Availability for IBM’s Aspera Drive File Sharing/Sync Solution

Aspera, Inc., an IBM company, announced that Aspera Drive, a file sharing and synchronization solution, is available.

The platform, built on the Aspera FASP technology, combines transfer, remote browsing and synchronization of any size data from the user’s desktop to any content location – on premise and throughout the cloud.

Organizations using file sharing services to improve data access and document sharing face the limitations and risks of these services. File size limitations, slow performance over the wide area network and concerns over content security have limited enterprise adoption to simple collaboration scenarios.

This overcomes these limitations with a data sharing and collaboration application and backend platform. Teams can browse, sync, send and share files and directories of any size from Windows Explorer and Mac Finder, with maximum speed at any distance with privacy and access control. Content is transferred from its native location with browse and sync control in the desktop.

The FASP transfer platform, which powers the ecosystem, eliminates the trade-off decisions across access, security, infrastructure and cost. Customers have the flexibility to deploy in-house on dedicated infrastructure, in the cloud with virtual servers and storage, or using hybrid infrastructure combining on premise and cloud. These options allow organizations to take advantage of storage and bandwidth at any location, retaining control over security and service levels, while enjoying fast access and transfer times.

“Aspera Drive brings the power of Aspera FASP directly to the desktop of users across the enterprise,” said Michelle Munson, Aspera co-founder and CEO. “The elegant end-user experience preserves all of the speed, security and reliability of Aspera technology and provides it to any individual in the extended organization.“

Aspera Drive – Desktop Experience

• It enables the transfer and synchronization capabilities of the transfer platform within the desktop file explorer:

• Users can remotely browse shared files, and move those files and folders between platforms with a drag and drop from Windows Explorer and Mac Finder.

• Users can synchronize any network file system or local directory with remote servers and other drive users, or mirror content from remote sites.

• Large files or entire directories can be delivered as faspex packages to remote project teams by right-clicking and entering the recipient’s email address. Users can also subscribe and receive faspex packages to their drive inbox.

• All data remains secure with a security model combining authorization with enterprise active directory/LDAP, fine-grained access control and encryption over the wire and at rest.

Next Generation Web and Platform Experience

• It is powered by the company’s digital delivery platform, which unifies all of the file sharing and package sending capabilities into a web application tier that deploys in conjunction with Aspera high-speed transfer servers on premise or in the cloud.

• Native support for direct transfer to IBM SoftLayer, Google Storage, OpenStack Swift, Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure Blob enables direct high-speed transfer to, from and between cloud and on-premise infrastructure. The integration with the object storage APIs adds transfer management features including pause, resume, encryption over the wire and at rest, and HTTP fallback.

• The platform supports access control, integrated remote transfer and email integration.

• The auto-scaling platform scales transfer capacity in real time with automatic start/stop of transfer server instances, automatic balancing of client requests, and configurable service levels to manage transfer load, ‘burst’ capacity and decommissioning of unused instances.

• Share-to-share transfer, upload, download and synchronization incorporate the Aspera Shares authorization and access control, and are available via a Shares API.