Infrastructure & Backups | Kroqi

Infrastructure and technology

Preamble

Collaboration and all tasks tied to teamwork (group messaging, document sharing and synchronization on user workstations, task management, group calendars, video conferencing, and screen sharing) are essential to team productivity. These essential teamwork features are offered in Kroqi with the highest requirements for reliability, availability, and security. Based on proven technologies, Kroqi, in collaboration with CLOUD SOLUTIONS SAS, which markets and hosts the solution, has developed a highly available, redundant, and secure architecture to meet these requirements.

**Disclaimer
**This documentation is provided for reference only. Despite efforts to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this documentation, this documentation is provided “as is” without any warranty whatsoever and to the extent permitted. In the interest of continuous product development, Kroqi reserves the right to make improvements to this document and to the products it describes at any time without notice or obligation.

1. Overview

Kroqi enables easier, more effective collaboration on projects by providing a single, simple tool to communicate effectively, share and synchronize documents, assign and complete tasks, synchronize calendars, and monitor activities. It is also an ideal tool for collaboration on projects beyond company borders. Available in SaaS mode, Kroqi allows access from anywhere, at any time, to all the content and tools needed for teamwork. Reliability, availability, and security are essential to earn the trust of the companies that rely on it.

Kroqi has designed and deployed an infrastructure and applications that optimize performance, resilience, and security. Kroqi operates with data centers located in France that comply with international standards and ensure maximum availability and security.

Kroqi hosting is currently provided by Scaleway SAS (Iliad Group) on a dedicated infrastructure whose architecture has been entirely designed by CLOUD SOLUTIONS SAS, which markets and hosts the Kroqi solution. Kroqi has full and complete control over the physical machines that make up the infrastructure.

2. Reliability

Kroqi’s infrastructure has been designed with an emphasis on resilience. Each hardware component (from the computer to the power supply, including the network connection) within the system is redundant and can be swapped in the event of failure. Each logical group of physical servers or VMs is organized in clusters to allow service continuity in the event of a machine failure, by temporarily accommodating the additional load on available machines.

2.1 High availability

Kroqi’s infrastructure high availability is based on the redundancy of all components. Redundancy ensures system availability in the event of a component failure. Each component has at least one independent backup component.

Three levels of redundant load balancers are currently in place:

First, at the data center entry level, traffic is balanced toward the HA Proxy Load Balancers
Second, the HA Proxy Load Balancers themselves balance the load toward the application servers
Third, the applications balance the load between the various database server nodes.

2.2 Main infrastructure components

The infrastructure consists of the following main groups:

HA Proxy Load Balancer: inbound load distribution
Cluster of node.js application servers
Real-time server->client communication management
File preview generation
Dynamic archive generation for multiple downloads
Cluster of “web / api” application servers: processing of Kroqi API calls
Cluster of “filer / api” application servers: processing of Kroqi API calls concerning files and processing of KroqiDrive synchronization trees
SQL master/slave database cluster (PostgreSQL): shares and replicates service data necessary to meet performance and high availability requirements.
No SQL master/slave database cluster (MongoDB) used for managing unstructured data (e.g. account activities)
Cluster of user file storage servers and associated metadata
Database backups on secure servers located in a second data center. Backups are made every 3 hours.
User file backups in a second data center (nightly)

Security and reliability requirements led to the design of the underlying Kroqi network infrastructure.

The data centers are protected by firewalls that strictly filter all inbound traffic, only allowing authorized flows. This is an active prevention solution that notably protects against denial-of-service attacks by analyzing traffic and comparing it to attack signatures. If the comparison is positive, protection services are activated within seconds.

Kroqi implements redundancy and load balancing guaranteeing maximum redundancy and the availability of our product. All links are, at minimum, doubled at each routing point and inbound traffic is allocated to the different applications and web servers. The redundant hardware load balancing feature can instantly handle any server failure.

2.3 Data transport security

Our frontend server encrypts all external connections with a web security policy mechanism (HTTP Strict Transport Security aka HSTS). This protects our services against active and passive network attacks (eavesdropping). A man-in-the-middle attacker has a very limited ability to intercept requests and responses between a user and our web application servers.

Kroqi also benefits from network isolation. Network isolation means that all servers in our infrastructure are isolated inside the data center and connected by dedicated private networks.

2.4 Storage resilience

All files placed on Kroqi (with a version history of up to 15 by default) are stored on NFS Raid6 servers using pro SSDs whose controllers contain BBU backup power supplies to eliminate any partial write that could lead to data corruption. Each server uses 12 SSD data storage disks. File-related data is replicated on these 12 SSD disks so as to support the loss of 2 of these disks.

2.5 Data backup and data center redundancy

The data and backup management strategy has been put in place to enable rapid data recovery in the event of minor incidents, while limiting our exposure to major incidents.

For example, in the event of minor incidents (e.g. definitive deletion, by error, of data by a user, etc.) we are able to restore this data in a few hours. In addition, we protect against major incidents by ensuring that we save 100% of client data (files, DB histories), as well as the VMs and configurations necessary to set up a parallel infrastructure in a second data center.

In this way, we can ensure disaster recovery in the event of a major outage.

Databases are saved every 3 hours, while client files are replicated nightly.

Backup servers are secured, isolated, and accessible only by backup applications.

2.6 System scalability and growth management

The design of the Kroqi infrastructure allows servers or virtual machines to be added to ensure its growth when a congestion point is detected. To do this, Kroqi uses a capacity detection system based on continuous monitoring and analysis of infrastructure performance. The monitoring tool collects and analyzes, in real time, the technical data of the infrastructure and notifies the teams when certain predefined load levels are reached. In addition, a dashboard allows the infrastructure data to be analyzed over time and thus anticipate future congestion.

3. Security

Kroqi benefits from several levels of security ensuring a high level of security. Let’s look at the rules and security-related measures in place:

3.1 System scalability and growth management

To access the application, the user must first have been authorized to access it by one of the administrators of the relevant Kroqi account. Kroqi allows collaboration between people internal to the user company (profiles present in the corporate directory) but also with external people (e.g. clients, partners, suppliers). For internal people, Kroqi offers secure authentication via Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0 (SAML 2.0) through the TLS protocol. For external people, an identifier (email), a password, and optionally a third authentication factor will be used.

3.2 Strong password policy

Kroqi offers an advanced password policy that includes the following parameters:

Length (at least 8 characters by default)
Format (one lowercase and one uppercase letter, a number or a symbol by default)
Expiration
Renewal (not previously used)
Session duration (12 hours by default)

3.3 Password protection

User passwords are never saved in decipherable forms. In the databases, Kroqi saves encrypted versions of passwords. The technologies used render the passwords undecipherable.

When the user submits their password again, it is encrypted and compared to the encrypted version we have in our databases.

In the same way, the various applications that automatically connect to your Kroqi account use a derived version of the encrypted password to connect.

In this way, Kroqi never saves your passwords in clear text.

3.4 Single Sign-On

Kroqi offers Single Sign-On (SSO) via the SAML V2 protocol, which allows existing user profiles in the corporate directory to be used.

3.5 Mobile access

Mobile users can access Kroqi mobile applications from various devices (iPhones, iPads, Android phones, and tablets) available on the App Store and Google Play. The security policy extends to mobile devices.

All data transmitted between the Kroqi infrastructure and the mobile is encrypted using high-level security (TLS protocols).

3.6 Download/Transit

Once securely logged into the application, users can view, download, or upload a file (provided the corresponding access right has been granted), either through the web browser user interface or using the synchronization tool (Kroqi Drive).

All data transmitted between the Kroqi infrastructure and client applications is transferred in an HTTPS tunnel (TLS) protected by AES-256-GCM (Advanced Encryption Standard 256 bits in Galois/Counter Mode). The TLS certificate is signed with an RSA 2048 key.

3.7 Application-level access control

Kroqi offers fine-grained, comprehensive access rights management for each workspace. It allows you to define, for each workspace participant, which modules they will have access to and under what conditions (read-only, read + write). In addition, there is also access rights management at the folder and subfolder level of a workspace.

3.8 Data retention

When a user deletes a file, it is moved to the workspace’s trash. From the trash, the file can be restored (for 90 days by default) by any user with access to the corresponding workspace. When a file has been deleted from the trash, its retention period in the backup is 30 days.

4. Data center availability and security

Kroqi is operated in data centers from a provider located in France (currently Scaleway SAS).

Information on the availability and security of the data centers we use can be found in the following documents:

Production data center: Scaleway DC3

Backup data center: Scaleway DC5

4.1 Compliance

The data centers have received ISO 50001, HADS, and ISO 27001 certifications. These standards certify that the necessary security measures and management procedures are in place. The production data center is also Tier III design certified by Uptime Institute (2014).

4.2 Availability

Each room in the data center has fire detection and an extinguishing system, as well as fire doors. The data center has a redundant electrical source. In the event of a power outage, generators can provide an initial autonomy of 72 hours. Several security measures have been put in place to eliminate any risk of failure.

A human presence in the data centers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ensures that servers are constantly maintained. In the event of a technical incident, the team can react immediately to ensure the server is repaired as quickly as possible.

4.3 Security

The data centers used by Kroqi have maximum physical security. All access to the premises is strictly controlled. To protect against intrusions and hazards, the data centers are secured with barbed wire fences. Motion detection systems and video surveillance also operate continuously. Activity in the data centers and outside the buildings is monitored and recorded on secure servers, and the surveillance team is on site 24/7.

4.4 Employee access and policy

The number of CLOUD SOLUTIONS SAS and KROQI SAS employees with access to the infrastructure is extremely limited. These individuals are bound by a specific confidentiality undertaking and by a confidentiality clause in their employment contract.

All access to the Kroqi infrastructure is strictly controlled, monitored, and via VPN: only certain predefined IPs are authorized to establish a tunnel (IP allowlist) using an RSA 4096 key.

This communication tunnel is then encrypted in AES-256-CBC and hashed in SHA-512.

Administrators must then authenticate via SSH using a private key (ED25519 or ECDSA) protected by a passphrase.

5. Product features

5.1 Administrative management features

Kroqi gives companies centralized control of user accounts (creation, deactivation, or deletion); and each user password can be reset by a Kroqi administrator. At the application level, administrators can access, manage, and delete any workspace as well as the associated access rights.

5.2 User management features

Kroqi enables complete access control of each workspace through a flexible authorization scheme.

At the workspace level, access control is by functional module (channel, documents, tasks, calendar, activities, and reports) and by participant with 3 levels (read/modify, read-only, and access denied).

At the folder and subfolder level, complementary access management allows access to certain folders and subfolders to be restricted to certain workspace participants.

At the file level, version control allows users to retrieve old versions of each file (last 15 versions by default).

6. Privacy

Kroqi scrupulously respects the legal and regulatory framework related to the protection of its users’ personal data.