Why Use EFS?
EFS Benefits
EFS is a client/server software product which implements a versionized namespace for application deployment in a distributed filesystem (currently NFSv3, with plans to support NFSv4 and OpenAFS). The EFS namespace makes it feasible to deploy multiple versions of the same application side by side, each with it’s own distinct set of dependencies.
There many benefits to using EFS:
Manage the Software Development Lifecycle: For developers, EFS is a very powerful release management tool. It provides functionality to manage the dev/qa/prod stages of the software lifecycle, from release creation, to global development and production deployment, to the final deprecation and removal of the release from the environment. The releasealias mechanism makes it possible to easily implement reversible, centrally managed global software upgrades. The authorization mechanism allows for different teams to take responsibility for a release as it progresses through these various stages in it’s lifecycle, and the history and logfile infrastructure provides for complete forensics on who has done what to a release, and when.
Save administrator resources: For systems admins and engineers, EFS is not just for software developers. The same functionality which was designed for the software that you write can also be used for most software that you purchase or otherwise acquire as well. EFS can be used to distribute operating system and vendor software, and since everything is deployed into a distributed filesystem, you can minimize the locally installed software on each client. This makes EFS particularly well suited for Cloud Computing environments, or any thin client environment. EFS allows you to delegate responsibility for specific subsets of the namespace to non-administrators, where appropriate, so that a single central authority is not required for the day to day management of all software deployment.
Getting started
So, what are you waiting for? Come see our documentation here and download the software here.