Nebo is referred to as having component-based architecture. What does this mean?
One of the many strengths of the Nebo architecture is its component-based design and the utilization of each component. Each component is independent and can be easily interchanged with another component that provides the same functionality. This allows Nebo to support a best-of-breed approach so our customers can use the products that best meet their needs.

How is Nebo a development platform?
Nebo is more than just a learning management system. It is actually a development platform that can be used to create any type of software or extend and enhance software developed for the Nebo Platform. The Nebo Software Developer’s Kit (SDK) provides all the information and tools necessary to build, extend or enhance software.

What is the value of using WebLogic Application Server?
There are many application servers available in the marketplace (WebLogic™, iPlanet™, Web Sphere™, etc.). An application server helps reduce development time to create solutions as well as provides processing on the backend to reduce processing load on the client workstation and makes web applications faster. Learnframe chose WebLogic because of its superb reputation in the marketplace and its tested reliability and scalability. It’s important to note that although we have selected WebLogic as our application server, we are not dependent on WebLogic as we have abstracted our logic from the application server and could use alternative application servers.

Describe how security across the firewall and with users on different sides of the firewall is handled.
The system supports User Authentication through SSL and LDAP (Novell Directory Service™ and Active Directory). In addition, the authentication component can be extended to support biometrics, card scan, thumb print or other such authentication mechanisms.

Describe the architectural scalability for multiple learner groups.
Nebo is limited only by hardware and the capacity of the database selected.

Describe the average database size with 10,000 learners.
Approximately 100MB.

Describe the general “openness” of your system.
Nebo uses Java 2.0 Enterprise, Enterprise Java Beans and HTML. Learnframe supports all the industry courseware standards, including AICC, SCORM, IMS and IEEE. Learnframe’s unique connection technology architecture allows drivers to connect all forms of courseware, without requiring changes to the courseware or our system. This allows us to quickly and easily support any content built to any standard. Learnframe’s component-based system architecture allows any component to be extended or replaced with little or no effect on the rest of the system.

Describe your largest installation. Include hardware and database specifications as well as the number of users and administrators.
WebLogic’s Application Server is rated at 50,000 concurrent connections per server. The total number of users is only limited by the size of the server farm. Learnframe’s design criterion is support for 500,000 simultaneous users.

Describe your system architecture.
Nebo employs an N-Tier architecture with the ability to separate, distribute and cluster/load balance the web servers, application servers, database servers and messaging servers. In addition, components within each layer may be separated out and distributed across servers. Complete separation is maintained between layers, allowing any component to be updated real-time. Additionally, the data abstraction layer allows the system to point to and use natively external data sources including traditional and object oriented databases.

Does your architecture scale from a small implementation of 5,000 learners to a larger implementation of 250,000+ learners?
Given Learnframe’s N-Tier architecture, the system is almost infinitely scalable. The system can be broken down to where individual components are placed in independent server farms giving support to millions of users.

Does your product require any browser plug-ins or applets?
Nebo does not require any plug-ins, applets or downloads. An optional feature of Nebo is our SmartUpdate service which is used to deliver components to the desktop when courseware that requires players has been selected.

Does your product support a centralized database architecture?
Yes. The data abstraction layer supports access to virtually any DBMS, including object-oriented databases. Nebo ships with the choice of built in support for either MS SQL 7.0 or Oracle 8.1.6.

How can all interactions with your product take place over the web: intranet or Internet?
All user interfaces are 100% HTML. This allows any student using a standard browser to access the system, including PDAs, cell phones and so forth.

List any system prerequisites for your product? (Include networking, hardware, database, web server, and other requirements).
Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 servers (Sun Solaris UNIX 2.8 support will follow shortly after product release). Weblogic application and web servers are required components, and both of these ship as part of the product.

What is the recommended connection speed for Internet access?
Bandwidth and throughput are dictated by the courseware to be delivered. The Learnframe system is a minor component of the overall bandwidth and has been designed to minimize network traffic and load.

Which browsers are supported? What browser versions? What percentage of your overall installations use Netscape? Internet Explorer?
Any HTML-based web browser. The UI is system independent. The product has been tested on IE 4.01 to 5.5 and Netscape 4.75 and Netscape 6. We have slightly more IE users than Netscape users.

What databases does it support?
It supports virtually any DBMS. Tested specifically for MS SQL Server 7.0 and Oracle 8.1.6.

What Operating Systems does it support?
Initial release will support Windows NT and Windows 2000. Sun Solaris UNIX 2.8 support will follow shortly after product release.

What are your implementation models? Hosting? Behind the fire wall? Both?
Nebo can support both implementation models – behind the firewall and hosting.