Deployment options for Alterian Content Manager
Alterian has a number of Alterian Content manager (ACM) clients operating production services in virtualized server Cloud environments.
Cloud Computing in the context of ACM is a means of providing server resources that can be utilized for typical ACM environments to run on. Broadly speaking there are two types of Cloud Solution available today that relate to ACM:
- An environment where a set of virtual servers can be provisioned on demand from a cloud service and each server will behave in the same manner as a dedicated server on which the client can place their existing applications.
Amazon's Elastic Cloud 2 is an example of such a service, as is
Verizon's Computing as a Service (CaaS) platform.
- A virtual application platform where a set of resources are available for users to develop applications using a proprietary API in a cloud environment. These applications can then be provisioned in a low-cost, scalable on-demand manner; it is assumed that the application is provisioned as a set of identical units each with the same role. Microsoft's Azure platform is such a solution.
We'll explain the possible options for ACM in more detail in the next sections.
Amazon EC2
EC2 is a subset of Amazon Web Services (AWS) which provides an on-demand virtual server environment that allows rapid installation and low-cost support of the typical server architectures used by Alterian Content Manager clients.
To run ACM on Amazon EC2 a suitable number of virtual servers would be created using the Amazon Portal. Alterian would then assist a client in configuring these servers in the same manner as for a 'terrestrial' installation.
For enhanced security clients might choose to provision separate EC2 subnets for content management servers and web delivery servers.
Alterian has multilple customers running ACM in this type of configuration, with dedicated staging and live servers all running on EC2.
Verizon Caas
CaaS is similar in many respects to EC2, the key difference being the extended operating system and application support that can be offered by Verizon Business.
The diagram is a Portal view of the servers in the CaaS production environment at Verizon for a typical Alterian client. The diagram shows a set of 7 Windows application and database servers in a trusted subnet as well as two Linux proxy/caching servers and an SMTP server in a DMZ subnet.
Further servers could be added to this server farm using the CaaS portal.
Microsoft Azure
In close collaboration with Microsoft staff Alterian have successfully set up Alterian Content Manager on the Microsoft Azure cloud. We plan to offer our Social Media Engagement Solution on Azure in the near future and to subsequently expand that to deploy full ACM installations.
Alterian Professional Services Involvement
Clearly the key relationship lies between the client and their chosen Cloud service provider, but Alterian can assist in the management of the client's servers in the Cloud domain if required. The Cloud service portals can be complex to understand and control and if clients do not have particular skills in this area then Alterian Professional Services can assist here as part of the normal installation, configuration and management of the Alterian Content Manager product.
Download our ACM and Cloud Computing data sheet for more detailed information.