CTERA cloud file system users now have access to both file and object data through a single Fusion interface.
The company provides a global file system which can be hosted on a public cloud or on-premises object store, and accessed from a datacenter or remote site using an edge caching device to speed data access. Files are synced and shared between users for collaboration. Now CTERA is providing simultaneous SMB, NFS, and S3 access to the same data set. Cloud applications can connect directly to enterprise file repositories, with no need for an intervening data copy to separate S3 buckets.
CTERA CEO Oded Nagel said in a statement: “Fusion extends our vision for the enterprise DataOps platform, enabling organizations not only to store their unstructured data efficiently and securely, but also to unlock its greater potential. By offering easy programmatic access to data, CTERA Fusion allows organizations to implement their own custom data pipelines that operate across multiple access protocols, cloud environments, and remote locations.”
The Fusion software includes:
- Single Namespace Across File and Object – interact with data generated at the edge using standard object storage S3 protocols, or access cloud-generated data from the edge using NAS protocols.
- Data transfer capabilities like multipart uploads and pre-signed URLs, making ingestion and sharing of large files more efficient.
- High availability and scalability.
- All data is secured in transit via TLS and encrypted at rest, providing an added layer of protection.
- Compatibility with all features of the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform, including AI-based ransomware protection (CTERA Ransom Protect), WORM compliance (CTERA Vault), and global file collaboration.
Nasuni’s analytics connector creates a read-only temporary copy of file data in S3 so that cloud analytics services can be run against it, but does not natively expose an S3 protocol. Also, based on the information available on Egnyte’s and Panzura’s websites, it appears they do not expose an S3 protocol endpoint. Egnyte, for example, has a virtualized application that can be placed in AWS and will synchronize content stored in Egnyte back to AWS. Also Egnyte provides a way to archive completed projects into lower-cost AWS S3 storage. The file and object domains are kept at relative arms length.
A Panzura spokesperson told us: “Panzura provides SMB and NFS access to the same dataset today. The company refers to that as ‘mixed mode.’ It is in progress on S3 access, and it’s on their roadmap for 2024.”
