Talon CloudFAST Available in Microsoft Azure Marketplace

Talon Storage Solutions, Inc., a provider of Microsoft-based file caching solutions for distributed enterprises, announced the availability of its CloudFAST solution in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace as a joint offering with Microsoft Azure StorSimple hybrid cloud storage solution.

With increasing amounts of unstructured data in enterprises being created and used by end users, enterprises find it difficult to enable data sharing and manage data growth. Talon delivers software that helps distributed enterprises centralize file-based data while delivering performance file sharing and collaboration to business users. CloudFAST brings advanced distributed NFS technologies including caching, differencing, and transport optimizations and layers on top of the StorSimple hybrid cloud storage platform, which provides data protection and DR using Azure that scales as data footprint grows.

“Weaving together a number of technologies from different vendors to address a pressing need has always been one of the toughest parts of providing enterprise IT,” stated Terri McClure, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “This is an evolution of a technology business model that provides complimentary links in the chain – such as leveraging CloudFAST for consolidation into a highly-managed platform like StorSimple – to be provisioned and managed on-demand through a single ‘pane of glass’ via the Azure Resource Manager Portal. This combination addresses what we see as a number of big obstacles to cloud deployments for distributed enterprises, such as ease of doing business, service and support, and time to productivity.“

CloudFAST along with StorSimple allows organizations to centralize data protection in Azure while delivering a performance file sharing experience at geographically dispersed locations. CloudFAST implementation of centralized locking combined with a namespace means that authorized users can safely use files without the risk of overwriting other users’ work-in-progress.

“Azure is the premier cloud computing platform for managing applications,” said Andrew Mullen, SVP, sales and marketing, Talon. “At Talon we are extremely pleased to offer Microsoft customers with the ability to select, configure, deploy and benefit from Talon CloudFAST and manage it seamlessly through Azure Resource Manager. We have created a frictionless way for customers to benefit from Azure infrastructure for their unstructured data, by delivering enterprise file sharing at a fraction of the cost.“

“Moving unstructured data into the cloud has been one of the more difficult challenges for the distributed enterprise, due to performance, workflow, and control concerns,” stated Deni Connor, founder, SSG-NOW Labs. “The ability to service a global base of users from a single backend cloud storage resource for these larger unstructured files should help deliver on the promise of the cloud-enabled enterprise.  And provisioning through Microsoft Azure can remove a significant procurement and management obstacle.“

Badri Venkatachari, director, product marketing, Microsoft explained: “The joint StorSimple and Talon solution provides enterprises with a highly scalable and cost-effective global file sharing and collaboration environment with integrated data protection and DR using Azure. Talon’s availability in the Azure Marketplace makes it really easy for customers to purchase and deploy our joint solution in a pay-as-you-go model.“

CloudFAST for Azure StorSimple is available from the Azure Marketplace on a consumption-based ‘pay as you go’ licensing basis. Microsoft users can select, configure, deploy, and administer both the Talon and Microsoft components through their enterprises’ resource manager.

CloudFAST for StorSimple will be available on April 30.