Book a Demo

Pro Cloud Server

Part of the "Enterprise Architect in 30 minutes" tour

The Sparx Systems Pro Cloud Server application provides a convenient mechanism for hosting models. It provides easy access to people within your team, and optionally to external customers and consultants anywhere around the world.

This page aims to do the following:

  • Familiarize you with the concepts involved
  • Highlight the main functionality available with the Pro Cloud Server
  • Discuss considerations for when and where you should use a Pro Cloud Server

Introducing Pro Cloud Server for Enterprise Architect

Enterprise Architect models are stored in databases. Prior to the introduction of Pro Cloud Server (and its predecessor, Cloud Services), Enterprise Architect required users to install the appropriate drivers for each DBMS they connected to and in some cases define a ODBC DSN to each database. Enterprise Architect would then use the ODBC DSN to connect directly to the database and retrieve data from the model. With the introduction of the Pro Cloud Server all that is needed is a URL to the model, which provides the following extended benefits:

  1. The process of setting up drivers and connections can now be performed once by an administrator during the server configuration. The only set-up required on a user machine is to install Enterprise Architect and connect to any model required on the cloud server.
  2. Database servers no longer need to be exposed through a firewall. The Pro Cloud Server can be run from inside a corporate firewall. All model connections are now created using http allowing firewalls to completely isolate your database server.
  3. A Pro Cloud Server can be configured to ensure all communication is encrypted. Using standard TLS/SSL protocols, you can be sure that your data is not intercepted during transmission on insecure networks.
  4. A Pro Cloud Server can be configured to provide http level authorization to any model directly from the model user list. Even when the model is exposed on a public network you can be assured that only authorized users are able to access your model.

Standard Functionality

In addition to the core functionality of providing a model over a http connection, Pro Cloud Services offer three standard features that add further incentives for setting up a server.

Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) v1

Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) is an initiative to allow easier integration between requirement tools. It uses HTTP to list, add, modify and delete requirements.

The service provider definition to direct any OSLC client to will be:
<protocol>://<server>:<port>/<model_name>/oslc/sp/

For example, if you are connecting to a server running on your own machine using the default settings the connection will be:
http://localhost:804/model/oslc/sp/
See http://open-services.net/ for more information.

Re-usable Asset Service

The re-usable asset service (RAS) portion of the Pro Cloud Server allows packages to be defined that can be used in any model. Enterprise Architect and the Pro Cloud Server will track cross-package dependencies and ensure everything required by a package is available when a package is requested.

Scheduled Tasks

The Pro Cloud Server includes optional support for running time based updates to data.

At this stage this is limited to updating a Time Series chart automatically to provide a dynamic view into how a model is changing over time. Please see the Enterprise Architect help file for more information.

Additional Functionality

In addition to the standard functionality, the purchase of a Pro Cloud Server license adds even more functionality, like:

WebEA

WebEA provides a real-time view of content contained in an Enterprise Architect Cloud repository to be shared with anyone with a smart phone, tablet or computer simply using a web-browser.

Integrations

The Integrations feature provides the ability to link Enterprise Architect elements to objects and elements within external systems. External Systems such as: Dropbox, Jira, Share Point. For a full list of supported external systems see user guide.

Prolaborate

Prolaborate provides the ability to create fully customized views of your Enterprise Architect models, thereby allowing views to be tailored for different user groups.

Supports:
  • Customizable views
  • Limit what parts of the model each user can view
  • Rich user experience
  • Social Collaboration
  • Interactive Graphs and Charts

Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) v2

Version 2 of Pro Cloud Server's implementation of OSLC has greater expanded the amount and type of model information that can be retrieved, added, modified and deleted.

The OSLC v2 implementation is what powers both WebEA and Prolaborate!

When to use a Pro Cloud Server

A Pro Cloud Server offers benefits whenever:

  • You would like to reduce the set-up requirements for each of your users
  • You would like to expose any models outside of a private network
  • Any users are connecting over slow connections

Additional Resources

Use the links below to access more documentation, webinars and trial.