|
Having built and operated an ISP business, futureLAB knows what is needed to run one. If you need a low cost, highly featured ISP platform, you should know what futureLAB can do for you.
We call the ISP platform Arteria, but it's only a part of what we do. In addition to the platform, futureLAB also provides integration with Legacy IT systems, customer migration, and staff training!
The Arteria system is an LDAP-based ISP platform. It is designed to provide a wide range of services to customers with high reliability at a very low cost. It is based on open-source software and modular, mainstream hardware.
Following are Arteria's key Features
Very High Reliability
All system components are fully redundant, ensuring the highest possible reliability. There is no single point of failure in the entire system.
Low Cost
Three factors ensure very low overall costs for the Arteria platform
- Initial investment expenses are minimized because most of the hardware components like the servers and network switches are inexpensive.
- Almost all software components are free, open source packages, so there are no recurring or per-user fees.
- The system is engineered for a high degree of automation and fault tolerance, which keeps the operation expenses low.
Modular Design
Every server provides exactly one service and there are multiple servers per service. Load balancers group sets of physical servers with the same function into one virtual server to which the user, external and internal system connect. New applications can be introduced at any time with minimal effort by adding servers with new functionality to the system.
Very High Performance
As a result of the modular design, the system components which provide the end-user applications operate independently from one another, so there are no central "bottlenecks" which limit the performance of other systems.
Because there are no complex dependencies between services, it is possible to scale the available processing power by simply increasing the number of server units for a particular service or application.
Scalability
The size of a virtual server can be adjusted dynamically to reflect changing requirements. For example, if users migrate from POP to IMAP email over time, the number of servers in the POP server group can be decreased and those servers can be reconfigured as IMAP servers.
If a particular service is becoming more popular than expected, the additional load can be handled by adding new machines to the server group.
Linux Operating System
The servers run a customised version of the Linux operating system. Linux allows optimal configuration and precise tuning to the specific needs of this environment. It has proved to be an efficient and reliable platform for providing Internet services.
Multi-Master Replicating LDAP Directory
The central repository for all user information is a standards-based LDAP directory.
LDAP is the standard of storing and accessing directory information in a typical Internet environment. The use of this technology provides a clean, open interface for the integration of third-party systems.
The particular version used is an enhanced version of OpenLDAP. It is able to perform multi-way instead of just simple master-slave replications, i.e. write access is possible on more than one server so there is no single point of failure or potential bottleneck for this critical component.
Open Source Software
The entire system is based on open source software, which provides these benefits:
- The software packages are of exceptionally high quality and reliability because they are engineered by a world-wide team of developers and tested and used by millions of customers at some of the largest ISPs
- They can be tailored and customized to specific needs, like close integration with the central LDAP directory
- They are secure because the development community usually provides a solution to newly discovered security problems within hours or days instead of weeks or months like closed-source vendors
- In general, there are no license fees
- Full Source code and documentation for all software components which are developed specifically for a particular Arteria implementation by futureLAB AG is delivered to the customer together with the system.
Central Storage/Online Backup
All data is kept on large clustered NFS file servers.
In addition to the inherent redundancy, the NFS servers are mirrored to an offsite location. This allows almost immediate restoration of lost data on the primary NFS servers.
Supplier Independence
All software components are delivered with full source code and documentation, so there are no dependencies on the supplier of the system. Maintenance and enhancements can be done in-house or contracted out to any software engineering company.
You can download the Arteria Brochure in PDF format. It provides an introduction to the concepts and features of the platform.
|
