diff --git a/intro_manual/introduction.rst b/intro_manual/introduction.rst index bbf162bdf..0463969f3 100644 --- a/intro_manual/introduction.rst +++ b/intro_manual/introduction.rst @@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ Software, that you need to have at least on your sever before you can install/us * PHP A closer look to Solution Architecture Overview -============================== +=============================================== The core of the ownCloud solution is the ownCloud server. Unlike consumer cloud-based services and other applications with third-party storage, ownCloud‘s server enables IT to protect and manage every element associated with ownCloud on-site from file storage to user provisioning and data processing. ownCloud monitors every activity that occurs, and logs these activities into a file for later auditing and analysis. The server provides a secure web portal through which the entire system is controlled by the administrator, providing the ability to enable and disable features, set policies, create backups and manage users. The server also manages and secures API access to ownCloud, while providing the internal processing engine needed to deliver file sync and share. The ownCloud server stores user files in standard file system formats, and can use most file systems. With ownCloud, if you can mount storage on your server, ownCloud can use it. Practically, this means just about any standard file system and storage device combination can be used – ownCloud is file system and storage agnostic. The storage can be physically located in your data center (or be “mounted” to third-party storage), enabling you to protect your files as you would any other element of your infrastructure, from standard backups and intrusion detection, to log managers and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions. It is simple to Integrate ownCloud with existing IT infrastructure through the use of plug-in applications. These plug-ins can be enabled through the server control panel, provide functionality such as Active Directory (AD) and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) integration for user account provisioning and authentication. If an integration is not included out of the box, it is simple to extend ownCloud through open APIs and plug-in applications. Features such as the online text editor, virus scanner, and file versioning are included in ownCloud and other applications, such as the enhanced logging and audit plug-ins, are available to our customers. ownCloud customers have integrated a wide variety of new functionality into ownCloud, from training video streaming to contact and calendar syncing, custom authentication mechanisms, automated Optical Character Recognition back ends, and API-based storage. In short, unlike our competitors, ownCloud can be easily extended to do far more than basic file sync and share. @@ -86,11 +86,14 @@ At its core, ownCloud is a web application, written in PHP, running on top of a To make it possible to access and use many different types of storage, ownCloud has a built-in storage abstraction layer. As a result, ownCloud can leverage just about any storage protocol that can be mounted on your ownCloud server – from CIFS, NFS and GFS2, to cluster file systems like Gluster. Other optional storage can also be mounted on the system using an optional external file system application, enabling admins and users to mount FTPs, WebDAV, CIFS and even external cloud storage services S3, Swift, Google Drive and Dropbox if desired. Individual users can also be configured to have dynamically allocated storage locations, depending on their user directory entries – enabling data segregation and basic multi-tenancy. .. image:: images/Figure6.png + +Integration of other systems or components +========================================== -Inclusion of a variety of open APIs for integrating with other systems ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -External provisioning -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +** ownCloud includes also a variety of open APIs for integrating with other systems such as:** + +**External provisioning:** + Provides the ability to add and remove users remotely, and enables admins to query metering information about ownCloud storage usage and quota. **Applications:**