Platform Infrastructure

Last updated: 26 March 2022

1.1 OVERVIEW

An overview of the Connec2 Platform infrastructure is depicted below.

1.2 DETAILS

The Connec2 Platform is a cloud native platform based on Kubernetes. This makes it possible to host the
Connec2 Platform at different hosting providers (hosting agnostic), but also as a (local) private cloud. Currently,
the Connec2 Platform will be hosted at the following hosting providers:

  • TransIP (www.transip.nl) (ISO 27001:2013 certified)
    • Amsterdam, Netherlands (currently)
  • Hetzner (www.hetzner.com) in Falkenstein (ISO 27001:2013 certified)
    • Falkenstein, Germany (currently, but only for trial)

On request, it is possible to host the Connec2 Platform at different hosting providers, regions, and availability
zones, but this introduces extra cost. Currently, multiple Kubernetes clusters are running at the hosting
providers above. All the communication within the Kubernetes cluster is secure.

1.2.1 Firewall
The firewall blocks all incoming connections, except the incoming connections as defined in the Connec2
Platform Guide: https://connec2.nl/docs/admin-dns-whitelisting/.

1.2.2 Gateway
Level 7 application gateway that provides capabilities for dynamic routing, monitoring, resiliency, and security.
The application gateway routes the HTTP requests to the corresponding micro services.

1.2.3 Micro Service
The micro service architecture consists of multiple micro services:

  • Identity Management
    • User management and authorization
  • Mail Support
    • Send mail to users
  • Tenant Support
    • Tenant administration and configuration
  • Key Value Store
    • Content Management
  • Extended Reality
    • Low latency exchange of events (i.e. virtual world coordinates, voice) between clients

1.2.4 XR Service
The XR (Extended Reality: Augmented + Virtual Reality) micro service differs from the other micro services. The
XR traffic will be directly communicated to the XR service without gateway and transmitted with low latency
between the clients. The XR service consist of multiple XR containers per tenant / workspace and channels
(component, voice, screenshare). The multi load balancer dynamic routes the connections to the XR container
and balances the load on the cluster.

1.2.5 NoSQL Database
Document oriented NoSQL database. Databases are isolated per tenant / workspace.

By default, the Connec2 Platform will be hosted as multi-tenant.

On request, it is possible to host as single tenant, but this introduces extra cost.

1.2.6 Message Bus
Message Bus is a messaging infrastructure to allow the micro services to communicate through a shared set of
interfaces.

1.2.7 SMTP Server
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server is responsible for sending emails. The SMTP server of Connec2 is
hosted at TransIP.