FlexVertex is available in multiple editions — Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum — each designed to meet specific deployment, scalability, and reliability needs.
The editions share the same APIs and data compatibility, ensuring that your applications and data remain portable across all tiers.
This means you can start with the edition that fits your current requirements and upgrade without rewriting code or migrating data structures.
The primary differences between editions relate to:
The free FlexVertex Iron edition serves two primary purposes. First, it offers all our functionality - except replication - in a single package, making it an ideal learning platform. It’s also great for software vendors to incorporate into their applications for redistribution and is especially attractive for powering embedded systems. We’ll explore both use cases in this video.
There are several ways to run Iron. It’s packaged in a container, which you can operate on a single machine, either on-premises or in the cloud. If you want to bundle it into your application directly, it can run within a single executable process.
If you’re a student or simply wanting to learn more about the FlexVertex Data Multiverse, Iron is perfect for you. It’s easy to set up and operate, and there’s a simple path forward if you want to upgrade.
If you’re building a new application that can run on a single server, Iron is a great product to redistribute. It’s powerful, yet simple, and there’s no charge, royalties, or any other reporting requirements. All the FlexVertex Data Multiverse functionality is present except replication. Your code works across all editions, and there are no limits for users and data.
If replication isn’t a concern, you can run Iron on a single, large node. As your processing needs grow, you can always deploy a larger server. This is known as vertical scalability.
Many customers will find Iron to be an excellent choice that satisfies all their needs, but still others will have additional requirements which can best be addressed by the Bronze edition.
As you consider which edition to use, it’s important to remember that our APIs work on each one, and that your data is also portable across all of them. This greatly reduces risk, and lets you change editions as you see fit.
With that said, how can you tell if Bronze is right for you? First, Bronze is intended as a first step into a multiple server environment. This lets you replicate information onto distributed instances, which protects data and makes interesting new use cases possible. However, since FlexVertex doesn’t charge by user count or data volumes, there are no advantages to running a multi-server environment just to save money.
If you decide to move to Bronze, you should also note that, by default, this edition includes three servers. This number of servers is the minimum that provides fault tolerance. If you want to increase the strength of your configuration, consider investing in higher quality servers, adding an optional fourth server to your FlexVertex cluster, or evaluate using the Silver or Gold editions.
Bronze is intended as a first step into a multiple server environment. This lets you replicate information onto a few distributed instances, which is primarily meant to protect data. However, you’ll want a larger server configuration than Bronze if any of these conditions apply: you operate in more geographies, you have bigger processing loads, you want to carry out real time analytics, or you want to increase your overall data volumes.
As is the case with all FlexVertex editions, Silver is code and data compatible with Iron, Bronze, Gold, or Platinum. This greatly reduces risk, and lets you change editions as you see fit.
If you decide to move to Silver, you should also note that this edition includes a minimum of five servers, and this greatly boosts your fault tolerance protections. Having additional servers at your disposal also introduces appealing new use cases, such as dedicating one to conducting real time analytics without impacting production systems.
The primary difference between Silver and Gold is the number of included servers. Everything else - including code and data cross-compatability - is identical.
The Silver and Gold editions are generally meant for sophisticated applications that need the performance and data protection offered by multiple nodes. For many organizations, either Silver or Gold will be sufficient to meet their needs. However, for those applications that must support the largest number of users, the biggest data volumes, the most varied workloads, or any combination of these requirements, the Platinum edition will be the best choice.
If you decide to move to Platinum, you should also note that this edition includes a minimum of 20 servers, and this greatly boosts your fault tolerance protections. Having additional servers at your disposal also introduces appealing new use cases, such as dedicating nodes for conducting real time analytics, in multiple locations, without impacting production systems. With additional servers, you also have more options to roll out public, private, or hybrid cloud configurations.