METALOGIX REPLICATOR FOR SHAREPOINT: Supporting Government and Military Missions Worldwide Contents Introduction...2 Coalition and extranet collaboration... 3 Deploying military units... 4 Fob-rob collaboration...4 sharepoint coop (continuity of operations)...5 Afloat collaboration...6 about metalogix replicator...7 about metalogix...7 Copyright 2012 Metalogix International GmbH. All rights reserved. Metalogix is a trademark of Metalogix International GmbH. StoragePoint is a registered trademark of BlueThread Technologies, Inc. Microsoft, Exchange Server, Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and SQL Server are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Introduction Metalogix has been developing and offering replication software for SharePoint since the inception of SharePoint 2003. Beginning in 1999, Metalogix had developed a replication solution for the OpenText Livelink platform which was adapted to support the SharePoint platform in 2003. Over the past seven years, Metalogix has developed a great reputation in the marketplace, with customers, partners and with Microsoft. As a company, Metalogix has enjoyed a steady and stable growth path. Metalogix s product has evolved due in large part to the input and requirements of Department of Defense and Fortune 100 customers worldwide. Metalogix s commercial business for replication has been strong over the years as well. On the commercial side, Metalogix can count as customers numerous Fortune 100 firms, large financial institutions, major energy companies, and numerous commercial maritime and cruise lines. Within the US government, customers of Metalogix s Replicator solutions for SharePoint include: US Air Force Central Command US Army Logistics Innovation Agency US Army INSCOM US Army Sustainment Command US Navy APAN US Department of the Interior US Department of State US Special Operations Command National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) Intelligence Agencies The following scenarios illustrate the most common military use cases for Metalogix s replicator solution for SharePoint. Coalition and Extranet Collaboration Deploying Military Units FOB-ROB Collaboration SharePoint COOP Afloat Collaboration 2
Coalition and extranet collaboration Now more than ever coalition military forces must have the ability to work together, collaborate and share information in a real-time and secure manner. This need for information sharing is further extend to include NGOs, civilian agencies, and Aid organizations as they work alongside military entities to provide quick and effective responses to natural disasters around the world. Metalogix's Replicator is uniquely positioned to facilitate scenarios such as this through our ability to support granular, selective and rules based SharePoint replication. Replicator offers features such as this along with "firewalled mode" which allows for important SharePoint content to be shared with the appropriate external entity without jeopardizing security. It is important that cross-firewall replication still maintain strong security. For that reason, IT managers should be able to selectively replicate specific content and be able to configure bi-directional replication through a firewall, not just uni-directional replication. Many products offer content replication, few offer bi-directional replication through a firewall. Connect for Replicator offers enhanced management, monitoring and audit features so that documents can be tracked (and deleted if necessary) as they traverse a multi-tiered SharePoint environment. Selective replication provides the ability to decide what specific content is replicated and what is not, based on attributes including Published or Confidential parameters to even further reduce bandwidth requirements or provide logical separation of data. If managers want only selected content replicated, they can define it according to specific metadata and document attributes. Conversely, if managers want to have the entire web application replicated, including the presentation layer, they can make the external user experience virtually identical to the user experience at the main farm. 3
metalogix.com W H I T E PA P E R deploying military units SharePoint has been embraced and in use in tactical environments for some years now. In some cases military personnel first learned SharePoint in theater and brought that knowledge back "home" insisting on using SharePoint to solve key collaborative needs (in garrison) when their units are not deployed. Once back home, what happens to the tactical SharePoint environment and knowledge it contains if the server sits in a warehouse until the next deployment? Wouldn't it be great if a unit could take a copy of their garrison based SharePoint environment with them when they deploy, plug it in to the network once in theater and automatically synch that forward deployed server with the one back home? True lifecycle knowledge management can be achieved in this scenario which enables the unit to "Train how they fight and fight like they train" by collaborating in the same way, using the same tools in all phases of deployment. Metalogix's Replicator for SharePoint offers a unique and powerful solution to address this 'portability' scenario, allowing an organization to pack-up or take a copy of their SharePoint environment with them as they deploy, store it on a piece of media if necessary, and deploy it or install it on separate hardware in theater. Changes to each SharePoint environment can be saved then synched up post deployment. As with the FOB-ROB (forward operating base/rear operationg base) scenario, two live environments can be kept in synch real-time or periodically using Replicator. Fob-rob collaboration In today's dynamic global environment, military and civilian government organizations must be positioned to handle an increased deployment tempo to support military and disaster response scenarios. A key challenge is ensuring that "forward deployed" entities can effectively collaborate, communicate and share mission information with personnel at the headquarters location back home. Having distinctly separate 'islands' of SharePoint collaboration is simply unacceptable and represents a risk to their mission. Metalogix's Replicator for SharePoint offers a unique and powerful solution to address scenarios such as this by enabling organizations to replicate SharePoint content between and among geographically dispersed locations in far flung and bandwidth challenged parts of the world. Users benefit by having the same robust SharePoint experience regardless of their location. Commanders and government executives alike require a common operating picture and real-time visibility into what is going on across their organization. 4
Remote and forward deployed locations share a number of operational challenges, including: Long user wait-times Outdated content Slow network bandwidth and latency issues Placing SharePoint servers in geographically distributed locations improves performance for local users, and provides up-to-date content in the event of a network disruption. SharePoint coop (continuity of operations) As use of SharePoint has grown exponentially over the past six years across the US Military and Civilian Agencies, SharePoint has become increasingly mission critical. Many of these organizations have struggled to understand how best to ensure user access to that critical content during and after a crisis or outage. At the same time, users in these organizations require 'always on' SharePoint while IT seeks to conduct periodic perform maintenance on their environment without disrupting end user access. SharePoint is a unique application platform which requires a unique approach toward addressing Continuity of Operations requirements (COOP). Metalogix's Replicator product provides an unique solution for COOP by offering a true "Active-Active" solution whereby multiple geo-dispersed instances of SharePoint containing common content are kept in synch in real-time. The dual benefit of this approach means that the COOP site for HQ could potentially be located at the HQ's largest secondary office location. Users at the second location can use their local farm to ensure rapid local access, while also addressing COOP between the two locations. Active-Active real-time replication of content provides inherent redundancy that protects against data loss and corruption. Every time content is changed on any of the local servers, this content should be replicated to a contingency server. If a main server fails, you can substitute the contingency server, and operations continue uninterrupted. When the main server has been repaired or replaced, content can be replicated back to the main server, which can then be placed back into service. 5
Because agency operations move so quickly, it is critical that disaster recovery operations move equally quickly, to ensure that operations do not suffer, and that there is no impact on the underlying mission. Every minute that a local server or mission critical application is offline has a very real effect on the mission. Agencies interested in backup plans and disaster recovery solutions will be very interested in the active-active approach. Should the central server become unavailable for any reason, real-time replication provides identical content. Since the other servers have the most current versions of content, an organization can continue business virtually unimpeded. An active-active network topology contains at least two copies of mission-critical data. All files are synchronized so that if any server fails, users are routed to a surviving server. This strategy allows you to use disaster recovery resources live, during everyday business operations, proving daily that the strategy works, and that enterprise content is available when and where it is needed. Metalogix is the only vendor that can provide real-time "application level" replication in SharePoint. This means that we can deliver 'always on' SharePoint whereby both farms are 'active-active' and able to support users on either or both sites with no downtime. You can perform maintenance on one Farm and 'cache' changes which will synch up the other side once maintenance is complete. Additionally, Metalogix allows you to replicate between different versions of SharePoint which facilitates ongoing operations during service pack installations. Afloat collaboration Collaborating in afloat operating environments pose some unique challenges challenges that Metalogix solutions have successfully helped key global organizations across many industries to overcome. Collaboration amongst and across afloat Navy and coalition environments poses similar challenges as those experienced on the commercial maritime side. Afloat military environments have the same bandwidth and latency challenges as commercial maritime, but they must also securely collaborate between ships and across coalition boundaries. A one size fits all or broadcast approach simply does not work in these environments. Metalogix s Replicator for SharePoint offers a unique and powerful solution to address afloat scenarios, allowing ships to collaborate on SharePoint content with headquarters, among ships, and across coalition boundaries. Replicator makes complex replication architectures possible, including tiered replication, point to point replication, and many to many replication. Metalogix s rule-based and granular replication capabilities allow organizations to selectively replicate content where it needs to be shared, while allowing each entity the flexibility to be masters of their own environment. And, the clever use of byte differencing technology enables organizations to overcome even the most challenged bandwidth environments. 6
about metalogix replicator Metalogix Replicator for SharePoint is an enterprise SharePoint replication solution that supports NRT, crossdomain, document-level synchronization of any network of Distributed SharePoint farms. Replicator installs and is managed in the same way that SharePoint is installed and managed. Replicator detects changes in the SharePoint environment as they occur and batches these changes into replication packages. Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is employed by Replicator as the highly-reliable, re-startable transport for downloading replication packages over fast, slow and unreliable network connections. BITS is the same content downloading technology used by Microsoft s Windows Update service. Replicator optionally uses Remote Differential Compression (RDC) as well as 3rd party hardware or software network compression solutions to make efficient use of the WAN bandwidth. about Metalogix Metalogix is the trusted provider of innovative content lifecycle management solutions for Microsoft SharePoint, Exchange and Cloud platforms. We deliver high-performance solutions to scale and cost-effectively manage, move, store, archive and protect enterprise content. Metalogix provides global support to thousands of customers and strategic partners and is a Microsoft Gold Partner, a managed partner in Microsoft s High Potential ISV Group and GSA provider. Metalogix is a privately held company backed by Insight Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. For more information, please visit: www.metalogix.com Metalogix 5335 Wisconsin Ave NW, Suite 510, Washington DC 20015 sales@metalogix.com www.metalogix.com 1.877.450.8667 7