Opening the Vault doors

Altium Vaults form the heart of Altiums smart data management technologies. They are a new product from Altium designed to run in conjunction with Altium Designer to provide a complete electronics data release management system for organizations of any size. Implemented as server-based software applications, running in the cloud or on your LAN, they store and manage electronic design data.

Summary
This document looks at the differences in hosting and access control for the three Altium Vault deployment options.

Vaults bridge the design world and the worlds of fabrication, assembly, procurement, and more. Vaults provide managed repositories for design data, and allow formal revisioning and life-cycle management of components and data used in a design. Vaults also provide intelligent links to the supply chain to give real-time information about the parts specified in a design. And Vaults provide a mechanism to easily and securely share the right pieces of design data with those who need access to them, both inside and outside a design organization In order to cater to a wide variety of deployment scenarios, Altium will offer a range of Vault options. Three types of Vaults are currently envisaged: The Enterprise Vault Server (EVS), Satellite Vaults, and Managed Vaults. The main differences between the vault types lies in the level of interaction between a users company network for which the vault is deployed and AltiumLive. This paper takes a look at the differences between each vault type, and the connection between the Vault and AltiumLive.

Anatomy of a Vault

Altium Vaults form the heart of Altium's smart data management technologies. Implemented as server-based software applications, running in the cloud or on your LAN, they store and manage electronic design data. The items in vaults represent reusable design content, components and released designs for fabrication of bare-boards and assembled boards. These items are constructed from named revisions of data, generated by "release" from the design side of the organization, but also available to other areas of the organization such as manufacturing and procurement.
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The Enterprise Vault Server (EVS)

The Enterprise Vault Server (EVS) is an independent, standalone vault system, suited for use when access to the internet is not permitted at all within an organization or when the organization does not want to participate in the AltiumLive ecosystem. It is fully enterprise-owned and operated, installed as a separately-licensed software solution. Both vault server and authentication server are installed to a local network or a local machine. Such a vault has no global identity (it is not registered as part of the AltiumLive ecosystem) and therefore data cannot be shared on a global scale, other than through the company's WAN/VPN. When installing an Enterprise Vault system, two separate server applications are deployed the Vault itself and the Identity Server. The Vault and Identity Server can be installed on different machines within the network to facilitate one Identity Server in an organization with many Enterprise Vaults. User access to the Enterprise Vault is controlled by the Identity Server and is managed entirely within the company network. Unlike the Satellite Vault (detailed in the following section of this paper), the Enterprise Vault is not connected to the AltiumLive ecosystem. It is sold as conventional server-based, standalone, enterprise software, with the user management completely owned by the enterprise. The fact that no Internet capability is required to operate and run an Enterprise Vault system means that companies with strict Internet connection policies can benefit from the data management advantages that Altium Vaults offer. However, because these Vaults have no links to the AltiumLive ecosystem, companies using them will not directly benefit from the sharing and commercial possibilities provided by connection to AltiumLive. Enterprise Vault Summary: Independent, standalone vault system Does not require user or corporate internet access Access to Vaults managed completely within company network Vaults have no connection or identity within AltiumLive Sold under a conventional enterprise software model

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The Satellite Vault

The Satellite Vault is a server application that runs on a network computer. A user can install and run a Satellite Vault on their local machine, which can then act like any other server machine. What distinguishes a Satellite vault from an Enterprise Vault is the user and identity management. In the case of a Satellite Vault, these processes are done through AltiumLive using a persons AltiumLive credentials. Satellite vaults provide the ability to host the data on the company's own server's but are available as a benefit of the AltiumLive subscriber plan and so do not require the capital purchase of the traditional enterprise server software model provided by EVS. A Satellite Vault is automatically registered with your organizational account in AltiumLive. This account holds all the Altium Designer licenses for you company, along with all of the AltiumLive user accounts that have been activated. Everyone who uses the Satellite Vault will be accessing it under their AltiumLive identity, which is the same identity they use to sign-in to Altium Designer. It is important to note that a Satellite Vault itself and the data it contains are hosted on the companys network, not in AltiumLive. The only access from the Vault to the outside world is purely for authentication of credentials. Authentication uses the same mechanism as used by the Altium Designer 10 application for sign-in, as well as that used by AltiumLive web apps. No data of any sort is visible outside the organization's LAN/WAN/firewall, and Altium has no visibility into Satellite Vaults. The authentication process is stateless, and the system does not hold ports open or require an ongoing connection to AltiumLive after authentication, as user access tokens are cached locally. Once Satellite Vaults are deployed, the users Content page of AltiumLive displays a list of Vaults visible to people within the organization. Users can access Satellite Vaults within their company network in the AltiumLive browser context. This is made possible by an innovative piece of web technology that is built into the Satellite vault server installed on the LAN, which combines dynamically with the AltiumLive server pages hosted in the cloud.
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From a security point of view, only those in your organization will be able to see these servers. While it appears as if the content of the Vaults is available from the Web, it is actually served directly from the local Satellite Vault server (which is a data server + web server) and dynamically combined in the browser with the wrapper content coming from AltiumLive. The Satellite Vault is initially set to workgroup sharing, which means everyone in your AltiumLive account/organisation will have read/write access. To restrict access you need to change the setting to full enterprise sharing, and then change folder sharing rights within the vault. Its important to note that if you are accessing a Satellite Vault locally from the machine on which the vault resides, you are not required to be connected to AltiumLive or be on a Subscriber plan. This is only necessary to initially install and activate the vault. Once installed and activated, the Satellite Vault can be accessed locally without an internet connection. This allows you to access your data from the Vault machine in the event of an internet outage, or retrieve your data if your AltiumLive Subscriber plan expires. An AltiumLive Subscriber plan and internet access is required when accessing a Satellite Vault remotely from other computers on the network or over the internet. In short, a Satellite Vault is an extension of the AltiumLive ecosystem with its data hosted on the companys network. Because of this, all users must have an AltiumLive ID and must be on an AltiumLive Subscriber Plan. Satellite Vault Summary: No capital purchase required, can be used by any AltiumLive Subscriber plan members Vault hosted within company network, all data remains within network Internet access required for remote access verification only Access tied to AltiumLive Subscriber Plan account Internet not required for ongoing local Vault access

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The Managed Vault

Managed Vaults are cloud-based vaults provided on Altium infrastructure. This is in turn based on AWS ("Amazon Web Services") underlying infrastructure. The Managed Vault runs entirely within AltiumLive as an on-demand service (part of AltiumLive Vault Services). This type of vault is fully managed by Altium. There is no manual installation and setup of servers or infrastructure required by the end user. Managed vaults are registered within the AltiumLive ecosystem, facilitating interaction across and between organizations, including globally if need be, through sharing of content between vaults within this system. Access to a vault is made directly from the AltiumLive site, or from Altium Designer, using AltiumLive credentials The fact that both Satellite and Managed Vaults are part of the same ecosystem raises some interesting possibilities for organizations. For example an organization may choose to host its own IP (components, reusable design content, etc.) on a Satellite Vault within its LAN, but then add a Managed Vault as the storage mechanism to release designs to manufacture. The Altium Designer release process will allow the designer to choose whether to include a design snapshot in the release package or just provide fabrication or assembly data. The specific lifecycle-managed revision of that package can then be selectively shared with manufacturing or supply-chain partners, all using the same controlled set of user credentials as used for everything else associated with Altium-managed data. The option for Managed Vaults will be made available to Altium Customers some time after the release of Altium Designer 10. Prior to their availability, customers can experience Managed Vaults from within AltiumLive. From the Content section of AltiumLive, subscribers can access the Managed Vaults that are hosted by our content teams in Hobart, Australia and Shanghai, China. Managed Vault Summary: Fully hosted (both data and management) on AltiumLive Access can be granted any or all AltiumLive subscribers Exists within same ecosystem as a Satellite Vaults No company infrastructure or setup required

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Looking to the future

The release of Altium Vaults combined with Altium Designer 10 provides opportunities for companies to manage and distribute their design data in ways that were difficult or impossible before. For example, the connection of Satellite and Managed Vaults to the growing AltiumLive ecosystem presents a range of opportunities built around the ability to share IP across organizations, including on a commercial basis. Because the Vault systems are all based on a fully lifecycle and revision managed data model (from full design right down to components and models), highly-verified, reusable content for board-level design becomes a real and practical possibility. It also opens up the whole area of saleable and transferable board design content within some form of PCB IP marketplace. It is worthwhile to note that the different types of vaults are not mutually exclusive. Companies can run as many vaults of as many different types as they like. For example, a company can use a shared Satellite Vault for component and reusable design content within their organization, and use a Managed Vault for production releases that will be shared with third-parties. Similarly, a company can use the EVS for shared component management and reusable design content, use a Managed Vault for production release, and have Satellite Vaults for private or workgroup use.

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