HTTP accelerator 2 solutions

Http accelerators, also called "Reverse Proxy" are implemented on the side of Internet servers. They have different uses such as: security, load balancing, SSL acceleration, compression and cache. It is especially this last point that we evaluate in this section. Internet users "pass" through the proxy reverses to access applications from internal servers. Advanced caching policies can unload Web application servers regardless of the language used. Some HTTP accelerators manage the cache fragment including supporting ESI standard.

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Cloud computing 5 solutions

One of the key ideas concealed behind the somewhat vague concept of cloud computing is the abstraction of an application's platform at various levels.
This can include IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) in particular, but also PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service).
Naturally, virtualisation is crucial to setting up IaaS. However, it requires making virtual machines available in a completely automated manner. Monitoring of resource use for billing purposes is part of the cloud computing business model and so should be an integral part of any IaaS solution. The product should also handle the automatic configuration of a permanent storage space for VMs, as well as providing for their network connectivity.
For organisations wishing to build their own IaaS, open source solutions like OpenStack are now available and make it possible to industrialise virtualisation.

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Remote computer control 2 solutions

More and more remote computer control solutions are becoming available, and their technology has advanced impressively in recent years.
These tools were initially created to meet user support and assistance needs. They can, as needed, be either localised or spread across some or all of a company’s client workstations.
They are used to respond to the different issues encountered at companies, including shared views of computers and file transfers.
The open source range in this category includes tools like TightVNC and OpenSSH. The latter is the favourite among systems administrators in the world of UNIX servers.

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Roll-out and Back-ups 11 solutions

Back-up tools like Bacula are used to save important data on different media, based on a series of highly advanced rules.
The functionalities included in back-up tools can include very detailed back-up scheduling (e.g. calendars), definition of back-up types (full, incremental or differential), storage location, etc. Some tools go as far as to offer multi-streaming, multi-plexing, user back-ups, back-up pool management and more.
Roll-out tools like Puppet can remotely prepare environments, based on pre-defined rules or an expected end state. All major companies use roll-out software to simplify the administration of their IT environment.

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IT asset and inventory management 5 solutions

Open source IT asset and inventory management tools are becoming more and more popular in companies, with flagship references like GLPI and OCS Inventory NG used by many players in the CAC 40.
These solutions have a broad scope, including functions such as management of the company’s hardware assets, management of associated contracts (computers, devices, printers, network components, consumables, etc.), support functions (with or without user access, detailed user rights management, automated notifications with personalisable templates, SLAs, etc.), licence management and more.
IT asset and inventory management tools can also incorporate a financial dimension (cost tracking model, calculation of depreciation, etc.).

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High availability 4 solutions

"High availability" is a term frequently used to designate a service or system architecture that must be available as continuously as possible, ideally 100% of the time.
It is very important for companies to install high availability technologies for information systems that serve as the central nervous system of their organisation. They can be implemented in a number of different ways, namely from either a physical or a logical point of view.
There are excellent open source tools designed to ensure that services are always responsive. Keepalived, for example, operates like a router to guide queries based on service status, while Linux-HA enables communications between servers, allowing for the modification of configurations on the fly, based on the status of the other servers on the network.

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Security 8 solutions

The field of security is very vast, with products ranging from antiviruses to intrusion detection systems, for which there are many open source options.
In this section, we will present integrity verifiers, virus detectors, intrusion detectors, network analysers and security testers. Anti-spam tools like SpamAssassin and DSPAM are included in the Messaging, Email marketing & Groupware category.
All these tools are invaluable aids that help systems and network administrators to ensure the integrity of their IT environment.

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VPN 2 solutions

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, can be broadly defined as referring to the different technologies used to extend a company’s network while preserving data confidentiality and overcoming the physical barriers of traditional networks.
VPN solutions generally provide the following benefits: public key authentication, confidential exchanges, preserved confidentiality in the case of compromised encryption secrets, and packet transfers to private networks via public ones.
In the world of open source solutions there are many quality products, including OpenVPN and Openswan, presented below.

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Firewall 9 solutions

The concept of the firewall is often linked to the notion of routing, i.e. the transiting of network flows between different machines.
As a result, firewalls are usually installed on routing equipment, of which they are an integral part. This means that routing can be modified by a firewall decision, and that the firewall will apply different filtering rules depending on the origin and destination of the traffic. This is the firewall’s main function.
Firewalls can also be used in a more qualitative, more refined role, such as determining the bandwidth authorised for a particular application in a particular context.
The open source firewall market is very complete, with products like Packet Filter, netfilter and pfSense.

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Supervision and metrics 10 solutions

Supervision and metrics are quite well covered by open source solutions, with many quality products available.  Nagios in particular enjoys a very strong reputation.
Supervision tools are used to monitor networks, machines, services and more. The functionalities they provide include views of the status of supervised services and machines, metrics, reporting, access to supervision events, and advanced user and ACL management, but also dependencies, escalations, service and host templates, active and passive monitoring support, etc.
Six open source solutions have been evaluated for this category.

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LINUX & BSD Operating systems 9 solutions

Operating systems are the foundation of any computer programme. They provide the base for the execution of thousands of applications.
In the world of open source solutions, two major families of operating systems are represented: Linux based and BSD based OSs.
Despite the fact that they share a common base, each offers special features that make them better suited to a particular context. OpenBSD, for example, is often used to implement sensitive network components.

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Virtualisation 6 solutions

Server virtualisation is a set of techniques and tools used to run multiple operating systems on the same physical server.
This means that the principle of virtualisation involves the principle of sharing, in which the different operating systems share the server’s resources.
To be of operational use, virtualisation must conform to two basic principles: compartmentalisation (each operating system runs independently and cannot interfere with the other(s) in any way) and transparency (the fact of operating in a virtualised mode in no way changes how the operating system runs, and even less so the applications installed on each one).
In this category, four open source tools were selected, including Xen and KVM, the best known in the business world.

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VoIP / Telephony 10 solutions

VoIP (Voice over IP) is a technique that enables voice communications over IP compatible networks. These can be private networks or the Internet, and either wired (cable, ADSL or optical) or wireless (satellite, WiFi or GSM).
In particular, this technology is used to support Telephony over Internet Protocol (ToIP) services.
The top solutions provide for interoperability with proprietary IPBX systems (used to route all or part of a company’s communications) via existing protocols (H.323, SIP, IAX, MGCP, etc.) and the most commonly used codecs (G711, G729ab, iLBC, Speex, GSM, etc.).
In terms of open source solutions, Asterisk is the most frequently used and the most complete, offering a wide range of functionalities and a good capacity for integration with existing environments.

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Messaging, Email Marketing & Groupware 13 solutions

The field of “messaging” is extremely vast, ranging from individual messages to grouped mailshots, all of which are covered by a multitude of open source solutions.
This category includes presentations of messaging servers (SMTP and IMAP), anti-spam tools and in-box interfaces (groupware). Anti-viruses like CLAV are covered in the Security section.
All these tools are invaluable in the implementation of a complete messaging system.
Given the diversity of the tools selected for this category, the graphs below do not display the average scores.

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Other 4 solutions

In this last category in the “Infrastructure” dimension, we will present additional open source tools that are particularly useful to system and network administrators.
In particular, we will be presenting CUPS (a print server), Samba (for UNIX file exchanges on Windows workstations), ProFTPD (an FTP server) and BIND (a DNS server).

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