Cloudian storage adds file sync/share through partner
Object storage startup Cloudian partnered with UK-based Storage Made Easy on file sync-and-share capabilities designed to target enterprises facing compliance requirements under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
On-premise Cloudian storage sits at the back end, and Storage Made Easy (SME) supplies the collaboration software to enable users to securely share data in Dropbox-like fashion. The SME software is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android operating systems.
“It’s getting increasingly challenging to meet compliance requirements and use the cloud as a repository. So keeping data in the data center behind your firewall and making sharing possible in a controlled way becomes very appealing,” said Jon Toor, Cloudian’s chief marketing officer.
Toor noted that the EU’s GDPR and the newly enacted California Consumer Privacy Act require strict control of personally identifiable information, as well as the ability to delete data on request. The SME software can detect more than 60 types of personal data, including social security, passport and credit card numbers.
With the SME software, IT managers gain oversight of regulated personal information through functionality such as file event auditing, versioning and locking, configurable geographic boundaries and download limits, and policy-based data synchronization. They can restrict access permissions through the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and Microsoft’s Active Directory and set time limits to disable password-protected links to shared information.
Cloudian storage enables data replication
Cloudian’s HyperStore scale-out object storage software enables data replication to another HyperStore instance in a different location or to a secure cloud location for disaster recovery purposes. Cloudian has a HyperFile NAS controller to enable enterprise file services from its HyperStore object storage.
Toor said that Cloudian became aware of Storage Made Easy through customers who were using the British company’s software and suggested the two companies work together. The Cloudian storage and SME collaboration software supported the Amazon S3 API
User interface to enable file-sharing policies (Image source: Cloudian)
from the beginning, so the two systems can connect seamlessly, Toor said.
Cloudian has a reseller agreement with SME enabling it to offer the SME software as part of a complete package with its storage software and support. Toor said Cloudian launched the agreement with SME in February, but new functionality to track personal information didn’t become available until June.
Customers would typically run the SME software on a virtual machine in a server co-located in the same vicinity as the Cloudian storage and point it at the HyperStore cluster, according to Toor. He said they also have the option to run the SME software on the same box as the Cloudian storage software, which is typically sold pre-configured with hardware.
Greg Schulz, a senior advisory analyst at Server and Storage IO, said he expects to see more vendors develop new functionality in-house or strike partnership to get to market quicker to help customers address GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy and additional regulations that will likely emerge.
“Now we’re going to see more about how you go about implementing, managing, and figuring out what to do in actually rolling out and deploying GDPR as well as taking care of it on an ongoing basis,” Schulz said. “The vendors are coming out with tools. But likewise the customers are wondering how they go about detecting what they have and how they go about implementing this.”