Ctera Mobile for Secure File Access and Sharing in Cloud

CTERA Networks Ltd. announced CTERA Mobile, an app for Apple iOS and Android.

The app allows business users to access files and backups from anywhere, while providing enterprise security features and Active Directory integration. It is available at no extra cost to CTERA users.

CTERA’s VP of marketing, Rani Osnat, was discussing CTERA Mobile and other news at Hosting & Cloud Transformation Summit Europe 2012 in London, April 3rd, in a panel entitled Cloud Storage: Show Me the Money! moderated by 451 Group Storage Research Director, Simon Robinson.

CTERA’s cloud storage enablement solution empowers cloud owners to create, provision and manage storage services, such as backup and recovery, cloud on-ramping, file sharing, and mobile collaboration. With this mobile offering, cloud owners can extend their storage cloud to mobile devices, providing their users with access to their backups and cloud drive as well as to files stored on CTERA cloud storage gateways. The company provides a central management console used by service providers to create private branded services offered as private label solutions.

"Consumer cloud services, particularly in mobile collaboration, are enticing to enterprise users thanks to their ease of use, and are challenging enterprise IT to find more secure alternatives," said Simon Robinson, Storage Research director at 451 Research. "By extending its cloud storage offering to support mobile platforms, CTERA has combined that ease-of-use with greater levels of security, control and integration required by enterprises and service providers who are deploying private clouds."

For enterprise users, the mobile app makes it easy to access, view and send their files, which increases productivity while preventing ‘cloud sprawl’, where users default to non-secure consumer cloud applications for file sharing and mobile access. The app also includes native support for opening various image formats, and enables uploading files to the cloud, including photos taken with the device’s camera.

A utilities company with a large team of field technicians is currently using CTERA’s mobile app to securely access job-card documents on Apple iPads. At the cloud end, CTERA Portal allows to authenticate users against the company’s existing Active Directory, with no additional IT overhead or manual intervention. The field technicians can access their encrypted folders, protected with personal pass phrases. This ensures privacy and prevents unwanted access to customer data.

"Business users have grown accustomed to accessing information anywhere, anytime, on any device. CTERA’s new mobile app makes this possible for even the most security-conscious enterprises," said Liran Eshel, CEO of CTERA. "We view this capability as an important addition that complements our solution’s comprehensive capabilities in data protection, file sharing and cloud on-ramping, all aimed at accelerating cloud storage usage."

The mobile app is free to CTERA customers as part of its next software release, and will be available to download from the iTunes App Store and Android Market later this month.