Enterprise File Fabric™
A global financial services firm was facing two critical challenges. First, a portfolio risk management application was working off a local server, which was a single point of failure. Secondly, the permission structure implemented was inadequate given the sensitivity of the data.
In our latest case study we show how the adoption of the Enterprise File Fabric provided secure end user File access to Cloudian Hyperstore ObjectStorage whilst maintaining Data Governance and Data Compliance.
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Google Storage Nearline is a low-cost, highly durable storage service that allows companies to easily backup and store large amounts of data. This makes it ideal for using as an archive and, in the case of this example, for Business Continuity purposes.
Storage pricing for Cloud Storage Nearline is very low at 1 cent per GB, per month and the Google Cloud Platform Pricing Calculator can help estimate full costs.
What we are going to demonstrate is how Google Storage Nearline can be used as an archive for business continuity purposes using the Storage Made Easy service to provide CloudSurance, or Cloud Insurance of a primary data cloud.
Continue reading “Using Google Storage Nearline for CloudSurance”
by Please note that since June 2017 the iCloud connector has been deprecated and the File Fabric no longer supports it
Since Apple updated their iCloud Provider some users were unable to use our iCloud connector as it did not work with users who had converted their account to iCloud Drive.
Today we have resolved this issues by updating the Connector for iCloud that supports the Apple Drive functionality.
Continue reading “iCloud Drive now supported for web, desktop and mobile access”
by We’ve been asked a few times about a Storage Made Easy client for the PlayBook and other new devices such as the Z10, Z30 and Q10 that support OS 10. We thought we’d put the record straight a client already exists ! It’s not on the BB App Store but it can easily downloaded and installed by sideloading it onto the device. Sideloading is basically loading a BlackBerry package App file (BAR file) directly to the device and it is really easily today.
It is really easy to sideload an App to the Playbook, Z10 and Q10 and it can be simply done using a Chrome Plugin called PlayBook App Manager. Once you have installed the App Manager you need to do the following steps:
1. Put your PlayBook (or phone) into developer mode.
2. Launch the PlayBook App Manager Chrome Widget and enter your IP Address. For BB 10 Go to Settings » About » Network » Wi-Fi or USB » IPv4. For PlayBook. Click the dev icon on top panel of main screen. It will display an IP usually in the form of 192.168.*.*
3. Once this is done you can simply choose to manager your device from the resultant screen and download and install the SME Cloud File Manager App for either the PlayBook, Z10 or Q10.
That’s it your done. You now have the SME App running on your OS 10 device.
by We have made some updates to our hierarchical Cloud File Manager that we would like to highlight:
1. We improved the speed. It should now be around 20% faster to load than it had been previously
2. We have implemented a crumb trail and a status bar for the file manager. you can now easily navigate backwards and forwards using the links in the top status bar. And if you select multiple files you can see they size in the bottom status bar easily.
3. We have implemented an easy way to save and collaborate on file links. We’re not trying to replace Evernote but in the course of a project it can be useful to save a site link and collaborate / comment on it. This has been added to the “Create new file” functionality that already exists in the file manager.
We continue to invest and refine our Web based File Manager which is reasonably unique today in how it functions as it offers the ability to easily view and work with large data set and folders, and remember the SME Cloud File Manager works with more than 35 Cloud Storage Providers for both private and public cloud storage vendors.
by We have today updated the way in which shared links are managed for all Cloud Files mapped to an account from the web Cloud File Manager. It is now possible to have multiple links for a single file and to easily manage them. These file share links can be either a direct private share, a time expired share or a secure share. Please see the below video for a detailed overview.
by We have done a major update of our Web File Manager today. You may have used our File Manager beta over the last few months. This File Manager has gone live and there are shot of new features that business and individual users can take advantage of. The include:
1. Simplified Layout: The whole File Manager has been simplified. Now the two panes of how files are shown works just as it does not the desktop with files being shown in both panes. Also the menu bar has been vastly simplified to concentrate on the options that are used the most, such as sharing, folder creation, and upload.
Also all file and folders function has been consolidated on a right click. Right clicking on a file brings up the options for the file, the same with folders:
2. Improvements in Links sharing and link expiry: We always supported password protecting files on upload via file encryption and link expiry on email generation for file sharing but we have extended this for password protecting any shared link generated with link expiration:
3. Improvements in how to copy and move files between different services: This is as easy as shift and click and then dragging and dropping. Refer to the below video for more details.
This works with folders too, you can drag and drop folders between services easily.
4. Improvements when using a tablet: When using a tablet, the File Manager reacts differently and is optimised for touch screens. Selecting multiple files is just a matter of clicking to the left of the file, and a tick will appear to let you know the file is selected. File options can be done by doing a long touch or press on the file as right click is not applicable on tablets.
We hope you like the new look File Manager. We continue to work on it and have some even further optimisations to come soon !
by We recently updated The Windows Phone Cloud File Manager. Features include:
– Instant access to unified Cloud files anytime, anywhere direct from a WP7 device.
– Assign lengthy tasks and operations to the SME Platform Tasks Engine (PTE). Use your phone while tasks are completed in background. Check progress at anytime in cloud tasks.
– Manage multiple Clouds in a single view. Easily move files between different clouds, done in background.
– Advanced Cloud Search feature that can search for files across multiple clouds.
– Unique Cloud Clipboard feature enables file management from different clouds in batches, without downloading & then uploading.
– Unique Direct Upload uploads files from web directly, no need to download and then upload, just enter file address and our servers will upload it in background.
– Open files in the phone in Microsoft Office, MediaPlayer etc.
– Share and collaborate – share files to social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Windows Live, etc.), over email or with users groups.
– Record audio (even with screen locked), take notes and 2-way sync with chosen Cloud(s). No need for another recording App.
– 2-way sync pictures with different Clouds. Integrated with Pictures hub. Pictures can be uploaded (shared) directly from the hub.
We have seen a recent surge in business customers wanting to use the Windows Phone with our Cloud File Server SaaS and hosted hybrid appliance and expect this to continue with the recently announced windows phone business features.
by As part of the platform update I blogged about in the last post we have have released a new HTML5 App for BlackBerry Playbook, that is optimised for webkit browsers.
It is able to access, unify, and manage clouds from over 35 Cloud Storage and SaaS services. It supports upload, where webkit browsers enable access to the file system, such as the Playbook and the Android, and it supports url generation for files, managed file sharing by expiry, as well as cross cloud search.
We also put together a short video to demonstrate how it works.
The Mobile App can be found at http://storagemadeeasy.com/mobile
by I was talking to a friend recently and he was bemoaning the fact that he had upgraded his iPad 2 and therefore lost his jailbreak Apps, and in particular the iFile application which he felt made the iPad into more of a a laptop replacement. Without this he felt that as well as his iPad he also needed his laptop on trips “just in case”.
This got me thinking and I asked him what it was he needed to do. His answer was:
“I need to be able to save files from my email locally, and then be able to send files I’ve saved on my device as an attachment, and I also need to be able to download any file type from the web browser and email if I need to. I also need access to my internal office files over WebDav, my own personal DropBox files, and also files stored from our supplier which are hosted on a Amazon S3 Account they give us. With the Amazon S3 files I need to download then locally as I need to be able to share them with our customers as they are product information sheets, and I cannot just set them public in Amazon S3 as I don’t want to make these files available to everyone.
Additional to all of this I also want to be able to work with my Local files ie create directories, and even cut and paste files so that I can organise them, just like I would do on my laptop.”
I stepped through with him how he could do all of this with our Storage Made Easy iOS client and he was amazed. He did not know he could do some of these things without jailbreaking his iPad. Given the value he got from our chat he cajoled me into putting together this blog post outlining what I went through with him to share any value other readers / users would get from it.
Lets take the things he mentioned one by one:
1. Requirement: I need to be able to save files from email and web browser locally – You can save any attachment from your email into SME, even if the iPad does not recognise the file. The SME App lets you save any file type from email or Safari. Once it is saved you can choose to view it within SME, or send it as an attachment using the iOS email client. You can also choose to open the file into another iOS App and work with/on the file from there.
2. Requirement: I need to access my internal office files that I can share using WebDav and also my DropBox files – The SME App fully support access to local files over the WebDav protocol directly from the iPad and also works with DropBox. Both sets of files are presented in a unified file system so that they can easily be managed and you can even copy and paste files between the two.
3. Requirement: I need to be able to work with my Amazon S3 files and be able to download and share them over email with my supplier: As with DropBox and WebDav The SME App supports Amazon S3 and enables files to be managed or moved between clouds, as well as being download locally. However SME also enables you to share Amazon S3 files without making the files public on Amazon S3. You can even set a link expiry so that the file links that are shared eventually expire.
The SME App does not just work with WebDav, Amazon S3, and DropBox it now works with over 50 Storage Clouds.
4. Requirement: I also want to be able to work with my Local files ie create directories, and even cut and paste files so that I can organise them, just like I would do on my laptop – You can do exactly this in SME local files view. You can move files about using cut and paste and you can also create directories to help organise your files.
This touches only part of what can be done with the Storage Made EasyCloud and Local File Manager. Please see the slideshow below to see more:
by We thought we’d give you a quick preview of some forthcoming iSMEStorage features. We’ve been requested for a while to add better tag support and support for photo thumbnails. We’ve started work on these features and anticipate these being available in a forthcoming release in the next few weeks. In the meantime enjoy the video below.
[pro-player width=”500″ height=”500″]http://blog.storagemadeeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Thumbnails-and-Tags.m4v[/pro-player]
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We are really pleased to announce that we have added OpenStack Swift object Storage support to the SME Open Cloud Platform. Swift is a sub project of OpenStack and provides a highly scalable redundant unstructured data store. Swift is 5 separate services, object, container, account, auth and proxy. Although each of these can be scaled separately, in practice they run together.
Never heard of Swift? it’s the underlying distributable object store that supports RackSpace Cloud Files. It’s akin to Amazon’s S3 implementation but unlike implementations such as Eucalyptus, which clone S3 API’s, but are not sponsored by Amazon, openStack and Swift has RackSpace firmly onboard, and have proven scale.
As Swift is used by Rackspace Cloud Files. Swift RackSpace claim it is production-ready code that is scalable to massive levels (100-petabyte clusters and 100000 requests per second). Swift sacrifices C for A and P from a CAP theorem perspective. Although most operations happen synchronously consistency is sacrificed in failure scenarios.
From our perspective we have seen ISP’s and larger SMB users of our on-premise Cloud Gateway appliance expressing interest in SME supporting this, and we supply this as VMWARE Appliance (OR XEN, KVM) or as a dedicated hardware appliance for smaller companies who wish to embrace their own private Cloud infrastructure.
As with our S3 API endpoint support SME will overlay a more traditional file store on top of Swift layered with the business functionality we provide in our Cloud File Server, which includes virtual drives and clients for Mac, Windows and Linux, and feature rich mobile clients for iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, as well as value added features to Swift such as Webdav and FTP support.
Setting up Swift with SME is easy. First you need to add a new Cloud Provider and then the Cloud Wizard will be invoked. The first step is to enter your OpenStack details:
When entering the endpoint URL you should be sure to include the Port. An example URL is: http://<IP Address>:11000/v1.0.
Next you will need to choose which containers you want to work with and which should be the default container for any uploads to smart folders.
Once you have done this you will be ready to start the meta-sync which pulls in and caches all the information about containers and files.
If you have any issues connecting please refer to this advanced post on using SME with OpenStack 1.60 and SWAuth.
Once complete you will be able to access/amange your OpenStack files from the SME Web clients, as well as using a Cloud Drive on Windows, Mac or Linux, and mobile clients for Android, iOS, and BlackBerry, and the plethora of other tools and clients that SME provides. We’v e posted some screenshots below of this.
Web File Manager
iOS OpenStack
Android OpenStack
Firefox Plug-In OpenStack
Chrome OpenStack Plug-In
Mac Cloud Drive OpenStack
The OpenStack Swift API’s also get embedded for use within our own feature rich multi-cloud API framework in which we add many business driven features.. You can find details about that on our developer page
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