Ctera Scales Up and Virtualizes Cloud Storage Gateway Portfolio

Ctera Networks, Ltd. announced a series of updates to its cloud storage gateway portfolio designed to deliver new levels of deployment flexibility, storage capacity, and efficiency for remote office IT environments.

The refreshed firm’s gateway lineup includes a new virtual appliance configuration that allows enterprises to utilize existing ROBO hardware to deliver the functionality and benefits of a cloud storage gateway. Company’s gateway services now can be deployed from either VMware, Inc. or KVM servers, offering an option for organizations invested in converged infrastructure or virtualized IT.

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The company also announced a re-engineering of its gateway file management system, with the primary file system maintained and orchestrated centrally in the cloud. Firm’s gateways extend this global system by selectively syncing files to remote and branch offices according to user and/or IT administrator-defined policies. The appliances act as additional storage tiers in a cloud-based file management and synchronization system that combines endpoints, offices and the cloud. Company’s ‘Sync Gateways’ support local volume sizes of up to 64TB, a 4X capacity increase over previous models.

Physical and virtual firm’s cloud storage gateways serve as all-in-one storage appliances that replace legacy file/NAS servers, tape backup and other proprietary systems with a single, cloud-integrated and cost-effective solution. The gateway is an extension of the Enterprise File Services Platform, which enables organizations to protect data and manage files across offices and appliances – all from the organization’s private or virtual private cloud.

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Designed firm’s cloud storage gateway portfolio delivers:

• Reduced TCO. A virtual form factor eliminates the need to deploy and management multiple systems a the office, and allows an organization to consolidate office servers, firewalls, print servers, file servers, DHCP services, and in-office backup services onto a single converged server that features built-in cloud backup capability.

• HA configurations and failover capabilities. Organizations now can leverage the company’s virtual gateway to implement highly resilient office file services for the most demanding remote environments.

• Increased capacity at the edge. Virtual storage volumes allow branch offices to scale and address large and growing storage capacity requirements.

• On-demand deployment of file and data protection services. A virtual appliance enables organizations to deploy file and backup services at any office instantaneously, resolving any collaboration, BC or data protection challenge.

• Provides IT investment protection and a path to converged IT. Organizations can integrate the virtual gateway with various computing services and manage it all from their choice of hardware.

The company is a provider of cloud storage gateways, having shipped more than 40,000 appliances to global customers since 2010. Leading organizations such as The Carlyle Group, Live Nation, and J. Walter Thompson (JWT) have deployed firm’s appliances at sites around the world to enhance BC at the office, introduce cloud-integrated tools that enhance business productivity, and lower the TCO for office infrastructure deployment and management.

According the Gartner Market Guide for Cloud Storage Gateways (1)): “Organizations deploy cloud storage gateways to better manage files and reduce their on-premises storage infrastructure. These unstructured data types don’t fit neatly within rows of a database table, so they must be stored as files or objects in a file system or object store. But traditional file systems lack capabilities such as mobile access, collaboration and integrated cloud storage. cloud storage gateways extend this functionality to file systems using specialized software to create turnkey physical and virtual appliances.”

“Enterprise organizations are increasingly seeking converged, cloud-integrated IT solutions for their remote and branch offices,” said Scott Miller, director, data center, World Wide Technology, Inc. “Ctera’s enhanced gateway portfolio further strengthens our ability to provide flexible, secure, and modern branch office file services solutions that enable IT consolidation, simplified infrastructure management, and reduced TCO.”

“Since 2010, Ctera has focused on consolidating the branch office hardware stack while providing exceptional product functionality and customer value,” said Jeff Denworth, SVP, marketing, Ctera. “Our new virtual gateway and capacity expansions are the natural progression of this strategy, simplifying the deployment of cloud-integrated file and data protection services for organizations that seek cost-effective, easily-managed solutions at the edge of the network.”

(1) Market Guide for Cloud Storage Gateways, Gartner. Raj Bala, Arun Chandrasekaran. November 18, 2015.

Supporting Resources:
Virtual Gateway Free Trial
Virtual Gateway Specification Sheet
ROBO Storage Modernization Solution Sheet
Blog post: The Virtual EVolution
White Paper: The Case for a Sync Gateway