Introduction

Perfion stores binary files in the database, per default. If there are many binaries used in the Perfion solution or binaries are large in size, then this could become an issue. Database storage is usually more expensive, large files are not optimized for storage in databases, handling of large binary files could cause performance issues while handling non binary data, etc.

If the binary storage in Perfion database becomes an issue, then Perfion have developed a solution which allows moving binary data out of Perfion database and instead store it in the Perfion Asset Cloud using storage solution such as Azure Blob Storage (ABS) which is purpose built for storing binary data. This page describes how the solution works and how to set it up in Perfion.

Overview

Perfion Asset Cloud is offered as a service. Perfion will create all required services for each customer independently. These services allow storing binaries in ABS by migrating binary data to/from Perfion database and also serve binary data directly via integrated media services.

Perfion Asset Cloud solution components:

• ABS account. Each customer will have their own independent account for storing binaries. The account will be managed by Perfion.

• Storage service. The service is used to migrate binaries to/from Perfion database and to handle Perfion media service data. The service is managed by Perfion, but users can configure it using storage service GUI.

• Media services. The media services consist of Perfion file and image services which can only handle binaries stored in ABS. The media services are managed by Perfion, but users can configure them using storage service GUI.

• Storage service GUI. It is a web based GUI created to set up various parameters related to Perfion Storage and Media services.

• Binary data location configuration in Perfion. Allows changing the location of binaries to be stored either in database or in the Perfion Asset Cloud.

• Binary data migration manager. Migrates binary data automatically based on preferred binary storage location.

The overview of the Asset Cloud concept is shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Asset Cloud Overview

Binary Data Metadata vs. Content

Binary data in Perfion consists of binary data metadata and content. Binary metadata contains information about the binary data such as file name, size, checksum, etc. and may also include icon size previews of images in case it is an image type binary. The metadata occupies very little space and it is saved for all binaries in Perfion database regardless of binary data content location. To successfully operate, Perfion only needs binary metadata in most cases, so it does not depend so much on where the actual binary data content is stored. Perfion performance will be largely unaffected based on were binary data content is located. Only in rare cases when generating reports, showing image previews or sending jobs to application server one may need to access the actual binary data content.

By default both components of binary data are saved in Perfion database. When binary data location is chosen to be in the Perfion Asset Cloud storage, then the metadata will be saved in the database and the content of binary data will be saved in the Perfion Asset Cloud storage. The binary data in the Perfion Asset Cloud storage will be saved with a copy of binary metadata, so such binary data can be used independently from Perfion database. For example, one can use Perfion media services to serve the binary stored in the Perfion Asset Cloud storage directly without requesting any data from Perfion database.

Perfion Windows client, web client and various services will work seamlessly regardless of where the actual binary data is located. All functionality in Perfion is implemented to retrieve the data from the actual binary source and this is assured even if the binary data is under migration from one storage solution to another.