Software Configuration Management System Reliability Goals

If you have a mission critical application, your CM solution must minimize down time. CM+ has a very high reliability and availability capability. But what helps it go the extra mile is that even if the server is down temporarily, for example to install an upgrade, the Smart Client Technology permits the client to continue to operate, accessing data as required. CM+ also has features which allow data access across a data server host shutdown. CM+ has been designed to provide continuity of service in the most difficult of situations. In particular, there is no VOB-down symptom whereby a central data server reboot necessitates down time of all of its clients.

CM+ permits you to perform both software and hardware upgrades with little or no down time. During a CM+ upgrade, the server remains running until it is time to switch to the more recent server software, a process which lasts but a few moments. Similarly when upgrading to a new hardware platform, the old platform can continue to run until it is time to bring up the server on the new hardware. Most clients will see these operations as being free from interrupts altogether.

CM+ is the only CM tool providing synchronous multi-site capability. This means that all sites in the multi-site chain remain fully up to date in real time. There is no need to split data between sites or to synchronize sites. All sites contain full views of the live repository data. Because of this mode of operation, the multi-site feature may be used for warm standby in case of a server outage, or for disaster recovery mechanism to ensure smooth operation across the worst case scenarios.

CM+ will automatically recover from any system outage, whether or not it is power related. When the system is restored, CM+ will use the most recent checkpoint and the transaction journal to restore the system to its pre-failure state and to continue processing any transactions which may have been queued at the time of the outage.

In today's world, it is often necessary to fully trace data changes made to the project library. CM+ provides a full transaction journal of all repository changes. Even if an "irreversible" operation has been processed as part of a past transaction, it is still possible to roll the repository back to a point before the transaction, correct the transaction and automatically continue forward.

Neuma provides a single file checkpoint and recovery capability. The entire state of the repository will revert back to the state identified by the checkpoint file when it is put in place, or when it is viewed in parallel with the existing repository state. A project library checkpoint can be taken in a few seconds, and some are maintained automatically as an extra level of security.

Although it's possible to mirror an entire hard drive, CM+ provides the ability to mirror the most important portions of your project data to provide an additional level of fault recovery. The files in the repository can be mirrored in a second location permitting a full backup capability in a few seconds.

CM+ also permits your repository files to be moved to read-only media in a live fashion such that they migrate from the read-only media automatically whenever changes need to be applied to the files. This provides both an additional backup capability as well as significantly reducing the size (and hence complexity) and duration of full backup operations on the repository.

One problem with most integrated solutions is that they involve a number of vendors. You are at the mercy of the weakest link. A single bankruptcy or competitive takeover could force you to change your key CM infrastructure. With CM+, you have a single vendor to deal with. CM+ has been in commercial use since 1989. Technical development of the product is ahead of the market's ability to absorb it.

From another perspective, the CM+ architecture is designed for longevity. (1) Most deliverables from 10 years ago continue to run on todays platforms. (2) Today's deliverables run on 10-year old platforms. (3) The majority of feature improvements may be done using the rapid application development environment of the Enterprise Edition, without a dependency on Neuma. Still, Neuma continues to push the product forward, making it more resilient to the changing technology and changing economy. Neuma's conservative approach to financial and corporate stability helps to ensure that you won't need economic contingency insurance for your suppliers.

An important goal of the CM+ architecture from the beginning was to support a pick-up-and-drop technology transfer capability. Because a CM+ project library can contain all project information, including market input, planning, tracking, documentation, source code, test suites, customer and deployment records, and staffing records, it's a straight forward matter to transfer your project to a new owner. Whether it's contractor to contractor, company to company, public to private sector, or anything in between, CM+ facilitates the transfer of technology and related data, including full, detailed historical data, between organizations. If you wish to license your product development to another country (e.g. U.S. Navy to Australian Navy), CM+ facilitates this. It even facilitates incremental updates to licensed information. And of course virtually any subset of information may be transferred - there's no need to transfer the entire library.

Would you be in trouble today if your key CM and Product Management personnel headed off to the competition? CM+ helps remove the dependency on a few key CM team members. Because all of the data, including change packages, traceability, process rules, documentation and source code reside in a single library repository, with a full transaction journal, tidbits of key information are not lost when key team members depart. The small learning curve and ease of use permit new players to move into their designated roles with little disruption to your development program.

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