Patent Publication Number: US-2023155940-A1

Title: Dynamic traffic throttling

Description:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
     A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates generally to data processing and more specifically relates to dynamic traffic throttling. 
     BACKGROUND 
     At certain times, traffic to a particular web site may exceed site capacity. Excess traffic (e.g., requests to access the web site) may cause a degradation in service. It may be useful to throttle traffic by reducing a number of site requests over a predetermined time period (e.g., site requests per minute). However, it can be difficult to dynamically react to changing traffic conditions by dynamically throttling traffic. 
     The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only to provide examples of possible structures and process operations for the disclosed techniques. These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that may be made to implementations by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. 
         FIG.  1    shows an example system for dynamic traffic throttling in accordance with some implementations. 
         FIG.  2    shows an example information flow diagram for dynamic traffic throttling in accordance with some implementations. 
         FIG.  3    shows an example of a process for throttling traffic in accordance with some implementations. 
         FIG.  4    shows an example of a process for dynamic throttling adjustments in accordance with some implementations. 
         FIG.  5 A  shows a block diagram of an example of an environment  10  in which an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with some implementations. 
         FIG.  5 B  shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations of elements of  FIG.  5 A  and various possible interconnections between these elements. 
         FIG.  6 A  shows a system diagram of an example of architectural components of an on-demand database service environment  900 , in accordance with some implementations. 
         FIG.  6 B  shows a system diagram further illustrating an example of architectural components of an on-demand database service environment, in accordance with some implementations. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products according to the disclosed implementations are described in this section. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aid in the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus be apparent to one skilled in the art that implementations may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, certain operations have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring implementations. Other applications are possible, such that the following examples should not be taken as definitive or limiting either in scope or setting. 
     In the following detailed description, references are made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Although these implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable one skilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it is understood that these examples are not limiting, such that other implementations may be used, and changes may be made without departing from their spirit and scope. For example, the operations of methods shown and described herein are not necessarily performed in the order indicated. It should also be understood that the methods may include more or fewer operations than are indicated. In some implementations, operations described herein as separate operations may be combined. Conversely, what may be described herein as a single operation may be implemented in multiple operations. 
     Some implementations of the disclosed systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable media provide network security orchestration and management across different cloud providers to facilitate transitioning of enterprise infrastructure to public clouds. For instance, a multi-cloud infrastructure can be implemented on popular public cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure and Alibaba Cloud. Customer data can be protected in the various public clouds of the multi-cloud infrastructure. Some implementations of disclosed network security techniques and frameworks provide fundamental security measures to protect customer data from unauthorized access. For instance, some security measures require that only entities (internal or external with respect to a network) with proper permissions and authorizations can access certain resources in the network. 
     In some implementations, traffic to a site associated with a datacenter (e.g., a datacenter of a multi-tenant system) is throttled. In some implementations, during time periods when traffic is being throttled, requests from client devices to access the site are received by edge workers of a content delivery network (CDN) and at least a portion or subset of the client devices are directed to a waiting room site. The waiting room site may be associated with the site the client devices are requesting to access. For example, the waiting room site may have been configured by an entity associated with the site, may include a logo of the site, etc. In some implementations, client devices that have been directed to the waiting room site may be queued and may subsequently be directed to the requested site based on the queue (e.g., in an order specified by the queue). In some implementations, client devices may be directed from the waiting room site to the requested site based on a throttling rate. 
     In some implementations, a server associated with a core services protection (CSP) system may determine whether to begin throttling traffic. For example, the CSP server may determine that traffic is to be throttled based on a status of a datacenter. As a more particular example, the status of the datacenter may indicate a degradation in datacenter performance. In one example, degradation may be based on an identification of a spike in CPU usage of processors of the datacenter. Other examples of degradation metrics may include a spike in CPU usage of processors of an application server, a usage of connections to the datacenter, and/or network usage information (e.g., network bandwidth, latency, or the like). In some implementations, responsive to determining that traffic throttling is to be initiated, the CSP server may determine a throttling rate. In some implementations the throttling rate may be determined based at least in part on traffic during a time period prior to and/or overlapping with the detection of degradation in datacenter performance. For example, in some implementations, the CSP server may set a throttling rate that is below the number of requests per minute at the time of the detected degradation. As another example, in some implementations, the CSP server may set a throttling rate that is at or close to the number of requests per minute during a time period just prior to the detected degradation. In some implementations, the CSP server may identify a particular site for which traffic is to be throttled. For example, in an instance in which traffic to a particular site has spiked, the CSP server can determine that traffic to that site is to be throttled. By throttling traffic to specific sites that may be causing degradation of datacenter performance, impact to other sites associated with the datacenter may be mitigated. 
     In some implementations, the CSP server may enable a waiting room site. The waiting room site may be enabled with an indication of the throttling rate. By enabling the waiting room site, the CSP server can instruct edge workers associated with the CDN to utilize the waiting room site and effectively throttle traffic subject to the throttling rate. In some implementations, the CSP server may dynamically modify the throttling conditions based on an impact of the traffic throttling on datacenter performance. For example, the CSP server may determine that throttling traffic has sufficiently improved datacenter performance and can accordingly disable the waiting room site, thereby ending the throttling. As another example, the CSP server may determine that throttling traffic has improved datacenter performance and can increase the throttling rate, thereby allowing an increase in traffic to the requested site. As yet another example, the CSP server may determine that throttling traffic has not improved datacenter performance and may further decrease the throttling rate. By dynamically modifying throttling conditions responsive to datacenter performance, the CSP server can effectively balance the needs of different sites associated with the datacenter while also protecting sites experiencing a relatively high volume of traffic. Moreover, by utilizing edge workers to throttle traffic (by directing client devices to a waiting room site for a period of time), the CSP server can direct throttling while causing the actual implementation to occur downstream from the datacenter and closer to the client devices. This allows for more flexible throttling that is responsive to changing datacenter conditions. 
     It should be noted that, in some implementations, there may be multiple waiting room sites concurrently enabled, where the multiple waiting room sites are associated with different sites to which access has been requested. In some implementations, the different sites may be hosted by the same datacenter, by different datacenters, or any suitable combination. Additionally or alternatively, in some implementations, there may multiple waiting room sites concurrently enabled, where the multiple waiting room sites are associated with the same site for which access has been requested. For example, different waiting room sites may be associated with the same main site but different endpoints or resources associated with the main site. 
     It should be noted that the techniques described herein may be utilized under a variety of conditions or circumstances. For example, the techniques described herein may be utilized during particular time periods in which a site may experience an increase in site traffic, such as for an ecommerce site during a sales period, etc. As another example, the techniques described herein may be utilized during a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack in which a site that is being attacked is receiving an excessive number of requests. Continuing with this example, rather than passing the requests to the site, traffic may be intercepted by edge workers and redirected to the waiting room site, thereby preventing the entire datacenter from going down. Moreover, other sites hosted by the datacenter in a multi-tenant system may be protected from one site experiencing a DDOS attack. 
       FIG.  1    shows an example of a system  100  for dynamic traffic throttling in accordance with some implementations. As illustrated, a client device  102  requests access to a site associated with a datacenter  116 . Datacenter  116  may be associated with multiple sites in addition to the requested site. For example, datacenter  116  may be associated with a multi-tenant system. 
     In some implementations, the request to access the first site is received by a CDN  104 . The CDN  104  may be associated with multiple edge workers, such as an edge worker  106 . An edge worker may be a server that is located relatively downstream (i.e., closer to client device  102 ) from datacenter  116 . In some implementations, edge worker  106  may determine whether a waiting room has previously been enabled in connection with the requested site. In other words, edge worker  106  may determine whether throttling conditions have previously been initiated for the requested site. If so, edge worker  106  may direct client device  102  to a waiting room site  110 . The edge worker may after a period of time and subject to a previously determined throttling rate, allow client device  102  to access the requested site. It should be noted that multiple client devices may be accessing waiting room site  110  concurrently with client device  102 . In some implementations, edge worker  106  may be implemented as and/or include one or more databases, such as Edge KV. Such a database may store information, such as whether throttling has been initiated for a particular site, a current throttling rate for the particular site, a waiting room configuration associated with a waiting room client devices are to be directed to during throttling conditions, or the like. 
     In some implementations, edge worker  106  may utilize a throttle system  108  to identify and/or enforce throttling rates determined by CSP system  112 . For example, in some implementations, edge worker  106  may determine whether or not a waiting room has been enabled for a particular site using throttle system  108 . As a more particular example, edge worker  106  may use throttle system  108  to receive a message from CSP system  112  that indicates that throttling is to occur and, if throttling is to occur, a throttling rate and/or a waiting room configuration associated with a waiting room client devices are to be directed to. In some implementations, throttle system  108  may include an API gateway. 
     In some implementations, CSP system  112  may include one or more servers in communication with datacenter  116 . In some implementations, CSP system  112  and CDN  104  are operated by different entities. In some implementations, CSP system  112  may determine whether or not to initiate traffic throttling based on a status of datacenter  116 , as shown in and described below in connection with  FIGS.  3  and  4   . In some implementations, responsive to a determination that traffic throttling is to be initiated, CSP system  112  may enable a waiting room site, thereby causing traffic intercepted by CDN  104  to be directed to the waiting room site. In some implementations, the waiting room site may be preconfigured prior to any determination of whether traffic throttling is to occur. For example, in some implementations, the waiting room site may be designed and/or configured using an application associated with CSP system  112  and stored for later use. As a more particular example, a waiting room configuration  114  may be received and/or stored by CSP system  112 . In some implementations, waiting room configuration  114  may be received by CSP system  112  and subsequently passed or transmitted to a database associated with edge workers  106 . As another example, in some implementations, waiting room configuration  114  may be received and stored by edge workers  106 . In such implementations, waiting room configuration  114  may also be utilized by edge workers  106 . 
     Turning to  FIG.  2   , an example of an information flow diagram for traffic throttling is shown in accordance with some implementations. As illustrated, blocks of the information flow diagram are executed by a client device, a CDN/edge worker(s), a CSP system, and a datacenter. 
     At  202 , a client device may transmit a request to access a site associated with the datacenter. In some implementations, the client device may be any suitable user device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer, or the like. The site may be one of multiple sites associated with the datacenter, for example, as part of a multi-tenant system. 
     At  204 , the CDN/edge worker(s) receive the request to access the site and determine whether a waiting room associated with the site has previously been enabled. In other words, the CDN/edge worker(s) determine if throttling conditions have previously been initiated in connection with the requested site. In some implementations, the CDN/edge worker(s) determine whether a waiting room has previously been enabled by determining whether a message has previously been received indicating that throttling has been initiated (e.g., a message received from the CSP system). 
     If, at  204 , the CDN/edge worker(s) determine that a waiting room site has previously been enabled (“yes” at  204 ), the CDN/edge worker(s) proceed to  206  and direct the client device to the waiting room site. The waiting room site may have been preconfigured (e.g., by an entity associated with the requested site) and may include any suitable content. Examples of content that may be included in the waiting room site include a logo associated with the requested site, an estimated amount of time until the client device is directed to the requested site, any suitable graphics, animations, icons, etc., or the like. 
     It should be noted that, if a waiting room site has previously been enabled, the CDN/edge worker(s) may additionally determine a throttling rate that specifies a rate at which client devices are permitted to access the requested site. The throttling rate may have been determined by the CSP system, as will be discussed below in connection with blocks  210 - 216 . 
     At  208 , the CDN/edge worker(s) may process client devices accessing the waiting room site in accordance with the throttling rate. For example, the CDN/edge worker(s) may maintain a queue of client devices that have been directed to the waiting room site and may direct client devices from the queue to the requested site at a rate substantially corresponding to the throttling rate. As a more particular example, in an instance in which the throttling rate is 100 requests per minute, the CDN/edge worker(s) may direct  100  client devices per minute from the waiting room site to the requested site, where the datacenter may provide access to the requested site at  218 . 
     It should be noted that, in some implementations, a queue associated with the waiting room site may be prioritized based on various criteria such that a client device that requests the site and is directed to the waiting room site is not necessarily placed at the end of the queue. Rather, the client device may be placed further ahead in the queue based on various prioritization criteria. Examples of prioritization criteria may include a client device being authenticated to a certain tier of membership associated with the requested site, or the like. In some implementations, prioritization may be verified by the client device possessing a particular access cookie. 
     Conversely, if at  204 , the CDN/edge worker(s) determine that the waiting room site has not been enabled (“no” at  204 ), the CSP system can obtain, at  210 , information indicating status of the datacenter. The information may indicate present and/or recent CPU usage by processors of the datacenter, present and/or recent CPU usage by processors of the CSP system, network information associated with the datacenter (e.g., a present or recent bandwidth, a present or recent latency, etc.), datacenter connection usage, or the like. 
     At  212 , the CSP system can determine whether there is datacenter performance degradation based at least in part on the obtained information. For example, in some implementations, the CSP system can determine that there is datacenter performance degradation in response to determining that one or more metrics (e.g., CPU usage) exceed a predetermined threshold. As another example, in some implementations, the CSP system can determine that there is datacenter performance degradation in response to determining that one or more metrics (e.g., bandwidth, latency, etc.) are below a predetermined threshold. 
     If, at  212 , the CSP system determines that there is no datacenter performance degradation (“no” at  212 ), the CSP system can permit the client device to access the requested site at  218 . 
     Conversely, if, at  212 , the CSP system determines that there is datacenter performance degradation (“yes” at  212 ), the CSP system can determine a throttling rate at  214 . In some implementations, the throttling rate may be determined based on present or recent traffic to one or more sites associated with the datacenter, as shown in and described below in more detail in connection with  FIGS.  3  and  4   . In some implementations, the throttling rate may be determined based on a pre-identified (e.g., predetermined) rate at which degradation has been identified as likely to occur (e.g., based on previous or historical instances of degradation). For example, in some implementations, the throttling rate may be set to a rate below a rate at which degradation has been identified as likely to occur. By setting the throttling rate based on a pre-identified degradation rate at which degradation is likely to occur, degradation may be avoided by throttling access to sites at a rate below that at which degradation is likely to occur. 
     At  216 , the CSP system can enable the waiting room site. In some implementations, the CSP system can cause the waiting room site to be enabled by transmitting a message to the edge worker(s) that throttling is to occur in connection with the particular site. In some implementations the message may be transmitted by utilizing an API. In some implementations, the message may additionally indicate the throttling rate, for example, as payload associated with the message. 
     Responsive to the waiting room site being enabled, the CDN/edge worker(s) can direct the client device to the waiting room site at  206 . 
     In some implementations, a CSP system determines whether to throttle traffic to a particular site based on traffic to the first site associated with a datacenter and/or traffic to other sites associated with the datacenter. For example, in some implementations, the CSP system may determine that traffic to a site is to be throttled in response to determining that datacenter performance has degraded beyond an acceptable level. In some implementations, the CSP system may identify a site to be throttled based on an identification of the site as likely to be causing the degradation in performance. In some implementations, the CSP system may determine a throttling rate that controls an access rate (e.g., accesses per minute) of the site to be throttled. The throttling rate may be determined based at least in part on traffic to the site prior to and/or coincident with the degradation in performance. In some implementations, the CSP system may then transmit instructions to an edge worker that cause the edge worker to then redirect client devices to a waiting room site prior to accessing the site being throttled in accordance with the throttling rate. For example, in some implementations, the CSP system may cause a waiting room site to be enabled, which thereby causes the edge worker to direct client devices to the waiting room site rather to the requested site being throttled. 
       FIG.  3    shows a flowchart of an example process  300  for throttling traffic via an edge worker in accordance with some implementations. In some implementations, blocks of process  300  may be executed on one or more servers, such as servers associated with a CSP system. In some implementations, two or more blocks of process  300  may be executed substantially in parallel. In some implementations, one or more blocks of process  300  may omitted. 
     At  302 , process  300  can receive, via an edge worker (or multiple edge workers), a first set of requests to access a first site. The first set of requests may be from multiple client devices (e.g., two, five, ten, one hundred, one thousand, or the like) or from a single device. The first set of requests may include any suitable number of requests (e.g., one, ten, fifty, one hundred, one thousand, etc.) received over any suitable time period. The first site may be one that is associated with a datacenter associated with the CSP system. The datacenter may also be associated with sites other than the first site, for example, as part of a multi-tenant system. In some implementations, the edge worker may be a server that is located relatively downstream to the client devices requesting access to the first site. The edge worker may be communicatively coupled to the CSP system, for example, communicating via an API Gateway, as shown in and described above in connection with  FIG.  1   . 
     At  304 , process  300  can determine that traffic to the first site is to be throttled. For example, in some implementations, process  300  can determine that traffic to the first site is to be throttled responsive to determining that performance of the datacenter has degraded beyond an acceptable level. Degradation may be measured by CPU usage, network performance (e.g., bandwidth, latency, etc.), or the like. In some implementations, process  300  may identify degradation of datacenter performance, and may subsequently identify the first site as the site to which traffic is to be throttled. For example, process  300  may identify a first site that is experiencing more than a predetermined threshold of CPU usage associated with the datacenter (e.g., more than 50% CPU usage, more than 60% CPU usage, etc.). As another example, in some implementations, process  300  may identify the first site out of a set of sites associated with the datacenter based on factors such as the first site experiencing a spike in traffic over a period of time (e.g., over the previous minute, over the previous five minutes, over the previous ten minutes, etc.), the first site experiencing relatively higher traffic than the other sites (e.g., 50% more traffic, 100% more traffic, etc.), the first site utilizing a higher percentage of network bandwidth than other sites, or the like. In some implementations, process  300  may identify the first site based on a combination of factors, such as datacenter CPU usage, application server usage, network usage, or the like. 
     At  306 , process  300  can determine a throttling rate. The throttling rate may be an upper limit of accesses of the first site over a period of time, such as 100 accesses per minute, 200 accesses per minute, or the like. In some implementations, process  300  may determine the throttling rate based at least in part on traffic to the first site during a time period just preceding and/or coincident with degradation in performance of the datacenter. For example, in some implementations, process  300  can determine the throttling rate based at least in part on a number of requests in the first set of requests, which may be indicative of traffic to the first site during the time period just preceding and/or coincident with degradation in performance of the datacenter. In some implementations, the throttling rate can be a value that is lower than the traffic just prior to and/or coincident with the identification of degradation in performance of the datacenter. By way of example, in an instance in which there were 100 requests in the first set of requests, and in which the first set of requests spanned a minute, process  300  can set the throttling rate as a value lower than 100 requests per minute (e.g., 80 requests per minute, 50 requests per minute, 30 requests per minute, etc.). In some implementations, the value of the throttling rate may be determined based on a combination of the number of requests in the first set of requests and a degree of degradation of datacenter performance. For example, in some implementations, the throttling rate may be a decrease relative to the traffic represented in the first set of requests that is decreased in proportion to the degree of degradation. As a more particular example, in instances of more severe degradation in performance, the throttling rate may be set at a value that is substantially lower than the traffic represented in the first set of requests relative to an instance in which the degradation is less severe. In some implementations, the throttling rate may be determined based on a pre-identified (e.g., predetermined) rate at which degradation has been identified as likely to occur (e.g., based on previous or historical instances of degradation). In some implementations, the throttling rate may be determined based on a combination of requests to access the first site over a recent period of time and a pre-identified rate at which degradation has been identified as likely to occur. 
     At  308 , process  300  can transmit instructions to the edge worker, the instructions configured to cause the edge worker to direct at least a portion of additionally received requests to access the first site to a waiting room site. The instructions may cause the edge worker to direct client devices that have requested access to the first site to the waiting room site subject to, or in accordance with, the throttling rate. In some implementations, the additional requests may be received by the same or by different client devices as those associated with the first set of requests. In some implementations, at least a portion of client devices associated with the additional requests are directed to the waiting room site prior to being granted access to the requested first site. In some implementations, the client devices are queued, and are granted access to the first site based on an order of the queue, as shown in and described above in connection with block  208  of  FIG.  2   . 
     In some implementations, transmitting the instructions may involve causing a waiting room site associated with the first site to be enabled. The instructions to enable the waiting room may further include an indication of the throttling rate determined at block  306 . More detailed techniques for enabling the waiting room site are described below in connection with block  412  of  FIG.  4   . In some implementations, the edge worker may then receive an indication that the waiting room site has been enabled, and the edge worker may further identify the present throttling rate associated with the first site. 
     In some implementations, a CSP system may dynamically adjust throttling conditions based on datacenter performance. For example, in some implementations, the CSP system may initiate throttling of a first site at a first throttling rate responsive to detecting or identifying a degradation in performance of the datacenter. Continuing with this example, the CSP system may obtain updated information regarding performance of the datacenter to determine an effect of the throttling at the first throttling rate. Continuing further with this example, the CSP system may then modify the throttling conditions responsive to the updated information regarding performance of the datacenter. For example, responsive to determining that performance of the datacenter has improved due to throttling at the first throttling rate, the CSP system may disable throttling or modify the first throttling rate to a second, higher throttling rate, thereby allowing increased access to the first site. Conversely, responsive to determining that performance of the datacenter has not improved due to throttling at the first throttling rate, the CSP system may modify the first throttling rate to a second, lower throttling rate, thereby further decreasing traffic to the first site. 
       FIG.  4    shows a flowchart of an example process  400  for dynamic throttling adjustments in accordance with some implementations. In some implementations, blocks of process  400  may be executed by one or more servers, such as servers of a CSP system. In some implementations, two or more blocks of process  400  may be executed substantially in parallel. In some implementations, one or more blocks of process  400  may omitted. 
     Process  400  can begin at  402  by receiving, via an edge worker, a set of requests to access a first site associated with a datacenter. The set of requests may be from multiple client devices (e.g., two, five, ten, one hundred, one thousand, or the like) or from a single device. The set of requests may include any suitable number of requests (e.g., one, ten, fifty, one hundred, one thousand, etc.) received over any suitable time period. The first site may be one that is associated with a datacenter associated with the CSP system. The datacenter may also be associated with sites other than the first site, for example, as part of a multi-tenant system. In some implementations, the edge worker may be a server that is located relatively downstream to the client devices requesting access to the first site. The edge worker may be communicatively coupled to the CSP system, for example, communicating via an API Gateway, as shown in and described above in connection with  FIG.  1   . 
     At  404 , process  400  can obtain information indicating datacenter performance. Datacenter performance may include any suitable metrics or combination of metrics, such as CPU usage of one or more processors associated with the datacenter, network information (e.g., network bandwidth, network latency, etc.), or the like. The obtained information may coincide with a time period over which the set of requests was received, thereby indicating the datacenter performance at least partially due to responding to the set of requests. 
     At  406 , process  400  can determine whether a waiting room site is to be enabled. For example, process  400  can determine whether throttling is to be performed in connection with access to the first site, and, responsive to determining that throttling is to be performed, can determine that the waiting room site is to be enabled. Conversely, process  400  can determine that the waiting room site is not to be enabled responsive to determining that throttling is not to be performed. Process  400  can determine whether or not throttling is to be performed based on the information indicating datacenter performance, for example, by determining whether the information indicates an unacceptable level of degradation of datacenter performance, as described above in connection with block  304  of  FIG.  3   . 
     If, at  406 , process  400  determines that the waiting room site is not to be enabled (“no” at  406 ), process  400  can proceed to block  407  and can permit access to the first site unencumbered (e.g., without any throttling). 
     Conversely, if, at  406 , process  400  determines that the waiting room site is to be enabled (“yes” at  406 ), process  400  can proceed to block  408  and can determine a throttling rate. In some implementations, process  400  can determine the throttling rate based at least in part on the set of requests received at block  402 . For example, a number of requests in the set of requests may indicate traffic to the first site at a time a degradation in datacenter performance occurred, and process  400  can accordingly determine a throttling rate based on the traffic at which the degradation occurred. As a more particular example, in an instance in which the set of requests spanned a particular time period just prior to and/or coincident with the detection of the degradation in datacenter performance, process  400  can set the throttling rate as a rate of access lower than the rate of requests corresponding to the set of requests. By way of example, in an instance in which the set of requests includes 100 requests over a minute, process  400  can set the throttling rate to a rate lower than 100 requests per minute (e.g.,  80  requests per minute, 70 requests per minute, 50 requests per minute, etc.). In some implementations, the throttling rate may be determined based on a pre-identified (e.g., predetermined) rate at which degradation has been identified as likely to occur (e.g., based on previous or historical instances of degradation). In some implementations, the throttling rate may be determined based on a combination of requests to access the first site over a recent period of time and a pre-identified rate at which degradation has been identified as likely to occur. 
     At  410 , process  400  can enable the waiting room site using the throttling rate. For example, in some implementations, process  400  can transmit an instruction that causes the waiting room site to be activated or enabled, where a portion of the instruction indicates the throttling rate. An example of such an instruction which may utilize the Edge KV API is: 
     PUT edgekv/v1/networks/{network}/namespaces/{namespace-id}/groups/{group-id}/items/{item-id}, where the payload of the instruction may indicate the throttling rate, such as “{rate-limit:10}”, indicating a throttling rate of 10 requests per minute. 
     With respect to the above instruction, the network, namespace, group, and item may uniquely specify a site within an item, group, namespace, account hierarchy. 
     As described above in connection with  FIG.  1   , the waiting room site may have been pre-configured and provided to the CSP system prior to execution of process  400 . For example, the waiting room site may have been pre-configured by an entity associated with the first site. 
     It should be noted that enablement of the waiting room site may cause one or more edge workers to begin throttling traffic to the first site subject to the throttling rate. For example, the one or more edge workers may begin directing client devices to the enabled waiting room site prior to granting access to the first site, as shown in and described above in connection with  FIG.  2   . 
     At  412 , process  400  can obtain updated information indicating datacenter performance. For example, the updated information may indicate a change in datacenter performance as a result of the throttling. The updated information may include any metrics or combination of metrics, such as an updated CPU usage, updated network performance information (e.g., bandwidth, latency, etc.), or the like. 
     At  414 , process  400  can determine whether the waiting room site is to be disabled. For example process  400  can determine whether the updated information obtained at block  412  indicates that the datacenter performance has improved to a degree such that throttling traffic to the first site is no longer needed, and therefore, the waiting room site can be disabled. As another example, process  400  can determine that the updated information obtained at block  412  indicates that the datacenter performance has improved, but not to a degree that throttling traffic to the first site is no longer needed, and therefore, that the waiting room site is to remain enabled. As yet another example, process  400  can determine that the updated information obtained at block  412  indicates that the datacenter performance has not improved, and therefore, that the waiting room site is to remain enabled. 
     If, at  414 , process  400  determines that the waiting room site is not to be disabled (“no” at  414 ), process  400  can proceed to block  416  and can determine an updated throttling rate and can update the information associated with the waiting room site. For example, in an instance in which datacenter performance has improved, process  400  can determine an updated throttling rate that is higher than the throttling rate determined at block  408 . As another example, in an instance in which datacenter performance has not improved, process  400  can determine an updated throttling rate that is lower than the throttling rate determined at block  408 . It should be noted that, in some implementations, the throttling rate may remain the same. In some implementations, the degree to which the throttling rate is changed may be based at least in part on a degree of change in datacenter performance. For example, larger improvements in datacenter performance may lead to an updated throttling rate that is substantially lower, i.e., closer to no throttling. 
     Process  400  may update the throttling rate associated with the waiting room site by transmitting an instruction that indicates the updated throttling rate. For example, process  400  may transmit another PUT message with a payload that indicates the updated throttling rate. 
     Conversely, if, at  414 , process  400  determines that the waiting room site is to be disabled (“yes” at  414 ), process  400  can transmit an instruction that causes the waiting room site to be disabled or deactivated at  418 . It should be noted that disabling or deactivating a waiting room site may not delete the waiting room site, but may merely cause edge workers to no longer direct client devices to the waiting room site. Effectively, disabling the waiting room site may cause throttling to the first site to no longer occur. 
     An example of an instruction to disable a waiting room site using the Edge KV API is: 
     DELETE/edgekv/v1/networks/{network}/namespaces/{namespace-id}/groups/{group-id}/items/{item-id} 
     It should be noted that process  400  can loop through the blocks of process  400  any suitable number of times. For example, process  400  can loop through the blocks of process  400  indefinitely and/or continuously. 
       FIG.  5 A  shows a block diagram of an example of an environment  10  in which an on-demand database service exists and can be used in accordance with some implementations. Environment  10  may include user systems  12 , network  14 , database system  16 , processor system  17 , application platform  18 , network interface  20 , tenant data storage  22 , system data storage  24 , program code  26 , and process space  28 . In other implementations, environment  10  may not have all of these components and/or may have other components instead of, or in addition to, those listed above. 
     A user system  12  may be implemented as any computing device(s) or other data processing apparatus such as a machine or system used by a user to access a database system  16 . For example, any of user systems  12  can be a handheld and/or portable computing device such as a mobile phone, a smartphone, a laptop computer, or a tablet. Other examples of a user system include computing devices such as a workstation and/or a network of computing devices. As illustrated in  FIG.  5 A  (and in more detail in  FIG.  5 B ) user systems  12  might interact via a network  14  with an on-demand database service, which is implemented in the example of  FIG.  5 A  as database system  16 . 
     An on-demand database service, implemented using system  16  by way of example, is a service that is made available to users who do not need to necessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system. Instead, the database system may be available for their use when the users need the database system, i.e., on the demand of the users. Some on-demand database services may store information from one or more tenants into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system (MTS). A database image may include one or more database objects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or the equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against the database object(s). Application platform  18  may be a framework that allows the applications of system  16  to run, such as the hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In some implementations, application platform  18  enables creation, managing and executing one or more applications developed by the provider of the on-demand database service, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems  12 , or third party application developers accessing the on-demand database service via user systems  12 . 
     The users of user systems  12  may differ in their respective capacities, and the capacity of a particular user system  12  might be entirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. For example, when a salesperson is using a particular user system  12  to interact with system  16 , the user system has the capacities allotted to that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that user system to interact with system  16 , that user system has the capacities allotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical role model, users at one permission level may have access to applications, data, and database information accessible by a lower permission level user, but may not have access to certain applications, database information, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level. Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard to accessing and modifying application and database information, depending on a user&#39;s security or permission level, also called authorization. 
     Network  14  is any network or combination of networks of devices that communicate with one another. For example, network  14  can be any one or any combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, star network, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriate configuration. Network  14  can include a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred to as the Internet. The Internet will be used in many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood that the networks that the present implementations might use are not so limited. 
     User systems  12  might communicate with system  16  using TCP/IP and, at a higher network level, use other common Internet protocols to communicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTP is used, user system  12  might include an HTTP client commonly referred to as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from an HTTP server at system  16 . Such an HTTP server might be implemented as the sole network interface  20  between system  16  and network  14 , but other techniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations, the network interface  20  between system  16  and network  14  includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system  16 , each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS&#39; data; however, other alternative configurations may be used instead. 
     In one implementation, system  16 , shown in  FIG.  5 A , implements a web-based CRM system. For example, in one implementation, system  16  includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRM software applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, web pages and other information to and from user systems  12  and to store to, and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical database object in tenant data storage  22 , however, tenant data typically is arranged in the storage medium(s) of tenant data storage  22  so that data of one tenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not have access to another tenant&#39;s data, unless such data is expressly shared. In certain implementations, system  16  implements applications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system  16  may provide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User (or third party developer) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may be supported by the application platform  18 , which manages creation, storage of the applications into one or more database objects and executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the process space of the system  16 . 
     One arrangement for elements of system  16  is shown in  FIGS.  5 A and  5 B , including a network interface  20 , application platform  18 , tenant data storage  22  for tenant data  23 , system data storage  24  for system data  25  accessible to system  16  and possibly multiple tenants, program code  26  for implementing various functions of system  16 , and a process space  28  for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, such as running applications as part of an application hosting service. Additional processes that may execute on system  16  include database indexing processes. 
     Several elements in the system shown in  FIG.  5 A  include conventional, well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example, each user system  12  could include a desktop personal computer, workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol (WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable of interfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other network connection. The term “computing device” is also referred to herein simply as a “computer”. User system  12  typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer browser, Netscape&#39;s Navigator browser, Opera&#39;s browser, or a WAP-enabled browser in the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like, allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system) of user system  12  to access, process and view information, pages and applications available to it from system  16  over network  14 . Each user system  12  also typically includes one or more user input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or the like, for interacting with a GUI provided by the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, OLED display, etc.) of the computing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and other information provided by system  16  or other systems or servers. Thus, “display device” as used herein can refer to a display of a computer system such as a monitor or touch-screen display, and can refer to any computing device having display capabilities such as a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, a television set-top box, or wearable device such Google Glass® or other human body-mounted display apparatus. For example, the display device can be used to access data and applications hosted by system  16 , and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations are suitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be used instead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like. 
     According to one implementation, each user system  12  and all of its components are operator configurable using applications, such as a browser, including computer code run using a central processing unit such as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system  16  (and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) and all of its components might be operator configurable using application(s) including computer code to run using processor system  17 , which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which may include an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can have instructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used to program a computing device to perform any of the methods of the implementations described herein. Computer program code  26  implementing instructions for operating and configuring system  16  to intercommunicate and to process web pages, applications and other data and media content as described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotating media including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other type of computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is well known, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer code for the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programming language that can be executed on a client system and/or server or server system such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may be used. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.). 
     According to some implementations, each system  16  is configured to provide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client) systems  12  to support the access by user systems  12  as tenants of system  16 . As such, system  16  provides security mechanisms to keep each tenant&#39;s data separate unless the data is shared. If more than one MTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or they may be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or more servers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/or physically connected servers distributed locally or across one or more geographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to refer to one type of computing device such as a system including processing hardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as a memory device or database, and, in some instances, a database application (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also be understood that “server system” and “server” are often used interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects described herein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, a collection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online or offline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include a distributed database or storage network and associated processing intelligence. 
       FIG.  5 B  shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations of elements of  FIG.  5 A  and various possible interconnections between these elements. That is,  FIG.  5 B  also illustrates environment  10 . However, in  FIG.  5 B  elements of system  16  and various interconnections in some implementations are further illustrated.  FIG.  5 B  shows that user system  12  may include processor system  12 A, memory system  12 B, input system  12 C, and output system  12 D.  FIG.  5 B  shows network  14  and system  16 .  FIG.  5 B  also shows that system  16  may include tenant data storage  22 , tenant data  23 , system data storage  24 , system data  25 , User Interface (UI)  30 , Application Program Interface (API)  32 , PL/SOQL  34 , save routines  36 , application setup mechanism  38 , application servers  50   1 - 50   N , system process space  52 , tenant process spaces  54 , tenant management process space  60 , tenant storage space  62 , user storage  64 , and application metadata  66 . In other implementations, environment  10  may not have the same elements as those listed above and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above. 
     User system  12 , network  14 , system  16 , tenant data storage  22 , and system data storage  24  were discussed above in  FIG.  5 A . Regarding user system  12 , processor system  12 A may be any combination of one or more processors. Memory system  12 B may be any combination of one or more memory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system  12 C may be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks. Output system  12 D may be any combination of output devices, such as one or more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown by  FIG.  5 B , system  16  may include a network interface  20  (of  FIG.  5 A ) implemented as a set of application servers  50 , an application platform  18 , tenant data storage  22 , and system data storage  24 . Also shown is system process space  52 , including individual tenant process spaces  54  and a tenant management process space  60 . Each application server  50  may be configured to communicate with tenant data storage  22  and the tenant data  23  therein, and system data storage  24  and the system data  25  therein to serve requests of user systems  12 . The tenant data  23  might be divided into individual tenant storage spaces  62 , which can be either a physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within each tenant storage space  62 , user storage  64  and application metadata  66  might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of a user&#39;s most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage  64 . Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is a tenant might be stored to tenant storage space  62 . A UI  30  provides a user interface and an API  32  provides an application programmer interface to system  16  resident processes to users and/or developers at user systems  12 . The tenant data and the system data may be stored in various databases, such as one or more Oracle® databases. 
     Application platform  18  includes an application setup mechanism  38  that supports application developers&#39; creation and management of applications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage  22  by save routines  36  for execution by subscribers as one or more tenant process spaces  54  managed by tenant management process  60  for example. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL  34  that provides a programming language style interface extension to API  32 . A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations is discussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA A MULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued on Jun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one or more system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata  66  for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as an application in a virtual machine. 
     Each application server  50  may be communicably coupled to database systems, e.g., having access to system data  25  and tenant data  23 , via a different network connection. For example, one application server  50   1  might be coupled via the network  14  (e.g., the Internet), another application server  50   N−1  might be coupled via a direct network link, and another application server  50   N  might be coupled by yet a different network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between application servers  50  and the database system. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may be used to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used. 
     In certain implementations, each application server  50  is configured to handle requests for any user associated with any organization that is a tenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove application servers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there is preferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to a specific application server  50 . In one implementation, therefore, an interface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5 Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the application servers  50  and the user systems  12  to distribute requests to the application servers  50 . In one implementation, the load balancer uses a least connections algorithm to route user requests to the application servers  50 . Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as round robin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, in certain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same user could hit three different application servers  50 , and three requests from different users could hit the same application server  50 . In this manner, by way of example, system  16  is multi-tenant, wherein system  16  handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data and applications across disparate users and organizations. 
     As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs a sales force where each salesperson uses system  16  to manage their sales process. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., all applicable to that user&#39;s personal sales process (e.g., in tenant data storage  22 ). In an example of an MTS arrangement, since all of the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit, calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system having nothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example, if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as to that customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby. 
     While each user&#39;s data might be separate from other users&#39; data regardless of the employers of each user, some data might be organization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users or all of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, there might be some data structures managed by system  16  that are allocated at the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at the user level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants including possible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keep data, applications, and application use separate. Also, because many tenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their own system, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions that may be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data and tenant-specific data, system  16  might also maintain system level data usable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data might include industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharable among tenants. 
     In certain implementations, user systems  12  (which may be client systems) communicate with application servers  50  to request and update system-level and tenant-level data from system  16  that may involve sending one or more queries to tenant data storage  22  and/or system data storage  24 . System  16  (e.g., an application server  50  in system  16 ) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. System data storage  24  may generate query plans to access the requested data from the database. 
     Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, such as a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefined categories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may be used herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and custom objects according to some implementations. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one or more data categories logically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a table contains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes a customer with fields for basic contact information such as name, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe a purchase order, including fields for information such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standard entities might include tables for case, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, each containing pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word “entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and “table”. 
     In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to create and store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standard entities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standard objects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASE SYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teaches systems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizing standard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certain implementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored in a single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logical tables per organization. It is transparent to customers that their multiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that their data may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers. 
       FIG.  6 A  shows a system diagram of an example of architectural components of an on-demand database service environment  600 , in accordance with some implementations. A client machine located in the cloud  604 , generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as described herein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environment via one or more edge routers  608  and  612 . A client machine can be any of the examples of user systems  12  described above. The edge routers may communicate with one or more core switches  620  and  624  via firewall  616 . The core switches may communicate with a load balancer  628 , which may distribute server load over different pods, such as the pods  640  and  644 . The pods  640  and  644 , which may each include one or more servers and/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and other operations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with the pods may be conducted via pod switches  632  and  636 . Components of the on-demand database service environment may communicate with a database storage  656  via a database firewall  648  and a database switch  652 . 
     As shown in  FIGS.  6 A and  6 B , accessing an on-demand database service environment may involve communications transmitted among a variety of different hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demand database service environment  600  is a simplified representation of an actual on-demand database service environment. For example, while only one or two devices of each type are shown in  FIGS.  6 A and  6 B , some implementations of an on-demand database service environment may include anywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demand database service environment need not include each device shown in  FIGS.  6 A and  6 B , or may include additional devices not shown in  FIGS.  6 A and  6 B . 
     Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database service environment  600  may be implemented on the same physical device or on different hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or a combination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “data processing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used herein are not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include any hardware and software configured to provide the described functionality. 
     The cloud  604  is intended to refer to a data network or combination of data networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located in the cloud  604  may communicate with the on-demand database service environment to access services provided by the on-demand database service environment. For example, client machines may access the on-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/or process information. 
     In some implementations, the edge routers  608  and  612  route packets between the cloud  604  and other components of the on-demand database service environment  600 . The edge routers  608  and  612  may employ the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol of the Internet. The edge routers  608  and  612  may maintain a table of IP networks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability among autonomous systems on the Internet. 
     In one or more implementations, the firewall  616  may protect the inner components of the on-demand database service environment  600  from Internet traffic. The firewall  616  may block, permit, or deny access to the inner components of the on-demand database service environment  600  based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall  616  may act as one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a stateful filter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall. 
     In some implementations, the core switches  620  and  624  are high-capacity switches that transfer packets within the on-demand database service environment  600 . The core switches  620  and  624  may be configured as network bridges that quickly route data between different components within the on-demand database service environment. In some implementations, the use of two or more core switches  620  and  624  may provide redundancy and/or reduced latency. 
     In some implementations, the pods  640  and  644  may perform the core data processing and service functions provided by the on-demand database service environment. Each pod may include various types of hardware and/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architecture is discussed in greater detail with reference to  FIG.  6 B . 
     In some implementations, communication between the pods  640  and  644  may be conducted via the pod switches  632  and  636 . The pod switches  632  and  636  may facilitate communication between the pods  640  and  644  and client machines located in the cloud  604 , for example via core switches  620  and  624 . Also, the pod switches  632  and  636  may facilitate communication between the pods  640  and  644  and the database storage  656 . 
     In some implementations, the load balancer  628  may distribute workload between the pods  640  and  644 . Balancing the on-demand service requests between the pods may assist in improving the use of resources, increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducing overhead. The load balancer  628  may include multilayer switches to analyze and forward traffic. 
     In some implementations, access to the database storage  656  may be guarded by a database firewall  648 . The database firewall  648  may act as a computer application firewall operating at the database application layer of a protocol stack. The database firewall  648  may protect the database storage  656  from application attacks such as structure query language (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorized information disclosure. 
     In some implementations, the database firewall  648  may include a host using one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy traffic before passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall  648  may inspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content or database requests. The database firewall  648  may work on the SQL application level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications&#39; connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well as intercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a database network or application interface. 
     In some implementations, communication with the database storage  656  may be conducted via the database switch  652 . The multi-tenant database storage  656  may include more than one hardware and/or software components for handling database queries. Accordingly, the database switch  652  may direct database queries transmitted by other components of the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods  640  and  644 ) to the correct components within the database storage  656 . 
     In some implementations, the database storage  656  is an on-demand database system shared by many different organizations. The on-demand database service may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualized approach, or any other type of database approach. On-demand database services are discussed in greater detail with reference to  FIGS.  6 A and  6 B . 
       FIG.  6 B  shows a system diagram further illustrating an example of architectural components of an on-demand database service environment, in accordance with some implementations. The pod  644  may be used to render services to a user of the on-demand database service environment  600 . In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of servers and/or other systems. The pod  644  includes one or more content batch servers  664 , content search servers  1068 , query servers  682 , file servers  686 , access control system (ACS) servers  680 , batch servers  684 , and app servers  688 . Also, the pod  644  includes database instances  690 , quick file systems (QFS)  692 , and indexers  694 . In one or more implementations, some or all communication between the servers in the pod  644  may be transmitted via the switch  636 . 
     The content batch servers  664  may handle requests internal to the pod. These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particular customer. For example, the content batch servers  664  may handle requests related to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks. 
     The content search servers  668  may provide query and indexer functions. For example, the functions provided by the content search servers  1068  may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demand database service environment. 
     The file servers  686  may manage requests for information stored in the file storage  698 . The file storage  698  may store information such as documents, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requests for information using the file servers  686 , the image footprint on the database may be reduced. 
     The query servers  682  may be used to retrieve information from one or more file systems. For example, the query system  682  may receive requests for information from the app servers  688  and then transmit information queries to the NFS  696  located outside the pod. 
     The pod  644  may share a database instance  690  configured as a multi-tenant environment in which different organizations share access to the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod  644  may call upon various hardware and/or software resources. In some implementations, the ACS servers  680  may control access to data, hardware resources, or software resources. 
     In some implementations, the batch servers  684  may process batch jobs, which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers  684  may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers  688 , to trigger the batch jobs. 
     In some implementations, the QFS  692  may be an open source file system available from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS may serve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessing information available within the pod  644 . The QFS  692  may support some volume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be grouped together into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on a separate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applications where long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system may communicate with one or more content search servers  668  and/or indexers  694  to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in the network file systems  696  and/or other storage systems. 
     In some implementations, one or more query servers  682  may communicate with the NFS  696  to retrieve and/or update information stored outside of the pod  644 . The NFS  696  may allow servers located in the pod  644  to access information to access files over a network in a manner similar to how local storage is accessed. 
     In some implementations, queries from the query servers  622  may be transmitted to the NFS  696  via the load balancer  628 , which may distribute resource requests over various resources available in the on-demand database service environment. The NFS  696  may also communicate with the QFS  692  to update the information stored on the NFS  696  and/or to provide information to the QFS  692  for use by servers located within the pod  644 . 
     In some implementations, the pod may include one or more database instances  690 . The database instance  690  may transmit information to the QFS  692 . When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be available for use by servers within the pod  644  without using an additional database call. 
     In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to the indexer  694 . Indexer  694  may provide an index of information available in the database  690  and/or QFS  692 . The index information may be provided to file servers  686  and/or the QFS  692 . 
     In some implementations, one or more application servers or other servers described above with reference to  FIGS.  5 A and  5 B  include a hardware and/or software framework configurable to execute procedures using programs, routines, scripts, etc. Thus, in some implementations, one or more of application servers  50   1 - 50   N  of  FIG.  5 B  can be configured to implement components and initiate performance of one or more of the operations described above with reference to  FIGS.  1 - 4    by instructing another computing device to perform an operation. In some implementations, one or more application servers  50   1 - 50   N  carry out, either partially or entirely, one or more of the disclosed operations described with reference to  FIGS.  1 - 4   . In some implementations, app servers  688  of  FIG.  6 B  support the construction of applications provided by the on-demand database service environment  600  via the pod  644 . Thus, an app server  688  may include a hardware and/or software framework configurable to execute procedures to partially or entirely carry out or instruct another computing device to carry out one or more operations disclosed herein, including operations described above with reference to  FIGS.  1 - 4   . In alternative implementations, two or more app servers  1088  may cooperate to perform or cause performance of such operations. Any of the databases and other storage facilities described above with reference to  FIGS.  5 A,  5 B,  6 A and  6 B  can be configured to store lists, articles, documents, records, files, and other objects for implementing the operations described above with reference to  FIGS.  1 - 4   . For instance, lists of available communication channels associated with share actions for sharing a type of data item can be maintained in tenant data storage  22  and/or system data storage  24  of  FIGS.  5 A and  5 B . By the same token, lists of default or designated channels for particular share actions can be maintained in storage  22  and/or storage  24 . In some other implementations, rather than storing one or more lists, articles, documents, records, and/or files, the databases and other storage facilities described above can store pointers to the lists, articles, documents, records, and/or files, which may instead be stored in other repositories external to the systems and environments described above with reference to  FIGS.  5 A,  5 B,  6 A and  6 B . 
     While some of the disclosed implementations may be described with reference to a system having an application server providing a front end for an on-demand database service capable of supporting multiple tenants, the disclosed implementations are not limited to multi-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers. Some implementations may be practiced using various database architectures such as ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of the implementations claimed. 
     It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations can be embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or computer software in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/or methods are possible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software. 
     Any of the disclosed implementations may be embodied in various types of hardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example, some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part, by computer-readable media that include program instructions, state information, etc., for performing various services and operations described herein. Examples of program instructions include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-level code that may be executed by a computing device such as a server or other data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as flash memory, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD); magneto-optical media; and hardware devices specially configured to store program instructions, such as read-only memory (ROM) devices and random access memory (RAM) devices. A computer-readable medium may be any combination of such storage devices. 
     Any of the operations and techniques described in this application may be implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using any suitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perl using, for example, object-oriented techniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program code may be packaged with a compatible device or provided separately from other devices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readable medium may reside on or within a single computing device or an entire computer system, and may be among other computer-readable media within a system or network. A computer system or computing device may include a monitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of the results mentioned herein to a user. 
     While various implementations have been described herein, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present application should not be limited by any of the implementations described herein, but should be defined only in accordance with the following and later-submitted claims and their equivalents.