• 4 min. read

The skilled approach to Data Storage

Companies nowadays keep information in many ways. Most of them focus on security, not just physical but software-wise, architectural and black hat free.

Written by Daniela Costa

Companies nowadays keep information in many different ways. Most of them focus on security, not just physical but software-wise, architectural and black hat free. For the last 20 years there have been many different approaches to this, from spaghetti code monolithic architectures to the lasagna layered service oriented architectures to the currently most accepted loosely coupled context bounded micro- services, also known as ravioli architecture.

So what's the right way to do it? Or how would you prefer your data to be stored. Flexibility and scalability are buzzwords thrown around by non-tech people all the time with no real awareness of what they mean, or how complicated it is to actually create and maintain a truly amazing project.

Fortunately, here at skeeled we hired only the best engineers to create the platform you now have in your hands.

The 3 ways we can do it?

The kind of agile approach we implemented here, allows us to take care of the crucial things first, and flexibility/scalability are, and have always been, the keystone of the software we write. This allows us to now provide you with not only the fine-tuned software you want to use, but also the data approach you feel more appropriate for your company.

1. The skeeled way — current infrastructure We keep all our servers in Europe, across multiple providers and multiple regions (all under EU Law) with the highest server security certifications.

Screen-Shot-2018-02-21-at-11.26.52 AWS Assurance Programs

We keep different kinds of data storage, anonymising the data your applicants send (CV’s, Pictures, Cover Letters & Portfolios) in one place, the personality test in another — also anonymised in a way that can not be traced back to the original sender — and the company information (Name, Logo, Job Offers, Email Templates, User accounts, etc.) in yet another place.

Skeeled connects all “external” with encrypted and secure connections.

This might seem like we are all around the place, but, it has proven to be the most effective way to provide a fast and reliable service. If any of this providers were to go down, for example, we would still be able to be online and inform you of the situation in the time that our backup machines would turn on. Most of the time you wouldn’t even be aware anything happened since no information would be lost.

2. Your way — Company infrastructure Another possibility is to have all of our services in your servers/providers/machines or even in your office if you wish. We install the whole platform wherever you want, and keep it updated with our codes if you desire. If not, the machine is yours and we will not have access to it without your permission.

Obviously this has its drawbacks too. Since we can not do live support, assistance or security updates whenever we deem necessary.

3. Our way — Shared infrastructure There’s a middle ground between these two options.

All the information — company, jobs and applicants — can be on your side and we just maintain the code to connect all the data services that you keep, allowing us to easily update the platform to the latest versions, and at the same time you have full control over the data.

The good that comes of this is that you can connect the data to whatever external services your company might use. Despite the fact that this is also possible with skeeled’s infrastructure, this way, you have more flexibility (albeit responsibility as well).

The backup’s would also have to be managed by you since the data would all be yours.

Screen-Shot-2018-02-21-at-11.31.37 An example of a Continuous Delivery Platform

How does it work?

The project can be divided in three parts, code, storage and database. These are the parts you can choose to let us keep or to maintain yourselves. And again, this flexibility is only possible because from the start, the project was built to scale and change. In skeeled’s infrastructure they are all kept by us, in your infrastructure they would all be kept by you, and in the shared infrastructure there would be a compromise of having the 1. (see bellow) on skeeled’s side and 2. and/or 3. in your side.

1. Code Deploy The code is the main project, the “glue” that sticks all the data and services together, the design, the information processing and so on.

We have a well defined pipeline that automatically sends the code to our servers. In that flow some of the stuff we do is: automated testing of the application, changes to the database and compression and minification of the code ran in the browsers, to increase security and performance.

All this is managed and updated by us constantly without you being aware, to provide the best experience for everyone.

If you wish to have the updated platform in your infrastructure we can provide that by integrating your servers in our pipeline.

There’s also the possibility that’s not what you want. In that case, you can preserve a specific version of the code, even though we advise against that, since you won’t get updates at all: functionalities and security.

2. Storage service (File uploads) The files uploaded by all the users can be stored in your side permanently.

You can use your machines or storage systems and we integrate it as well in our project.

The disadvantage here is that backups and maintenance are again, of your responsibility.

3. Database service (Company metadata) This is pretty much the same as the storage service, but more specifically the metadata of your company and users: names, emails, comments, jobs, phone numbers etc.

Again, like the storage service, backups and maintenance are of your responsibility.

Conclusion As you can see, skeeled provides flexibility like no other company does, as we want to make sure that you feel secure in your choice of investing in our software. If you have any questions contact us through our website at www.skeeled.com

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Skeeled offers you the perfect opportunity to bring innovation and digitalisation to your hiring. Check our website or our LinkedIn and Facebook pages for further information.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Your team here at skeeled

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