Scalability and deployment options

A business can either build its own hosting operation, or outsource it. Basic collocation premises provide a secure location, extensible space, redundant high capacity networking, and a guaranteed power supply. Managed server farms extend this concept by providing the server hardware, operating systems and databases. They will make backups and monitor and repair the servers if necessary. Content management operations extend this concept still further by providing a higher level intrastructure in which a network application operates. However, the more technology is outsourced, the more the application or content is forced into conventional modes of operation, as supported by the farm operators. If a business wishes to venture further ``out of the box'' it must take on more of the responsibility for managing (and purchasing) its own systems. Either way, considerable up-front expenditure is required even for minimal capacity sites: skilled staff, equipment, and infrastructure.

Jtrix tries to extend the ``box'' into a versatile storage system, which allows the ``box'' to change shape and size as required.