Flexilis, Inc.

Story Details

The importance of securing a PC from Internet-based threats is well known, but many people fail to protect their mobile devices even though they are just as vulnerable. The security solutions that currently exist for mobile devices were originally created for PCs and consequently approach the key challenges of the mobile space - such as limited processing power - as secondary issues. In 2005, a startup company named Flexilis decided to design a security solution specifically for mobile platforms. Not only would the offering protect devices against malicious threats, but it would also provide mobile users with secure communication links.

Flexilis sought a cost-effective IT solution that could support a dedicated user base and able to scale to millions of users quickly and cost effectively. In addition, the architecture had to provide for high levels of security, availability, reliability, and performance. Energy-efficiency was also important, and Flexilis sought to minimize datacenter space.

After evaluating technologies from Dell and Sun Microsystems, the company decided to build on Sun servers through the Sun Startup Essentials program. "In terms of bang for our buck, Sun servers were bar none the best solution when we looked at hardware quality, scalability, output, and power," explains John Hering, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flexilis. "The Sun Startup Essentials program could give us access to top-notch, enterprise-grade hardware at prices that were affordable. We also found the footprint of Sun servers to be very small compared with most of the competition. By using Sun servers, we knew that we could save energy and ultimately affect the environment in a more positive way."

Sun worked with Flexilis to help design an architecture for the beta deployment that could deliver optimum performance for each respective server task and stand ready to scale to millions of users. For example, the company's proxy servers run on two Sun Fire X2100 servers. Three Sun Fire X4100 servers support Apache application servers as well as custom applications written in the Ruby on Rails language. One Sun Fire X4200 server supports a MySQL database and two Sun Fire X2100 servers run Memcached, with one Sun Fire X4500 server running a clustered file system. All of the systems feature a mix of dual- and quad-core AMD processors and run the Slackware Linux and CentOS operating systems.

Commenting on the company's choice of database, Hering says, "MySQL is relatively scalable, extremely cost effective, and the community support around it is incredibly strong. I would say that MySQL is pretty much the standard for most internet startups today. There is no possible way that we could afford to support Oracle with a startup budget." During initial tests a Sun server failed. "Sun had a support representative out to our office the next day," explains Hering. "He removed the piece of hardware that failed, popped in a new one, and we were up and running in a really short period of time - which was great. We were really impressed with the quality of support in addition to Sun hardware in general. Sun has also continued to be available to us in terms of support and helping with technical issues as they have come up."

"Our general impression of Sun was that it was a very large company and its customers were typically very large companies," notes Hering. "At first we weren't quite sure about working with Sun because we are a startup company. However from day one, we have been treated like a big company. We support a growing number of beta users now, moving towards the goal of supporting millions upon millions of users across the world. Being able to rely on Sun to help us develop our architecture, build out the infrastructure, and help contribute to our success has been extremely valuable to us. We have built an infrastructure that will let us grow in an incredibly efficient way - from both a price and architectural perspective."