ownCloud Infinite Scale is our new generation file sharing and content collaboration platform. The all-new ownCloud, built on microservices and the Go programming language, is now officially available as a tech preview for evaluation and feedback. As part of this, we are sharing our transition strategy towards ownCloud Infinite Scale.
State-of-the-art scalability, performance and connectivity
The point of ownCloud Infinite Scale is to transform organizations into efficient sovereign workspaces that scale. Written in Go and Vue.js, it leverages state-of-the-art backend and frontend technology. Through its cloud-native microservice architecture and native data storage, it delivers unlimited scalability, upmost performance and connectivity with virtually any third-party service, as well as structural security improvements. But how do you get there?
Your upgrade to ownCloud Infinite Scale should be a process, not a sudden event. That is why we have prepared the components carefully – and in some cases released them already in stealth mode as part of our transition strategy. For example, the current Desktop Client, iOS App and Android App already support ownCloud Infinite Scale and make use of its advantages. This means your client installations are future-proof and not subject to disruptive change.
Already available: Next generation UI and Security
When running ownCloud 10.6, the latest version of the classic ownCloud, you can actually already use some components of ownCloud Infinite Scale: The new ownCloud Web frontend can be installed as a Marketplace App with some minor preparations. It is way faster than the legacy frontend, doing a lot of things in a blip without having to reload. Additionally, it greatly improves accessibility. And like a good file manager, it transcends into the background so as not to distract users from their actual work. It is also ready to be integrated with extensions and services.
A transition strategy for authentication
ownCloud 10.6 comes bundled with the OpenID Connect App. Support for OpenID Connect means that users can be authenticed, and clients authorized, against an external Identity Provider (IdP) like Keycloak, Ping Federate, ADFS, Azure AD, Kopano Konnect and others. It supports non-web clients, too, and provides a great single sign-on experience. With it, devices can be managed centrally, and access tokens can, for example, automatically expire when devices leave a wifi network. OpenID Connect is a prerequisite for migration to ownCloud Infinite Scale. For organizations that don’t already use an Identity Provider, ownCloud Infinite Scale comes with Kopano Konnect.
Both components, OpenID Connect and ownCloud Web, serve to make ownCloud 10 more modular and secure by disentangling vital services from the core that relies on PHP.
A bridge into the future
With the Tech Preview of ownCloud Infinite Scale available and ownCloud 10.6 released, both can be deployed together in a bridge mode. For now, this is meant for greenfield evaluations – see the documentation – and to start writing extensions. A bit further down the road, the bridge mode it will allow for gradual migrations of adventurous users. To make all of this more seamless, the ownCloud clients and other components are already compatible with ownCloud Infinite Scale.
Increasing adaptibility through extensions
ownCloud Infinite Scale excels in transferring many files fast, particularly large ones, but it also shines as a data hub for other software. We’re working on integrating a bunch of additional services – think productivity suites like ONLYOFFICE and Collabora, CRMs like Crust and groupware suites like Kopano.
As part of our transition strategy, we are in close contact with the developers of those leading open-source players to integrate their products with ownCloud Infinite Scale. Also, we work on integrating ownCloud Infinite Scale seamlessly into other exciting platforms. All integrations exist independent of the core and can be activated to work with ownCloud Infinite Scale as soon as they are available. This enables admins to add new features without having to wait for a new core release.
Outlook
The new ownCloud file platform, now available as Tech Preview, needs to be further hardened, improved, bugfixed and fully documented before public availability. To make ownCloud Infinite Scale even smarter and more productive, in 2021 we’ll be focusing on laying the foundations for a workflow engine with first applications around user notifications and auditing.
With its scale, performance and integrations, ownCloud Infinite Scale will further broaden the scope of the sovereign workspace. So organizations can leverage the benefits of new work while staying in control of their data.
