Fundamentals
The Volt4 is comprised of 4 central facets:
- security policy
- identity management
- resource management (service, file and data sharing)
- service registration and discovery
Security policy
The security policy is attribute-based and borrows heavily from the XACML standard in terms of functionality.
It provides an extremely versatile and extensible framework for controlling who can access what and when.
For example it is possible to express rules such as ‘Nick can access my geolocation service and view my current location between 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday’.
Learn more about the security policy.
Identity Management
Identities are centred around asymetrical cryptography in the form of public/private key pairs. They form the bedrock of the Volt4 infrastructure. Security policy rules are expressed in terms of permitting or denying resource access to one or more identities.
Learn more about Volt4 identities.
Resource Management
A resource is the fundamental entity in the Volt4. Various kinds of resource exist out of the box, including services, folders, files, and databases. Custom resource types are also supported.
A simple, clean hierarchical taxonomy is used to classify resources.
A single file or entire folder hierarchies can easily be uploaded or linked to the Volt4 and made available from anywhere, given the correct authentication and authorisation as determined by the security policy.
Databases can quickly be created and data ingested using a drag-and-drop interface. This too can then be made available for reading or writing anywhere using the appropriate security policy rules.
SQL databases currently have built-in support in Volt4, but other flavours will be coming soon. The Volt4 is not opinionated about the database system or format - it just sees databases as another service.
Learn more about Volt4 resources.
Service Registration and Discovery
One of the main functions of the Volt4 is to allow services to be registered, shared, discovered and accessed by others.
Once an identity has successfully bound and connected to the Volt4 it can register a service for others to discover, and/or discover and utilise services that others have registered. This is all strictly governed by the security policy imposed by the Volt4 owner.