Broadcaster's Requirements

From a central server, which contains the master repository, this organization needed to distribute content to Regional Servers (Figure1-Stage1) and then from each Regional Server selectively out to Regional Satellites. In total five Regional Servers distributing to one hundred Regional Satellites. They gave RepliWeb a white paper of criteria for the project and asked us to offer a solution.

The key issues the client had were:

Automatic Operation - The process should run as a service and should be resilient with the reconnection of dropped network connections automatically retried until restored.
Accuracy of Transfer - Needs to guarantee that all data is copied accurately with attributes and file rights maintained. The software employed must make use of a satisfactory verification process.
Security of Transfer - The data distribution process needs to be capable of transferring data whilst maintaining file security.
Selective Data Transfer - The various IT regions will have differing requirements for the data to be copied. Differing versions of software and regional information will be applicable to some areas but not to others. Consequently it is envisaged that the data copied from the central hub to one regional server may vary substantially compared to another regional server. The software that is selected must be capable of replicating a selection of directories.
Controlled Rate of Transfer -The rate of transfer needs to be controlled such that net available bandwidth consumed by data transfer does not impact upon the requirements of business in the course of usual traffic. Remote Management of the Distribution Process - The benefits of this are that it will not be necessary for administrators to physically attend to the distribution hub server.

The Challenge for RepliWeb To set up, run and manage a distribution network over a wide area network with reliability and security being of paramount importance.

The Solution

RepliWeb's Deployment Suite (RDS) met this challenge, offering:

Automatic Operation
RDS operates as a service on the network, configurable to run on a predefined schedule or on the existence of trigger files.

Accuracy of Transfer
RDS enables guaranteed replication even down to the NTFS permissions on a directory or file.

Security of Transfer
RDS offers a robust security model, which enables not only the encryption of data transferred but also the creation of virtual users so as to maintain a secure internal infrastructure.

Selective Data Transfer
RDS is configurable to either replicate specific files/folders or an entire directory excluding certain files/folders.

Controlled Rate of Transfer RDS's bandwidth control offers either absolute limits or percentile limits on the available bandwidth to any given job.

Remote management RDS offers full management of the distribution process from anywhere on the network, from tracking individual files to email notification of job completion.

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