KanbanBOX infrastructure

This document explains KanbanBOX technical specifications concerning infrastructure and the communication with external software.

KanbanBOX is a Software as a Service (SaaS)

KanbanBOX application is provided as a service: customers just need a user account in order to access and use the application. The design, maintenance and update of the infrastructure is charged to the KanbanBOX team. The Client doesn't need to equip itself with a server.

Interfaces and environments

Web interface

The web interface, accessible with an internet browser, allows to access all the KanbanBOX functionalities.

KanbanBOX web interface works at best with most recent browsers:

• Chrome latest stable version
• Edge latest stable version
• Safari latest stable version
• Firefox latest stable version

KanbanBOX might not function properly with other browsers or too old versions of the suggested browsers.

Smartphone and Tablet interface

The KanbanBOX App is available for Android and iOS devices on the Google and Apple App Stores.

They make it easy accessing and working with handheld devices. Some of the currently available functions:

• Changing kanban cards status, scanning the barcode with the onboard camera or barcode scanner;
• Viewing the electronic kanban boards;
• Edit the part master data, with the possibility to add part images;
• Count the available cards with the Inventory count;
• Create inbound or outbound documents.

API - Application Programming Interface

Via API, external software can perform real-time read and write operations on KanbanBOX data.

KanbanBOX working environments

Production environment

The production environment is the main KanbanBOX environment, where all the KanbanBOX users manage their kanban systems.

Test environment

The test environment is available for all of the KanbanBOX users, for making test trials, getting used with the interface and trying new features. The test environment is completely disconnected from the production environment, and it’s not sending notification emails nor triggering webhooks: users can safely test any kind of operation.

Pages of the test environment have a green background, in order to be easily recognizable.

Data in the test environment are daily deleted and replaced with the most updated version copied from the production environment. Don’t rely on the durability of data inside the test environment!

On request, the KanbanBOX team can provide custom test environments where data are not automatically refreshed.

KanbanBOX URLs

The following is the list of URLs to access to the KanbanBOX different interfaces and environments:

Interface	Production	Test
Web	https://app.kanbanbox.com	https://test.kanbanbox.com
API	https://api.kanbanbox.com	https://apitest.kanbanbox.com
Android/iOS	Look for the KanbanBOX App on Google and Apple app stores.	Unavailable.

API - Application Programming Interface

For information on the KanbanBOX API, please refer to the documents “KanbanBOX REST API v0” and “KanbanBOX REST API v1”:

https://help.kanbanbox.com/hc/it/articles/360006836733-KanbanBOX-REST-API-v0
https://help.kanbanbox.com/hc/it/articles/360006836733-KanbanBOX-REST-API-v1

Webhook

For information on the KanbanBOX Webhooks, please refer to the document “KanbanBOX Webhooks”:

https://help.kanbanbox.com/hc/it/articles/360006837493-KanbanBOX-Webhooks

Service availability

The availability in real time and the historical availability is monitored by the external service Pingdom. Data about availability are present at http://status.kanbanbox.com.

Cloud Architecture

KanbanBOX infrastructure is built and hosted inside the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, that guarantees best-in-class availability and security levels.

KanbanBOX infrastructure is designed to provide the following performances:

• Service availability greater than 99,95%;
• Ability to scale the resources depending on actual workload;
• Response time of the web interface with latency less than 100ms.

The following chart is a simplified representation of the KanbanBOX infrastructure inside the AWS cloud. Infrastructure is currently hosted in the Frankfurt (Germany) data centers.

KanbanBOX infrastructure is developed and replicated inside two different Availability Zones, (Availability Zones are isolated locations inside the same region). In the event of connectivity problems with one availability zone, all the traffic is automatically redirected to the other availability zone.

The main AWS services used by KanbanBOX infrastructure are:

• Elastic Load Balancing ELB: the load balancer, which is redirecting all the traffic to the web servers basing on their current workload and availability;
• Elastic Compute Cloud EC2: virtual web servers, on which the KanbanBOX application is running. New web servers can be up and running in a few seconds if workload in the KanbanBOX infrastructure is requiring so;
• Simple Storage Service S3: file storage service, which is automatically backed-up and replicated for maximum availability and durability of data;
• Relational Database Service RDS: MySQL database of AWS, with multi-availability zone replication and automatic fail-over promotion of Slave to Master;
• CloudWatch: monitoring service, covering every performance aspect of the KanbanBOX infrastructure.

Security of the Infrastructure

The KanbanBOX infrastructure is continuously monitored by automatic programs, to detect in real time abnormal activities, vulnerability e configurations not in accordance with the best practice.
The KanbanBOX application and infrastructure are at least annually subject to Penetration Testing e Vulnerability Assessment performed by external cybersecurity experts.

Backups

In addition to the complete redundancy of the infrastructure, KanbanBOX data are periodically backed-up.

KanbanBOX user files are stored inside the Simple Storage Service (S3) of AWS, which is taking care of backups for 99.999999999% durability.

KanbanBOX database is backed-up with the following policy:

• 2 Daily backups, with storage of the last 3 daily backups;
• 3 Weekly backup, with storage of the last 3 weekly backups;
• 2 Monthly backup, with storage of the last 3 monthly backups.

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) refers to the quantity of time that an application, system and/or process, can be down for without causing significant damage to the business as well as the time spent restoring the application and its data.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) refers to the amount of data that can be lost within a period most relevant to a business, before significant harm occurs, from the point of a critical event to the most preceding backup.

In relation to the provision of the KanbanBOX service to its customers and from a business continuity perspective, the service requirements have been defined in the BIA (Business Impact Analysis) and provide for:

• RPO (Recovery Point Objective): 24 hours
• RTO (Recovery Time Objective): 8 working hours