Enterprise Scalability

Technical Proposition 

Enterprise Scalability

ADAM Software Technical Proposition: 

Enterprise Scalability 

ADAM Software NV 

The global provider of media workflow 

and marketing technology software 

ADAM Software NV adamsoftware.net info@adamsoftware.net



Why Read this 

Technical Proposition? 

Anyone who has shopped in a large discount store, a food supermarket, or a warehouse club store 

has first-hand experience with scalability. These kinds of retail establishments may have 20 to 30 

“check-out” lanes. During “slow” shopping periods, most of these lanes won’t be open. During 

busier shopping periods, however, the retailer can staff as many check-out lanes as are needed to 

keep customer waiting times at acceptable levels. 

At the most basic level, scalability refers to the ability of a system (an information technology 

system, a business model, or a check-out system at Wal-Mart) to handle increasing demands while 

maintaining an acceptable level of performance. Scalability is critical for enterprise-level marketing 

software because it is one of the key attributes that enables a software solution to meet an 

enterprise’s marketing needs as they grow and change over time. To a great extent, the “lifespan” of 

a marketing software solution is determined by the scalability of the solution. 

ADAM Software NV adamsoftware.net info@adamsoftware.net iii



Read this Technical Proposition to learn: 

º What scalability means in the context of enterprise marketing software. 

º Why scalability is a critical characteristic of enterprise marketing software. 

º How the marketing software platform provided by ADAM Software enables 

robust scalability. 

ADAM Software NV adamsoftware.net info@adamsoftware.net iv



Contents 

What is Scalability? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 

Scalability is an essential requirement of any enterprise-level, information architecture. 

Why Scalability Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 

Enterprise needs can grow rapidly; your software needs to be able to do the same with 

minimum financial expense and investment of time and effort. 

How is ADAM Software’s Technology Scalable? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 

ADAM is the most adaptable media and marketing platform on the market. A modular 

approach ensures rapid scalability for a huge range of marketing needs. 

ADAM Software NV adamsoftware.net info@adamsoftware.net



What is Scalability? 

Scalability is an essential requirement of any enterprise-level, information architecture. 

Enterprise-class marketing software can be defined as software that (a) is suitable for organizations 

with large and complex marketing operations that require significant technological support, and 

(b) provides integrated support for a significant number of mission-critical marketing functions. 

Information technology professionals generally agree that enterprise-class IT systems exhibit 

several attributes, including scalability, configurability, interoperability, availability, reliability, 

security, and extensibility. While all of these attributes are important for enterprise-class marketing 

software, we contend that scalability is an essential attribute because it enables a software system 

to satisfy a company’s current requirements and adapt to meet the organization’s future needs. 

The “textbook” definition of scalability is the ability of an IT system to maintain a specified level of 

performance as the workload on the system increases. So, in essence, scalability is what enables a 

technology system to meet growing demands without sacrificing performance. 

The workload on an IT system can grow for a variety of reasons, including: 

º An increase in the number of individuals who access and use the system 

º An increase in the number of operations or “requests” the system processes 

º An increase in the complexity of the operations the system processes 

Organizations “scale” IT systems by increasing the power of the hardware components of the 

system. However, software also plays a critical role in providing scalability. For a system to be 

scalable, the software must be designed and built with an architecture that can fully utilize 

increasing levels of hardware processing power. 

ADAM Software NV adamsoftware.net info@adamsoftware.net 1



What is Scalability? Continued 

A software application is scalable if it enables an organization to use multiple hardware servers 

to run the application. IT professionals refer to this as horizontal scalability, and it requires the 

ability to divide an application’s functionality into multiple logical components. Horizontal 

scalability provides a huge amount of flexibility because it allows an organization to add hardware 

processing capacity in relatively small increments using inexpensive hardware components. 

“For a system to be scalable, the software must be 

designed and built with an architecture that can fully 

utilize increasing levels of hardware processing power. ” 




Why Scalability Matters 

Enterprise needs can grow rapidly; your software needs to be able to do the same with minimum 

financial expense and investment of time and effort. 

The acquisition of enterprise-level marketing software represents a major investment for any large 

organization. In addition to the direct financial costs, you and your staff will make a significant 

investment of time and effort to install and configure the software, populate the software with 

marketing assets, and train users. To avoid frequent software replacements (or the need to 

acquire and implement duplicate solutions), your software must have the flexibility to meet your 

company’s future needs. 

Scalability is one of the attributes that enables a software system to accommodate growing 

enterprise needs. Therefore, scalability mitigates the risks associated with acquiring and 

implementing enterprise-level software and protects your investment in that software. 

Scalability is particularly critical for enterprise marketing software because of the inherent 

unpredictability of future marketing needs. The tactics and types of media used in marketing are 

multiplying rapidly, and the rapid change is likely to continue. For example, there is a growing 

need to use more “rich” media such as high-quality videos. 

The creation, manipulation, and distribution of complex multimedia marketing assets will certainly 

place additional demands on marketing software, but it is often difficult (if not impossible) to 

predict accurately how quickly these increased demands will grow or how intense they will 

become. Scalability gives you the flexibility to meet these unpredictable demands as they appear 

and grow. 




Why Scalability Matters Continued 

Scalability is also what provides you the flexibility to launch a new application on a limited 

basis and expand the reach of the application as your needs dictate. For example, if you’re a 

large consumer products company, having scalable marketing software would enable you to 

implement the software for one of your brands or product lines and then roll out the application 

for all of your brands on your schedule. 

“Scalability gives you the flexibility to meet 

unpredictable demands as they appear and grow.” 

Likewise, if you are a global financial services company, having scalable marketing software 

would enable you to implement the software in your company headquarters in London and then 

roll out that application to your marketing personnel around the world at your pace. In both of 

these cases, you could be confident that the performance of the software application could be 

maintained despite the increased workload. 




How is ADAM Software’s 

Technology Scalable? 

ADAM is the most adaptable media and marketing platform on the market. A modular approach 

ensures rapid scalability for a huge range of marketing needs. 

The marketing technology developed by ADAM Software (the ADAM platform) has been designed 

and built from the ground up to meet the demanding needs of enterprise marketers, particularly 

those in global enterprises. 

The ADAM platform uses a modular approach to provide fully-integrated support for a broad 

range of mission-critical marketing functions, including: 

º Digital asset management 

º Digital asset production 

º Business process management/workflow automation 

º Product information management 

º Automated catalog production 

º Marketing materials customization/localization 

The modular design of the ADAM platform lays the foundation for scalability by enabling 

enterprise marketers to select and deploy the specific combination of business functionality 

required to meet current needs and add functionality as their needs change. 

The open architecture of the ADAM platform also supports scalability by enabling enterprises to 

easily integrate the platform with other software solutions. 




How is ADAM Software’s Technology Scalable? Continued 

In addition to its modular design and open architecture, the ADAM platform provides robust 

technical scalability. It is built using a software architecture that can fully leverage multiple 

increases in computer processing power. 

The ADAM platform can be hosted and run on a wide variety of hardware configurations. This 

enables an enterprise to design and configure a marketing technology ecosystem that will meet 

its specific needs. More importantly, the scalability of the ADAM platform means that an enterprise 

can add computing power and reconfigure the platform as its needs dictate. To illustrate the 

scalability of the ADAM platform, we’ll describe just a few of the configuration options. 

All-in-One 

“The scalability of the ADAM platform means that 

an enterprise can add computing power and reconfigure 

the platform as its needs dictate.” 

The most compact configuration of the ADAM platform is to run all components of the platform 

(the ADAM engine, file server, database, webservers, and application studios) on one computer 

server. The all-in-one configuration can be appropriate in several circumstances: 

º During a “pilot” implementation of the ADAM platform 

º When the initial implementation will involve a relatively small number of users 

º When the initial implementation will not include all components of the ADAM platform 





First-Level Scaling 

The first level of scaling is usually achieved by separating the file server and the database from the 

balance of the ADAM platform components. As the diagram below shows, this configuration uses 

three hardware servers. 

First-Level Scaling: Figure 1 

IIS 

Indexing, Ordering 

& Maintenance 

Distributed Installation 

The ADAM platform achieves maximum horizontal scalability by leveraging a distributed 

installation configuration. In a distributed installation, the logical functionality of the ADAM 

platform is spread across multiple servers to distribute workload and network traffic. One version 

of a distributed installation is shown in the diagram on the next page. 

The following figure (figure 2) illustrates the use of several scalability options: 

º A load balancer is used to manage “front-end” network traffic. 

º The configuration uses multiple servers for the webservers and the application studios. 

º A separate server is used to run the file server function. 

File 

Server 

Database 

º The ADAM database is run on a separate SQL server or on clustered SQL servers. 





Distributed Installation: Figure 2 

Web Users 

The individual components of the ADAM engine (indexing, ordering, and maintenance) are each 

hosted and run on a separate server. 

FTP / File Server 

Even the example illustrated above does not capture the full range of horizontal scalability options 

offered by the ADAM platform. For example, the individual components of the ADAM engine 

(indexing, ordering, and maintenance) can each be run on multiple servers and be load balanced, 

which means that multiple jobs can be executed concurrently. 

IIS 

Load Balanced 

IIS 

Custom Studios 

SQL Server or 

SQL Cluster 

Indexing 

Maintenance 

Ordering 





Fully Synchronized Remote Locations 

Geographical considerations can also play a significant role in scalability needs. For example, 

a global enterprise headquartered in Paris may also have major marketing operations in Los 

Angeles and Hong Kong. In this circumstance, it may be advantageous to replicate the enterprise’s 

marketing technology environment in each location. 

The ADAM platform provides this capability by enabling fully synchronized remote locations, as 

illustrated below. With this configuration, every remote location that produces assets has its own 

local ADAM environment (engine, database, file server, and application studios). 

A rule-based replication mechanism pushes every new record and file from the remote location to 

the “headquarters” server. When necessary, this replication can be bi-directional. This configuration 

enables users to obtain files from a local file server, so long as the version on the local server 

is identical to the version in the headquarters file server. If not, the file is provided from the 

headquarters file server. 

Fully Synchronized Remote Locations: Figure 3 

World Wide Web 

Web Users 

FTP or 

Download delivery 

IIS 

Headquarters Remote Location 

HQ User 

Webserver Database 

File Server 

Database 

Remote User 

File Server 

ADAM Software NV adamsoftware.net info@adamsoftware.net 9 

IIS 

Webserver




Satellite Locations 

If fully synchronized remote locations are not necessary, the ADAM platform can be configured 

to support satellite locations. A satellite location works on its own ADAM file server, but connects 

with a central ADAM database. 

The file repositories themselves are not synchronized or replicated, which means that all files 

remain on the server in the location where they were ingested. Asset records, however, are 

replicated to the central ADAM database. Users always access the central database, which contains 

records for the assets created throughout the enterprise. When a user requests a download of a 

file, it will be delivered from the location where it was created. 

Remote Satellite Locations: Figure 4 

Users 

Web 

Europe 

Asia 

USA 

IIS 

Ordering 

Ordering 

Database 

File 

Server 

File 

Server 

File 

Server 





Multiple Download Locations 

The third “geography-based” scalability option provided by the ADAM platform is the creation 

of multiple download locations. This configuration is implemented by using the Microsoft 

Distributed File System to replicate the ADAM file server to servers in multiple geographic 

locations. With this configuration, the delivery of files is redirected to the file server nearest the 

location of the user requesting the file. 

Multiple Download Locations: Figure 5 

User 

HQ 

Satellite 

IIS 

Records are 

replicated to central 

ADAM database 

Indexing 

Database 

File Server 

File Server 

Files are 

indexed using 

UNC path 




ADAM Software 

Technical Proposition 

Contact 

ADAM Software 

Kortrijksesteenweg 1108A 

9051 Gent 

Belgium 

P: +32 9 381 63 36 

F: +32 9 381 63 46 

Email: info@adamsoftware.net 

Web: adamsoftware.net 

About ADAM Software 

ADAM Software is a global provider of media workflow and marketing technology 

software. We offer enterprises the ability to manage, structure and deliver media 

between people, processes and systems. Working with our partners enables us to 

implement our software globally while providing workflow solutions to all types 

of enterprises. What drives us is a passion to organize media intelligently, making it 

easier and more accessible to everyone. 

ADAM Software US Inc 

1515 Broadway 

New York, NY 10036 

United States 

P: +1 212 520 1028

Enterprise Scalability

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