Technical Proposition Enterprise Scalability
ADAM Software
Why Read thistechnical Brief? Anyone who has shopped in a large discount store, a food supermarket, or a warehouse club store has first-hand experience with scalability. These kinds of retail establishments may have 20 to 30 check-out lanes. During slow shopping periods, most of these lanes won t be open. During busier shopping periods, however, the retailer can staff as many check-out lanes as are needed to keep customer waiting times at acceptable levels. At the most basic level, scalability refers to the ability of a system (an information technology system, a business model, or a check-out system at Wal-Mart) to handle increasing demands while maintaining an acceptable level of performance. Scalability is critical for enterprise-level marketing software because it is one of the key attributes that enables a software solution to meet an enterprise s marketing needs as they grow and change over time. To a great extent, the lifespan of a marketing software solution is determined by the scalability of the solution. Read this Technical Brief to learn: º What scalability means in the context of enterprise marketing software. º Why scalability is a critical characteristic of enterprise marketing software. º How the marketing software platform provided by ADAM Software enables robust scalability. iii
Contents º What is Scalability? Scalability is an essential requirement of any enterprise-level, information architecture. - see page 1 º Why Scalability Matters Enterprise needs can grow rapidly; your software needs to be able to do the same with minimum financial expense and investment of time and effort. - see page 3 º How is ADAM Software s Technology Scalable? ADAM is the most adaptable media and marketing platform on the market. A modular approach ensures rapid scalability for a huge range of marketing needs. - see page 5
What is Scalability? Scalability is an essential requirement of any enterprise-level, information architecture. Enterprise-class marketing software can be defined as software that (a) is suitable for organizations with large and complex marketing operations that require significant technological support, and (b) provides integrated support for a significant number of mission-critical marketing functions. Information technology professionals generally agree that enterprise-class IT systems exhibit several attributes, including scalability, configurability, interoperability, availability, reliability, security, and extensibility. While all of these attributes are important for enterprise-class marketing software, we contend that scalability is an essential attribute because it enables a software system to satisfy a company s current requirements and adapt to meet the organization s future needs. The textbook definition of scalability is the ability of an IT system to maintain a specified level of performance as the workload on the system increases. So, in essence, scalability is what enables a technology system to meet growing demands without sacrificing performance. The workload on an IT system can grow for a variety of reasons, including: º An increase in the number of individuals who access and use the system º An increase in the number of operations or requests the system processes º An increase in the complexity of the operations the system processes Organizations scale IT systems by increasing the power of the hardware components of the system. However, software also plays a critical role in providing scalability. For a system to be scalable, the software must be designed and built with an architecture that can fully utilize increasing levels of hardware processing power. 1
What is Scalability? continued A software application is scalable if it enables an organization to use multiple hardware servers to run the application. IT professionals refer to this as horizontal scalability, and it requires the ability to divide an application s functionality into multiple logical components. Horizontal scalability provides a huge amount of flexibility because it allows an organization to add hardware processing capacity in relatively small increments using inexpensive hardware components. For a system to be scalable, the software must be designed and built with an architecture that can fully utilize increasing levels of hardware processing power. 2
Why Scalability Matters Enterprise needs can grow rapidly; your software needs to be able to do the same with minimum financial expense and investment of time and effort. The acquisition of enterprise-level marketing software represents a major investment for any large organization. In addition to the direct financial costs, you and your staff will make a significant investment of time and effort to install and configure the software, populate the software with marketing assets, and train users. To avoid frequent software replacements (or the need to acquire and implement duplicate solutions), your software must have the flexibility to meet your company s future needs. Scalability is one of the attributes that enables a software system to accommodate growing enterprise needs. Therefore, scalability mitigates the risks associated with acquiring and implementing enterprise-level software and protects your investment in that software. Scalability is particularly critical for enterprise marketing software because of the inherent unpredictability of future marketing needs. The tactics and types of media used in marketing are multiplying rapidly, and the rapid change is likely to continue. For example, there is a growing need to use more rich media such as high-quality videos. The creation, manipulation, and distribution of complex multimedia marketing assets will certainly place additional demands on marketing software, but it is often difficult (if not impossible) to predict accurately how quickly these increased demands will grow or how intense they will become. Scalability gives you the flexibility to meet these unpredictable demands as they appear and grow. 3
Why Scalability Matters continued Scalability is also what provides you the flexibility to launch a new application on a limited basis and expand the reach of the application as your needs dictate. For example, if you re a large consumer products company, having scalable marketing software would enable you to implement the software for one of your brands or product lines and then roll out the application for all of your brands on your schedule. Likewise, if you are a global financial services company, having scalable marketing software would enable you to implement the software in your company headquarters in London and then roll out that application to your marketing personnel around the world at your pace. In both of these cases, you could be confident that the performance of the software application could be maintained despite the increased workload. Scalability gives you the flexibility to meet unpredictable demands as they appear and grow. 4
How is ADAM Software s Technology Scalable? ADAM is the most adaptable media and marketing platform on the market. A modular approach ensures rapid scalability for a huge range of marketing needs. The marketing technology developed by ADAM Software (the ADAM platform) has been designed and built from the ground up to meet the demanding needs of enterprise marketers, particularly those in global enterprises. The ADAM platform uses a modular approach to provide fully-integrated support for a broad range of mission-critical marketing functions, including: º Digital asset management º Digital asset production º Business process management/workflow automation º Product information management º Automated catalog production º Marketing materials customization/localization The modular design of the ADAM platform lays the foundation for scalability by enabling enterprise marketers to select and deploy the specific combination of business functionality required to meet current needs and add functionality as their needs change. The open architecture of the ADAM platform also supports scalability by enabling enterprises to easily integrate the platform with other software solutions. 5
The scalability of the ADAM platform means that an enterprise can add computing power and reconfigure the platform as its needs dictate. How is ADAM Software s Technology Scalable? continued In addition to its modular design and open architecture, the ADAM platform provides robust technical scalability. It is built using a software architecture that can fully leverage multiple increases in computer processing power. The ADAM platform can be hosted and run on a wide variety of hardware configurations. This enables an enterprise to design and configure a marketing technology ecosystem that will meet its specific needs. More importantly, the scalability of the ADAM platform means that an enterprise can add computing power and reconfigure the platform as its needs dictate. To illustrate the scalability of the ADAM platform, we ll describe just a few of the configuration options. All-in-One The most compact configuration of the ADAM platform is to run all components of the platform (the ADAM engine, file server, database, webservers, and application studios) on one computer server. The all-in-one configuration can be appropriate in several circumstances: º During a pilot implementation of the ADAM platform º When the initial implementation will involve a relatively small number of users º When the initial implementation will not include all components of the ADAM platform 6
First-Level Scaling How is ADAM Software s Technology Scalable? continued The first level of scaling is usually achieved by separating the file server and the database from the balance of the ADAM platform components. As the diagram below shows, this configuration uses three hardware servers. First-Level Scaling: Figure 1 File Server IIS Indexing, Ordering & Maintenance Database Distributed Installation The ADAM platform achieves maximum horizontal scalability by leveraging a distributed installation configuration. In a distributed installation, the logical functionality of the ADAM platform is spread across multiple servers to distribute workload and network traffic. One version of a distributed installation is shown in the diagram on the next page. 7
How is ADAM Software s Technology Scalable? continued The figure below (figure 2) illustrates the use of several scalability options: º A load balancer is used to manage front-end network traffic. º The configuration uses multiple servers for the webservers and the application studios. º A separate server is used to run the file server function. º The ADAM database is run on a separate SQL server or on clustered SQL servers. Distributed Installation: Figure 2 IIS Load Balanced SQL Server or SQL Cluster Indexing Web Users IIS Ordering Custom Studios FTP / File Server Maintenance The individual components of the ADAM engine (indexing, ordering, and maintenance) are each hosted and run on a separate server. Even the example illustrated above does not capture the full range of horizontal scalability options offered by the ADAM platform. For example, the individual components of the ADAM engine (indexing, ordering, and maintenance) can each be run on multiple servers and be load balanced, which means that multiple jobs can be executed concurrently. 8
Multiple Download Locations How is ADAM Software s Technology Scalable? continued Another scalability option for the ADAM platform is geography-based with the creation of multiple download locations. The ADAM platform can be configured to support satellite locations. An ADAM satellite serves as a local file cache for files in ADAM, making response times much faster and reducing network traffic significantly. For remote users this is especially interesting if they are working in areas with slower internet connections or high latency. A satellite s cache can even be filled proactively, to further improve response times and efficiency for the remote user. With ADAM satellites in place, a user requesting a file is redirected to the download location that is nearest to him, whether this is the main ADAM server or one of the registered satellites. This redirection can be done using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), guiding the user to the right satellite based on his location. Alternatively, the user can select the location for downloading himself. Multiple Download Locations: Figure 4 9
ADAM Software Technical Propositions Other ADAM Software technical and business propositions that you might find interesting are available on the ADAM Software website: www.adamsoftware.net Contact ADAM Software ADAM Software Kortrijksesteenweg 1108a BE-9051 Gent Belgium Phone: +32 9 381 63 36 Fax: +32 9 381 63 46 ADAM Software US Inc 3 Colombus Circle FL 15 New York, NY 10019 United States Phone: +1 212 520 1028 Email: info@adamsoftware.net Web: www.adamsoftware.net About ADAM Software ADAM Software makes marketing easier. From content creation to great customer experience, our technology simplifies and improves every aspect of the marketing cycle. 10