Brian Browning | Senior Director of Client Services.

Enterprise Architecture and Ektron

Brian Browning | Senior Director of Client Services

Agenda• Examples of Successful Enterprise Sites on Ektron• Hosting Infrastructure for the Enterprise

– Hosting Models• Tiered Models• Role of e-Sync• Geographically Dispersed Hosting

– Tips for Scaling and Performance– Strategy for Deployment

• Requirements Gathering• Infrastructure Planning• Implementation• Testing

• Integration– Core Ektron Application Architecture– System of Record Definitions– Ektron APIs

• Question / Answer Session

Examples of Ektron Enterprise Sites

AMC Theaters uses Ektron to handle the traffic of 75,099,651 page views per month www.amcentertainment.com


Citigroup uses Ektron to handle the traffic of 44,357,941 page views per month www.citicards.com


Walmart uses Ektron to handle the traffic of 17,256,067 page views per monthhttp://instoresnow.walmart.com


Mitsubishi supports 112 corporate and dealer siteswww.mitsubishi-motors-europe.com


Saint-Gobain supports their multiple international businesses with 88 siteswww.saint-gobain.com


Rice University supports 50 school sites www.rice.edu

Hosting Infrastructure for the Enterprise

• Hosting Models– Single Server

• Virtual Stage / Production

– 2 Tier • Development / Production

– 3 Tier • Development / Staging / Production

– Hybrid Models • Ektron’s Architecture is Flexible enough to cover

almost any hybrid model• 4 Tier, 5 Tier, 6+ Tiers

– Multiple Site Models


• Authoring Environment Definition– Flexibility abounds when it comes to

deciding where to author content in the Enterprise

– Display Servers versus Authoring Servers

–Most Enterprise Customers choose to author within a Staging or Authoring-specific environment before pushing to Production


• A Closer Look at e-Sync– e-Sync migrates:

• Content stored in the SQL Server database• File system assets (ASPX Templates, Search Indexes, Uploaded

Assets, DMS)

– Each can be moved independently based on custom e-Sync Profiles

– e-Sync can be configured to push content and related assets:• Automatically• On a Scheduled Basis

– e-Sync is also Bi-Directional, so authoring can occur in multiple environments and be synchronized throughout the entire hosting environment

– Multiple databases can be used to improve performance or to handle multi-site configurations









• Tips for Scaling and Performance– Importance of Caching

• Control Level• Page Level• Server Level

– Content Delivery Networks• Offload bandwidth intensive content to CDNs to improve

performance– Streaming Media, Large File System Assets

• CDNs also deliver content based on geographical location and can dramatically improve perceived performance

Strategies for Deployment

• Requirements Gathering– Current Activity Analysis• Based on current site traffic reviews

– Estimation of Production Load Levels• Get Business Stakeholder Buy-In

– Fail-Over / Redundancy Planning• Hot Environment• Cold Environment

– Ektron Licensing Compliance


• Infrastructure Planning– Procurement / Critical Path Identification– Associated Hardware• Load Balancing Hardware• Any Associated Switches, Routers, etc.

– Software Needed• ETL• Migration Tools• Performance Monitoring

– Development of Custom e-Sync Plan


• Implementation– Build-out of Environments– Implementation of e-Sync throughout– Testing• Security Scanners (Acunetix)• Performance Testing Tools (LoadRunner)


• Testing– Performance and Load Testing– Review Architecture of the Source Code

• Define Performance Standards for Source Code as part of the Discovery Phase

• Focus On:– Reducing calls to the web server– Simplifying Javascript and CSS– Leveraging Caching

• Continuously monitor over time• Anticipate periods of Peak Performance

– Driven by Marketing or Business Needs

Integration with Ektron

• Integration– System of Record Definitions

• Importance for Data Integrity

– ETL Approaches• Extract Data from Source System• Transform to Match Ektron’s Table Structure• Load into Ektron

– Be careful about Customizing Ektron DB Structure• Avoid Problems with Future Upgrades• Leverage Ektron API at all times!


• APIs are the heart of integration with Ektron

• APIs protect custom functionality in the event of future upgrades

• Ektron APIs Include:– Ektron.cms.

framework– Ektron.cms.API

Ektron Architecture


• Ektron Application Layer


• Ektron Data Access Layer

• Provider Models– Analytics – Personalization– Membership– Mapping

• Extensions


• Integration with Third-Party Systems and Applications– Integration is often the most complex

part of an Enterprise Ektron build– Integration typically drives the most

business value– Each implementation of a

third-party system or tool is unique

Question / Answer Session

Thanks for attending today!

For more information, please contact:

Brian BrowningSenior Director of Client [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Brian Browning | Senior Director of Client Services.

Documents

production slide

perceived performance

esync esync

custom esync profiles

ektron hosting infrastructure

enterprise hosting models

models role of e

scheduled basis esync