Augur^®-SS
SocketStation

Just like IT routers connect hardware, SocketStation provides flexibility for connecting your real-time data to your processing tools. SocketStation logs and streams real-time data simultaneously to your management systems, archivers, interactive users, etc. Protocol plug-ins manage tricky connectivity centrally, so your users and apps can connect via plain old sockets. SocketStation's stream duplication helps you do more with your data, real-time. Your listeners receive the original raw bytes, or alternatively a more convenient translation, such as XML, JSON, etc.

Log and stream to multiple management systems simultaneously.
Underlying protocols are normalized to plain sockets, reducing listener integration costs.

Protocols

Your data may be accessed via endless protocols and APIs. SocketStation uses a plug-in architecture to scale its connectivity.

A plug-in's job is simple: to start/stop feeding bytes to SocketStation. (It might also transform or enrich the original data.) Then SocketStation logs and streams the data to each listener.

Plug-ins for common protocols come pre-installed: log file reader, telnet, SSH, DB poller, UDP, TCP, etc. We can implement any protocol and data transformation for you. Our plug-in API is small and open, so you can also modify our implementations, or roll your own. More...

Enterprise-Class

A SocketStation server is sometimes used for one critical data stream, or sometimes it manages hundreds of data sources, each with multiple listeners. And in distributed environments, many SocketStation instances cluster seamlessly to appear as one integrated system managed in a single web page. More...

SocketStation's web interface, showing a channel's status — Screenshot: Status of a SocketStation channel (one of your data sources)

Why would you need it?

SocketStation may be useful if you've ever thought, "I need to..."

... interface to several different protocols.

An alphabet soup of protocols (SSH, CORBA, Java/RMI, APIs, etc.) is a hurdle every time you consider a new use for your data. Imagine all your real-time data accessible via clean, plain sockets.

... feed more than one client at a time.

Often, a data source only supports one connection at a time, either explicitly or indirectly (by affecting performance). Are you forced to choose one destination, and deny all others? SocketStation's buffering and isolation techniques safely feed multiple listeners.

... compare vendor solutions.

Force your vendors to prove their worth in head-to-head trials using your real live data.

... ease change.

SocketStation is your cut-over/fallback plan. Moving to a new data processing app is dangerous when you "flip the switch" that cuts off your old app. SocketStation helps you feed both apps until the new one is a success.

... centrally log raw data.

Since SocketStation acts transparently, your data can be logged byte-for-byte, or as translated.

You've scaled everything else. Now scale your live data access.

Advanced

With over a decade of development, SocketStation is a mature product, so it includes advanced features too:

A dialogger runs scripted interactions: useful to automatically login to your data source, run commands, send keep-alive data, and cleanly terminate a session.
Two-way interactive sessions, with bi-directional logging
Robust command line, complemented by the web interface
On-the-fly reconfigurations
Automatic data source reconnection
Inactivity warnings
Listeners stay connected during a data source outage
IP and RADIUS access controls
View/disconnect individual listeners
Isolate some channels in their own JVM
Per-channel traffic graphs
Clustering of multiple SocketStation server instances

Thanks for exploring SocketStation. Also consider an overview of its plug-ins, some screenshots of its web browser interface, and a case for data routers like SocketStation in general.

Augur®-SSSocketStation