Sakai is a Java-based, service-oriented web application that provides a variety of capabilities supporting teaching and learning, portfolios, research, and ad-hoc project collaboration. Sakai is typically deployed using Apache Tomcat as its servlet container and scalability is achieved by running multiple instances of Tomcat in a clustered environment, each deploying a copy of Sakai. It integrates with a variety of external authentication services including CAS, Kerberos, LDAP, Shibboleth and WebAuth. A single database, usually MySQL or Oracle, provides a transactional store of information while file storage is typically delegated to NAS or SAN solutions. In most production settings, Sakai relies on a back-end student information system (SIS) to provide it with student and course information, which Sakai consults via provider APIs.