With a new, contemporary three-tier architecture and cloud-native technologies such as microservices, ownCloud Infinite Scale is programmed future-proof in Go and Vue.js and shines with significantly more efficient use of resources and high operating speed. ownCloud Infinite Scale also benefits from the new approach in terms of administrator and user-friendliness, while always remaining API-compatible with its predecessor versions.
Developed at CERN and with the science community
Infinite Scale was developed by ownCloud together with the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN and the CS3 community (Cloud Storage Sync and Share Services). Numerous well-known organizations have already decided to implement the software and use it, among other things, as data management platform for the digital workplace – open source, digitally sovereign and legally compliant with the requirements of the GDPR and the European legal area.
“With Infinite Scale, we are lifting the technology of the ownCloud platform into the cloud age while ensuring data sovereignty – true to our tradition,” Tobias Gerlinger, CEO at ownCloud in Nuremberg, explains. “Organizations can run Infinite Scale either in their own data center or with an IT service provider of their choice, giving them the best of both worlds: the straightforward availability we know from popular US cloud services, but also the digital sovereignty of a private cloud.”
New stack for enterprise requirements – without database
The new technology stack enables straightforward, fast and flexible rollouts and virtually unlimited scaling. Small local installations can be easily expanded into large, geographically distributed, multinational environments, and separate data silos can be integrated into one tool. The architecture is designed to avoid complexity and software-based dependencies – for example, all metadata resides directly with the files. Infinite Scale does not require a database at all. This accounts for the lion’s share of the performance gain and allows administrators to concentrate on storage. Enterprise functions such as event management, integration of single sign-on via Open ID Connect (OIDC) and rapid deployment via containers in private, hybrid or public clouds simplify everyday administration.
New web client, new concepts: Spaces revolutionize teams
Users benefit from a completely redesigned web client and new concepts such as “Spaces” for intra-group collaboration. Spaces provide teams, projects or school classes with self-contained file spaces that also exist completely independently of individuals.
Organizations can designate team leaders, project managers or teachers as Space managers, who then have the ability to set up and manage file spaces via self-service with just a few clicks, including allocating storage quota as well as adding and excluding members. Spaces thus also make administrators’ day-to-day work easier by enabling employees to organize teams, groups and resources themselves.
Office 365 and Libre Office in the web client
In Infinite Scale, documents within the web client can be edited natively with Microsoft Office (Microsoft Office Online and Office 365) – an important step towards lossless, fast and compatible document processing. Users also have access to OnlyOffice and Collabora Office (for LibreOffice files, for example). This is made possible by the built-in Web Application Open Platform Interface (WOPI) for collaborative editing of Office documents.
The new web client also benefits from a whole range of new features: navigation is now even clearer and more concise, typical workflows have been further simplified by the developers, and accessibility has been significantly improved.
Additional clients are available for desktop and mobile, and the target user group ranges from school children to professional and accomplished experts.
Have a look at Infinite Scale in action here.