Architecture
A Bridge is installed on an on-premise customer system, on which it can access local data sources (databases, files).
The Bridge and the Lobster Data Platform communicate via the Bridge Gateway (via tunnel, no VPN needed). So customer systems are not directly exposed to the internet. You can use our public Gateway by default or a private Gateway (more on that later).
You can use multiple Bridges on different systems.
The Lobster API Server hosts the Bridge Registry (stores Bridge configurations) and the Gateway Registry (stores Gateway configurations). You can usually ignore that part.
Certificates
Each system (Lobster Data Platform and Bridge) has its own private key and public certificate. Each HTTPS request through the tunnel is subject to stringent authentication, validation, and encryption via TLS protocols, guaranteeing confidentiality and data integrity. We call those certificates Bridge Certificate and Platform Certificate.
Bridge data services
The Bridge provides several data services to exchange data between the Lobster Data Platform and the Bridge.
Database (Bridge data service): Access databases on the on-premise system (where the Bridge is installed) with the Lobster Data Platform.
ETL/ELT (Bridge data service): Run ETL/ELT jobs of the Lobster Data Platform on the Bridge.
AS2 (Bridge data service): Transfer files via AS2 message between the Lobster Data Platform and the Bridge.