Cuda Systems LLC AKCS-WWW Software

AKCS-WWW - When you demand the best

There are many "forum systems" available around the Internet, but none offer the feature set of AKCS-WWW, including:

Operates with all data stored in the "back end" database; other systems store avatars and images in flat files on the file system. This crates the potential for both data loss and complicates (significantly) the ability to scale the system to larger hardware and distributed environments.With all data in the database, including uploaded image files, the entire data set is always contained in the DBMS and thus provides "one point" backup, restore, and data integrity.
Supports both Blogs and Discussion Forums - on one platform.
Is a compiled binary executable. Unlike other systems that depend on the security of "PHP" or other server-side packages (all of which have a dubious history in this regard) AKCS-WWW is one compiled binary "C" program. This also provides tremendous performance advantages that simply cannot be had from interpreted systems.
Runs with Postgres, an enterprise-quality DBMS.
Supports horizontal scaling. That is, you can have multiple hosts serving the web (running Apache) and multiple machines running the read-side database in any combination, with one master DBMS machine for writes, limited only by the aggregate wire performance between the master and slaves. This allows for extraordinarily-large installations should the need arise along with both fault-tolerance and scalability.
Is template driven. The screen and callout format to the database is driven by administrator-customizable templates along with CSS sheets and thus the "look and feel" is almost entirely under administrator control. Multiple "CSS" sheets may be offered to users if desired to change fonts, colors and similar user interface presentation features.
Supports the use of SSL for authentication and storage of passwords as one-way hashes, making password theft from the system itself nearly impossible. (Compromise of the user's machine, of course, can lead to password theft.)
Can operate with a "donation" or "subscription" system and other custom needs. If you can express what you want to do in SQL, you can probably make AKCS-WWW do it. The system runs a timed job out of the cron periodically which can examine the system's database tables and do virtually anything an administrator would like. A Paypal Interface package for direct PayPal connectivity is included.
Maintains near-forensic quality logs. All postings and messages are normally stored indefinitely - even if "changed", along with IP addresses, giving the administrator the ability to retrieve material if required by various civil authorities.
Extremely fast full-text search is supported as a native database function, with the ability to search millions of individual messages in tenths or hundredths of a second. Unlike most other systems that are forced to limit search activity to keep system load under control, AKCS-WWW has no similar limitation. It also "stems" words automatically ("billions" and "billion" both return the same thing) and supports complex boolean searches if desired by the user.
Internal RSS support allows for subscriptions, including authentication and permission enforcement, by client users.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

AKCS-WWW requires a FreeBSD or Linux operating environment with Postgresql. FreeBSD is strongly recommended as all development and testing takes place on that platform and it has demonstrated dramatically superior performance over Linux installations. For those who insist on Linux CentOS is recommened, with the caution that internal benchmarking has shown serious performance differences between FreeBSD and Linux, and not in Linux's favor. AKCS-WWW will not run on Windows of any sort - don't bother asking as Windows is not, in our opinion, suitable for an "Internet-facing" machine no matter what you do with it.
A high-performance disk I/O subsystem is strongly recommended, as is a 64-bit operating system distribution and sufficient memory. The database system's performance is the core of the system's performance envelope and as such some planning and forethought should go into the installation's hardware requirements in order to obtain optimal performance. Migration to a 64-bit environment is not difficult if you start on a 32-bit one, but it will require a full dump and restore of the database, which can take a significant amount of time if the message base is large.
Postgresql 8.4 or later is required, along with the "md5" and "tsearch2" modules. If a replicated/horizontally-scaled system is contemplated the use of SLONY is required to perform database replication. The use of "pgpool" is strongly recommended in order to aggregate database load.
Apache 2.x is required.

Licenses are sold on a per-forum (URL) basis and include perpetual execution rights and the right to receive updates and support during the term and are valid for one machine operating the forum environment of the licensee's choice, along with a limited amount of remote installation assistance if required. Each horizontal "instance" of the AKCS-WWW software operating on a distinct IP or URL requires it's own license, and starts at $299.00 for a one year term. Quantity discounts are available for horizontal applications.

For full license terms and costs please contact info@cudasystems.net with your organization's name, your name and a phone number and we will get back to you immediately to discuss your needs. Please do not disturb the subject line as it is used to avoid the system's spam filter.