Panzura Delivers In-Cloud NAS Available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace

Panzura, Inc. announced that its Cloud Controllers are certified for Microsoft Azure and available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.

This offering enables customers to have a file system Panzura controller’s on-premises and Panzura controllers running inside Azure – all using Azure Storage.

By co-locating the same consistent, locking file system in Azure as in the datacenter, applications developed for use within the corporate datacenter can run without a single change in Azure. Enterprises can not only use Azure storage for all tiers of file storage across all distributed locations, but also as an in-cloud NAS for applications running on Azure compute.

Panzura previously announced support for Azure object storage, where the Panzura Global File System collapsed all tiers of legacy enterprise storage into Azure storage, as well as removed the need for WAN optimization and expensive MPLS networks between offices. File locking enables applications built for a LAN to work just as well over a WAN. Deduplication ensures that each block of data is only stored once across the entire enterprise, reducing the total storage footprint up to 90%.

Announcement of the Panzura Cloud Controller running on Azure enables a transparent, hybrid architecture that solves application performance issues caused when data is not co-located next to the application. The Panzura Cloud Controller delivers an in-cloud NAS to Azure and integrates this in-cloud NAS with the rest of the file system in corporate datacenters. Data is always available and consistent in every datacenter including Azure. HPC, antivirus, file auditing, search, indexing, and rendering applications as well as application and desktop virtualization can run natively in the cloud, in the corporate datacenter, or in both locations.

With Panzura, data is secured at rest as well as in transit in between controllers and the cloud with FIPS 140-2 certified security and customer retained security keys. This results in data in the cloud being more secure than data behind corporate firewalls without the need for additional cloud security gateway devices.

“As enterprises continue to take advantage of cloud scale and economics, the importance of a hybrid architecture has become much more evident,” said Scott Sinclair, storage analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Active data and compute can be best served when next to each other, which is exactly what Panzura enables whether the applications run on compute in the cloud or compute in any corporate data center.“

“When the data is only in the corporate datacenter, the performance of applications in the cloud suffers. When the data is in the cloud, the performance of applications in the corporate datacenter suffers. Splitting data between the two causes inefficiencies due to data integrity and versioning issues,” said Barry Phillips, CMO, Panzura. “The Panzura Global File System and Cloud Controller running on Microsoft Azure transform cloud storage into a Global NAS so that applications can run anywhere with the same fast, local performance.“

“Customers want their applications to run with high performance regardless of location, whether running in their datacenters or in Microsoft Azure,” said Nicole Herskowitz, senior director of product marketing, Microsoft Azure. “The addition of Panzura to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace will help applications developed for use within the corporate datacenter run as-is in Microsoft Azure, letting customers realize the benefits immediately, by providing a high performance global file service that spans all their locations.“