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In order to help customers technically assess the hosted platform offered by blueyonder workwise, the following technical information has been compiled.
The blueyonder workwise hosted Exchange platform delivers significantly more than just the Microsoft licences. It is offered on a “one-to-many” basis, meaning that from the one platform we deliver the service to many customers. The platform is specified for the most demanding corporate environment and offers exceptional levels of availability as standard.
Included in the monthly cost of the service customers receive the following components:
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• Clustered Exchange platform
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server Licence
• Exchange Enterprise 2000 licence
• Outlook 2002 / XP licence
• Antigen anti-virus licence
• Computer Associates anti-virus licence
• Consultation
• Web interface for orders
• Support of activation. |
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Windows 2000 Clustering
2 identical nodes running local version of Windows 2000 and cluster services, this creates a virtual Windows 2000 machine.
Shared storage (Compaq SAN) for virtual machine (stores Quorum data for cluster and also application data) – RAID storage.
Clustered applications (e.g. Exchange, SQL server create virtual instances of themselves, making use of shared storage).
In the event of hardware failure in one node, fails over to the other node – inbuilt resilience. Known as Active / Passive clustering.
Load balancing
Present outside world with a virtual IP address (VIP) to which DNS name points. The intelligent switch has 2 servers it can use when it receives service requests on that VIP and shares the load between those servers (also known as nodes).
Port filters are applied to those VIPs for security purposes – only allows web traffic.
Security
Firewalls, fail over clustered pair. Intelligent Switch, uses port filtering/virtual servers to separate the private and public networks.
Windows 2000 Active Directory and Kerboros username / password encryption.
SSL, most main sites (provisioning, OWA) are used for encryption.
1024 bit encryption – legally the highest
bit encryption allowed.
Server architecture
Currently there are over 35 servers in the blueyonder workwise platform. They host a mixture of software applications including;
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• Microsoft Windows 2000 P2, base operating system used throughout the platform
• Microsoft Active Directory which provides the domain structure
• Microsoft IIS v5 for web hosting/Outlook Web Access (OWA)
• Microsoft Exchange 2000 in a tiered architecture, front end (SMTP and OWA) and backend (for Exchange IS (Information Store)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000, the database engine used throughout
• Sybari Antigen for virus protection, runs on the Exchange backend and looks through the Exchange IS. |
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Availability
Levels of server availability are often key to choosing a hosting partner for your software. Reliability and availability are crucial measures, but should be used in the context of the current internal service. How available is your current service?
blueyonder workwise measures historical levels of service availability which to date have averaged in excess of 99% per month, this equates to over 665 trouble free hours of service a month.
From time to time it is inevitable that the system needs to be upgraded and modified. Much of this can be carried out without affecting the service. When service interruptions are necessary, where possible we try and schedule these at very low usage times so as to affect the fewest number of customers (eg: Sunday evening) in such cases all customers receive notification at least 7 days in advance.
Locations
The blueyonder workwise hosted Exchange platform is hosted at Telehouse in London with a mirrored platform in Fareham. Customer Data is stored in both locations.
Future developments
The development of the blueyonder workwise platform to include the deployment of Microsoft Mobile Information Server (MIS) which will allow users to access their Exchange accounts via WAP browsers and PDAs running Pocket PC. |
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