Telefà³nica Launches Cloud Storage Services For Businesses

CTERA Networks Ltd announced that Telefónica, a large Spanish telecom provider, has launched cloud storage
services using CTERA’s cloud Storage Enablement Suite, including secure file
sync and share for laptop and smartphone users, and hybrid backup using cloud
storage gateways.

The
service, named ‘Disco Virtual en Red’, is Telefónica-branded
and aimed at addressing the storage, file sharing and data protection needs of
Telefónica’s enterprise customers in Spain.

‘Disco Virtual en Red’ is
available as part of the IT offering for the enterprise market at Telefónica’s
Aplicateca business app store and in its Fusion Empresas offering.

The
CTERA’s Cloud Storage Enablement Suite, used by Telefónica, comprises a
cloud-side service delivery platform, on-premises cloud storage gateways, and
agents for servers, laptops and mobile – all with a unified management
interface.

CTERA
was selected for its ability to scale to hundreds of thousands of customers,
while meshing with existing billing and provisioning systems, including
Telefónica’s own Aplicateca business app store.

"We identified a need in the market for Spain-based,
secure cloud storage services," said Andres López Hedoire, marketing
manager, cloud security and management at Telefónica. "We chose CTERA as our partner in creating
this innovative service because they provide a unified platform for enabling
cloud storage services, supporting the scalability we need and the security
that our customers expect. Thanks to CTERA’s multi-tenant architecture,
enterprise customers have their own ‘private hosted’ environments, with
complete separation of data, security and access privileges."

Telefónica
is hosting the cloud infrastructure in its own datacenters and is able to
monitor and troubleshoot devices and software agents remotely, as well as
perform remote firmware and software upgrades.

"It is becoming increasingly evident that
cloud-based storage, backup, and file sync & share services represent a
major opportunity for cloud service providers," said Hervé Bourgeois,
VP of international sales at CTERA. "We
are thrilled that Telefónica, one of the world’s largest telecom providers,
chose to deliver those services based on our platform. The new partnership is
an important milestone in our growth in the European market."

Customers using the new cloud service
can select
a number of different configurations:

• Secure file sync and
  share: Bi-directional synchronization of local folders
  on users’ PCs, Macs and Linux environments to the cloud, with full data-at-rest
  and data-in-transit encryption, and mobile collaboration supporting iOS and
  Android.
• Cloud-based team collaboration: Customers
  can set up shared workspaces for project teams, where users share files in the
  cloud, invite external users to access files on a time-limited basis, and have
  files synchronized to their PCs for local offline access.
• Cloud storage gateway appliances: Customers
  can choose to have an on-premises CTERA appliance that provides a full set of
  NAS features, supporting CIFS, NFS, AFP, FTP and rsync protocols, with
  RAID for local redundancy and customer-defined replication to the cloud.
• Hybrid local / cloud backup: Customers
  can backup their servers, laptops and desktops to the local CTERA appliance for
  hybrid local/cloud backup, at both file and disk-image level (bare metal).
  Backup is incremental, de-duplicated between users within the same company, and
  encrypted, with private key control given to the customer so that their data
  remains secure.
• Access anywhere: Customers can
  access and manage their shared files, backups and accounts on the Web, using a
  standard browser and mobile devices.
• Using CTERA’s advanced Active Directory GPO (Group Policy Object) and Single
  Sign On integration, Telefónica’s enterprise customers can deliver
  end-point cloud backup and file sync and share services to hundreds or
  thousands of employees, with a single click.