Enterprise File Fabric™
The File Fabric provides a multi-cloud solution for on-site and on-cloud data and can be used for solutions as diverse as data governance and compliance through to Big Data / Object Storage use cases.
The below set of slides list out use cases that the Enterprise File Fabric can be applied to.
Continue reading “Enterprise File Fabric Use Cases”
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This blog posts hilights a feature demo that was jointly presented on a recent webex with IBM.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/u624YrgXurU
Continue reading “Turning IBM Cloud Object Storage and SoftLayer into an Enterprise drop box”
by Below is the presentation at the OpenStack Austin Summit by the Storage Made Easy CEO, Jim Liddle.
by More and more companies are turning to Object Storage to handle the growing amounts of structured and unstructured data that is corporately generated and consumed.
As companies move to this new storage paradigm IT is struggling to not only manage, index, and secure the newly migrated / stored data, but also having difficulty with figuring out how they can expose access to users.
by The latest iOS SME client app version 3.13 released on the 25th March has been updated with very useful new features, following is a list of some of the main ones:
— Document Provider —
The new Document Provider feature makes SME Cloud available to other 3rd party apps giving easy access to your SME files.
For example, you can now import a file from a mapped SME Cloud into dropbox as follows:
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This blog post is a technical post outlining the steps needed to deploy the Storage Made Easy Cloud Control Gateway and Enterprise File Share and Sync solution on the Azure IaaS compute infrastructure.
Storage Made Easy provides a private enterprise file share and sync solution that can not only be used with Azure Blob Storage Data but which can also be used as a cloud security point to secure other storage points or sync and share solutions, such as Office365 and SharePoint. We call this Cloud Control and you can read more about it here.
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As more and more companies use the Cloud to replace their existing file server the need for similar functionality to that which existed on-premise becomes important. Once such features is file locking.
File locking simply allows a user to lock a file whilst updating to prevent another user editing the same file. If locking does not exist then at worse conflicts occur, at best file updates get overwritten and perhaps even lost. It is a key piece of a collaboration experience.
Storage Made Easy private enterprise file share and sync solution fully supports file locking through all of its web, desktop and mobile clients. When a file is locked, other users only have read only access to it.
In addition to locking, file versioning goes hand in hand as a key feature. Versioned files are files that have been superseded by newer files but which can be kept for audit or archived purposes and which can later be promoted to replace newer version of a file if needed. Storage Made Easy EFSS solution provides full support for both of these features using its unique visual versioning feature.
The problem with current file sync and share solutions is they miss many of the features needed to really use them as a file server replacement. This do not just include locking and versioning, but also CIFS access from the desktop, file event audit, access over common protocols such as WebDav or FTP, ability to be deployed private and to work with other storage clouds or data points, solve the shadow IT problem etc. The solution from most solution providers is the “my cloud is better than their cloud” approach i.e.. “move to my solution as we have that feature”. This promotes more silos and exacerbates sprawl.
The Storage Made Easy is storage independent and promote interoperability and integration, working with any combination of storage points, be they public or private, so if you have existing solutions that require global locking, versioning, event Audit, Cloud Governance, amongst other things, SME can help.
In summary For companies that have data stored in the cloud, in one or more storage providers, global file locking and versioning should be considered a mandatory feature for enterprise file share and sync.
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The SME EFSS white paper gave a good view of the Enterprise File Share and Sync Market for 2014 and below we lay out our top 5 predictions for the Sync, Share and Collaboration Market for 2015:
1. Enterprises will look to adopt hybrid cloud services that aggregated on-premise and cloud services:
Enterprises, and most companies, use a myriad of on-premise and on-cloud services. Almost all of these services now store data either in the form of attachments or direct use of storage. Companies will embrace solutions that work with what they have.
2. Solutions that can be deployed on premise as well as in a range of clouds will be attractive to strategically thinking companies.
Not everything will end up on Cloud and for bigger companies they will act as their own service providers so companies want the choice of private, hybrid or public implementations.
Research by the Enterprise Strategy Group pinpointed 97% of the organizations that use public cloud-based File Share and Sync had an interest in storing some of their file data using their on-premises storage.
3. Security and control will be top of IT’s agenda amidst the well publicised Sony Hack
The Sony hack was the enterprise’s Snowden moment, when all those doubts and thoughts about their own security policies around files bubbled to the surface. This has resulted in data security and control becoming even more of a concern for IT departments who are tasked with protecting corporate data.
4. Remotely stored data will have an encryption first policy
Enterprises will force an encryption first policy for sync and share data to mitigate disaster for data breaches of service infrastructures outside of their control.
5. Vendors will continue to be acquired or die as the drive to zero pricing affects all
There is no doubt the Enterprise File Share and Sync space is crowded with backup vendors, gateway vendors, collaboration vendors and content vendors all looking to add some form of sync and share to their features set. Coupled with this the price war that has raged throughout 2014 between Google, Amazon and Microsoft is likely to continue driving some vendors out of business and causing others to look at acquisition as an early exit.
About Storage Made Easy:
Storage Made Easy is the trading name of Vehera LTD who has offices in the UK, USA and Switzerland.
The SME solution allows IT to regain control of “cloud data sprawl” by unifying private/public company data and privately used employee cloud data solutions into a single converged infrastructure. This can easily be managed and be used to set and enforce governance and audit controls for file access and sharing in addition to providing deep content search of indexed data.
This approach provided a solution to the “shadow IT” conundrum and makes it possible for companies to find a balance between the protection of corporate data and employee data by allowing businesses to monitor, secure and audit all data silos, be they private or cloud or company or employee, from a single access point.
Further information can be found at www.StorageMadeEasy.com
by If you missed the Storage Made Easy presentation at OpenStack Paris you can catch it on the video below.
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Storage Made Easy has been involved with OpenStack from the beginning. We were one of the early OpenStack company foundation members and our whole service has worked with OpenStack from the very beginning.
Storage Made Easy already supports OpenStack on Mac, Windows, Linux desktop’s and on iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android for our Cloud File Server Platform. Today we are please to announce another App for OpenStack. This time it is a stand-alone Android App that works independent of the SME Server and works solely against the OpenStack platform. It is available on the Google Play Store and is free for personal use and licensable for companies or ISP’s.
Unlike other Apps that have been release the App focuses on the Object Storage piece of OpenStack, Swift. It features:
– Add multiple OpenStack Swift Servers
– Upload, download , delete, rename, copy, move files / folders and create new folders
– Sort files by name, date or size
– View downloaded files with associated Apps
– Built in streamer for music and video files
– Thumbnail view of picture on local files prior to upload so no need to open.
– Email local files as attachments and web files as URL’s
– Add pin lock to lock app
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Document control and management is of vital importance to any organization. If sensitive information is sent outside of your company, once the documents have been sent electronically, control is lost and this can put files you shared at risk. They can be copied or forwarded anywhere in the world, in seconds.
For most businesses, the focus of their attention is on document management and on the organizational workflow and the storage of documents. Companies want to be able to integrate documents into a workflow and store documents in an organized and secure way that still allows documents to be found easily . Where the document is stored can frequently change. It could be SharePoint, it could be FTP, it could be on some external repository etc. Where the security process can fall down is when documents are shared externally or how they are available to be collaborated on.
The proliferation of employees bringing there own devices to work (BYOD and BYOC) and using preferred SaaS applications of their own choosing has led to corporate governance becoming even more of a challenge for those tasked with its enforcement as an increasing number of end users bypass corporate protocol.
Such ‘Shadow IT‘ can pose a significant security risk, as unapproved hardware and software that are used do not undergo the necessary security checks and the storage and dissemination of such documents is outside of corporate control.
Storage Made Easy provides a unified Enterprise File Share and Sync solution, which works with a companies existing private and public data, presenting these files in a unified view.. It enables enterprises to not only securely sync, but also to securely share and work with files, wherever they need to go, even on devices that are beyond IT’s control.
IT benefits from a solution that gives them control, and users benefit as they have automatic access to documents and files from multiple data repositories, with robust security wherever behind the corporate firewall, or using any tablet, smartphone or PC.
Storage Made Easy uniquely provides:
• The ability to view, annotate, edit and sync almost any cloud or private file from almost any storage to any device.
• Internal and external collaboration features to work securely with anyone without losing control of enterprise data.
• Complete audit tracking to ascertain who accessed files, where form, and what action was taken.
• Provides a secure way for the organizations to collaborate with external partners using business workspaces.
• GEO Restrictions – restrict access to documents by IP address and by client. For example let an external sub office only have access to a folder from a specific IP address from the web browser (or any other client you nominate).
• Full Bring Your Own Device Support to restrict access to by employees by device type.
• Sophisticated permissions that unify permissions to different back end document storage and which can also be used with Active Directory or LDAP
• A way to solve the “DropBox” “bring your own cloud” problem be auditing such clouds even when documents are uploaded direct.
• A way to encrypt files stored on remote clouds which a key that is stored behind the corporate firewall this protecting remote sensitive data.
In summary you do not have to choose between a homogenous and restrictive system or a lawless fenzy of different unapproved systems. The Storage Made Easy Enterprise file share and sync solution is storage agnostic. It is compatible with most private or public file sharing cloud data stores allowing users to continue using their preferred cloud storage provider while at the same time converging off-site and on–site private and public data. This allows a centralized point for corporate governance, thus providing a real solution to the Shadow IT and corporate governance problem.
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