where updates in metadata can be reflected in the XML content stored in the repository. Link management XML links can be modeled to allow Documentum to maintain relationships between XML components and other content. The platform automatically imports associated content or images that are linked to new XML content, and updates links when an XML document is checked back into the repository after an editing session. This enables people and applications to determine where a particular XML component is referenced, or find all the content objects that it references. For example, before modifying a product description, a product manager might want to see all of the other documents to which this description is linked. A Detailed Review 25

26 XML componentization XML documents can easily be broken into granular components (commonly called chunks ) for manageability of content at various levels of granularity. The componentization can be configured to define what types of objects to create, where to store them, what metadata to populate, and the level within a document at which the componentization should occur (for example, all chapter elements become objects). The hierarchical relationship between components is modeled within the repository as a virtual document. For example, a data sheet could be broken into separate components, such as a short product description, one or more feature sets, images with associated captions, and a summary. Each component can then be managed separately as a discrete content object, with its own security levels, versioning, lifecycle, and content attributes, as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8. XML components are managed as discrete objects, just like any other content object in the Documentum repository Chunking is often used to facilitate content reuse. A predefined set of content components can be combined and rendered in different contexts to meet various business situations. For instance, a set of news-related headlines can be displayed as a news summary, while each headline can be paired with the relevant newsrelated paragraphs to produce a press release. Content fragments within documents can also be accessed by XQuery for reuse and other purposes, without chunking them into separate objects. However, chunking remains as a valuable feature for granular management of XML components; for example, to apply different security levels, or to route the components through different approval processes. A Detailed Review 26

27 XML Store and XQuery Documentum XML Store integrates xdb, EMC s native XML database, into Documentum Content Server. XML Store adds standards-based XQuery to the proven XML capabilities of Documentum Content Server, allowing users to efficiently and accurately query content at any level of detail (for example, individual elements, attributes, content objects, or Documentum metadata attributes), even on very large information sets. XML Store complements the other content stores in the Documentum repository, including the RDBMS for metadata, the file system, and full-text indexes. As an integral part of the Documentum repository, content in the XML store is subject to the same security, policies, and management as all other content objects. XML Store complements and enhances XML applications. Compared to XML applications on their own, XML Store reduces the effort required to store and manage XML, while improving the searchability and ease of retrieval of XML content, especially when an application needs to retrieve fragments of XML documents instead of the entire documents themselves. Without XML Store, users commonly configure their XML applications to extract content values from XML documents in order to populate the Content Server metadata store. This step was needed to enable more structured searches (for example, searches based on tag and attribute values instead of full-text). With XML Store, the document tags and attributes can be searched directly using XQuery, so less work is required to configure XML applications and less processing is required at document load time to parse and extract metadata values. In addition, without XML Store the entire document found by a search needs to be retrieved into the calling application. Operations such as extracting fragments, joining data from multiple documents, transforming from one XML tag set to another, and sorting and grouping would then have to be performed in subsequent steps. With XML Store, XQuery can perform all these operations on the fly, even composing entirely new documents from the results of a search. XQuery is also a W3C standard, which means that XML processing applications do not need to rely on a proprietary query language. This openness and portability allows greater leverage of your investments and reduces training and maintenance costs. XQuery XQuery is a standard query language for querying collections of XML data. It is comparable to SQL for relational databases, but designed to handle the hierarchical and often irregular structures found in XML. XQuery provides the query capabilities to: Select elements/attributes from XML documents Extract data from elements/attributes Evaluate expressions on the data Join the data across multiple documents Order the results in any desired sequence Compose new XML elements/attributes from the query results A number of powerful content operations are made possible with XQuery, including: Combined content, metadata, and full-text searches: XQuery can be combined with DQL and fulltext searches. For example, it s simple to find documents containing the phrase safety warning in any text element, with a part number element that matches and a metadata value of last updated within the past year. A Detailed Review 27

28 Advanced content analysis: XQuery enables better analysis of content, as well as the relationships between content. For example, Where-Used reports today simply list the files that link to an object, such as an image or an anchor point in a document. With XQuery, reports can be built that show the actual elements (for example, paragraphs) within those files that contain the links Flexible linking and reuse: Links and inclusions (for example, DITA conref, XInclude) can be resolved to specific elements within a target without needing to prechunk the content. Applications no longer have to retrieve and parse the entire target document to resolve the link. XQuery can directly extract the linked content Dynamic content composition: Content at any level of detail (for example, individual elements, attributes, content objects, or Documentum metadata attributes) can be retrieved in a query and used to compose entirely new sets of information for applications like personalized content delivery and content analysis Applications use a DFC interface to invoke XQuery access to the content in XML Store. Federated Search Services Documentum includes technologies and services to integrate, access, and query content beyond the information stored within a Documentum repository. Federated Search Services (formally Enterprise Content Integration (ECI)) use technology that leverages a framework of adapters for various internal and external repositories. Federated search is useful when interacting with information stored in third-party (non-documentum) repositories and external websites. Documentum relies on federated search for cross-repository searches as well as to query and retrieve content from external information sources, including: FileNet, Open Text, Microsoft SharePoint, IBM Lotus Notes, and content stores from other vendors SAP, Oracle, and other enterprise application vendors Lexis/Nexis and Factiva infobases and other dynamic web-based content environments Static intranets accessed by third-party search environments such as the Autonomy search engine and the Google enterprise search appliance Desktop search engines provided by Google and any online search engine such as Google, Yahoo, and Voila Federated Search Services use an adapter framework and a query-brokering environment to enable these federated search capabilities (see Figure 9). Each information source gets a unique adapter that maps the content-related metadata defined within external information source into a schema supported by the Documentum platform. A Detailed Review 28

29 Figure 9. Federated Search Services are based on an adapter framework to enable federated search capabilities Federated Search Services function through a two-step process. First, the query broker maps a query into a format supported by an external information source and then submits the query to the source. Then the query processor receives the requested information from the external source, extracts the metadata, filters the response, and returns the results. Users can simultaneously submit a single query to multiple information sources via any client (including a browser-based mobile client), receive the results from the multiple query processors interacting with the external sources, and merge the results into a single set based on predefined criteria (such as relevance or date published). Content Transformation Services Documentum provides a framework and a suite of Content Transformation Services (CTS) for changing various kinds of content, such as documents, photos, video, and medical images, into different formats and resolutions. The CTS framework provides common administration, configuration and customizations of the various transformations. Content Transformation Services (see Figure 10) are built as self-contained modules for accomplishing specific tasks. Some of the modules include: Document Transformation Services (DTS): Supports document transformations, such as rendering MS Office documents as PDF and HTML files. DTS runs as a separate server-side process without requiring user authentication. The transformation can be triggered by users from the user interface or automatically by a business process or lifecycle stage change. A Detailed Review 29