12 Gateways To Connect On-Prem Storage To The Cloud

12 Gateways To Storage Clouds

While customer data is increasingly being stored in the cloud, that move is typically not all at once. Indeed, depending on requirements, the stream of data to the cloud could just as soon be a trickle as a torrent.

For businesses looking to move part of their data to the cloud, one possible tool is the cloud storage gateway. Cloud storage gateways are physical or virtual appliances that, according to research firm Gartner, "provide users and applications seamless access to files stored in a public or private cloud." While cloud storage gateways in the past focused more on capacity expansion into the cloud, they are today more likely to be used for higher-value business problems like file services for remote offices, backup, recovery or big data, Gartner said.

Several vendors, including large legacy storage vendors and upstarts, are bringing cloud storage gateways to channel partners. Check out what a dozen of these vendors are offering.

Avere Systems Virtual FXT Edge Filer

Pittsburgh-based Avere's Virtual FXT (vFXT) Edge filer is a software-only product that runs in a public or private compute cloud alongside applications to provide low-latency access to active data and enable applications to run at maximum performance. The Virtual FXT Edge filers act as NAS appliances in the compute cloud to let data be stored anywhere while providing complete NAS functionality, scalability and capacity.

Avere's Virtual FXT Edge filer lets businesses connect on-premise NFS and SMB storage to cloud compute resources, build a NAS for the cloud, optimize the use of public cloud storage with its cloud compute counterpart, and combine cloud bursting and cloud NAS into a single hybrid infrastructure.

Barracuda Backup Vx

Barracuda Backup Vx from Campbell, Calif.-based Barracuda is a software solution deployed as a virtual machine in VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V environments to provide the same integrated backup functionality as physical Barracuda Backup appliances. It can be purchased as a per-socket subscription for virtual hosts, which includes software replication. Physical server backup with Barracuda Backup Vx can be licensed on a per-server basis. Barracuda Backup Vx includes a metered Barracuda Cloud Storage plan and built-in data redundancy with the ability to move data out of the cloud without additional bandwidth charges. Replication is built into each Barracuda Backup Vx subscription and customers can choose whether to replicate to the Barracuda Cloud or to a virtual receiver for disaster recovery.

BridgeStor Coronado

The Coronado NAS from Carlsbad, Calif.-based BridgeStor provides a global namespace to cloud storage while securely storing data to private, public and object-based storage. It is based on BridgeStor’s Cloud Storage File System (CSFS), a kernel-based POSIX file system designed to easily convert files to object or public cloud storage.

Coronado leverages CSFS to offer a new primary storage tier with a single namespace that writes data into the cloud and makes it immediately viewable and accessible from anywhere. It is a software-based solution that includes typical NAS, SMB, NFS, SFTP, and iSCSI functionality with such capabilities as global file versioning, global file locking, Active Directory support, local disk tier for most frequently accessed files, global deduplication, compression, encryption, load balancing and pre-fetch cache.

Cohesity Data Platform

The Cohesity Data Platform from Santa Clara, Calif.-based Cohesity is an intelligent, scalable, hyper-converged secondary storage solution. It features a complete set of public and private cloud integration points, including cloud archival, tiering, and remote replication, to handle a broad range of secondary storage use cases including backup, file services, test/dev and analytics.

CTERA Cloud Storage Gateway

New York-based CTERA's cloud storage gateways are physical or virtual appliances that combine NAS file services, backup agents for office servers and workstations, and file sharing and collaboration capabilities targeting enterprise remote and branch offices. They are centrally managed from a single console to let service providers and IT administrators remotely monitor usage, perform upgrades, manage backups and troubleshoot.

The CTERA gateways' primary file system is maintained and orchestrated centrally on private or virtual private cloud infrastructure to leverage the benefits of low-cost object and software-defined storage. However, users and IT administrators can selectively sync files and folders to remote and branch offices to provide local file access even in the event of a network outage.

DataDirect Networks WOS Archive Director

New this year from Santa Clara, Calif.-based DDN is the WOS Archive Director. WOS ArchiveDirector delivers archiving to DDN’s WOS Object Storage for local cloud with replication capabilities to tape or public cloud for disaster recovery. ArchiveDirector provides users with a wide range of targeting options along with scalability and flexibility.

ArchiveDirector scales from terabytes to multiple petabytes of data, and can manage and archive a massive number of files using any archive storage including tape, optical, RDX, disk, object storage or cloud. The software supports a choice of proprietary or industry-standard file systems including LTFS for tape or UDF for optical. Optionally, a disaster recovery copy can be stored off-site.

Hitachi Data Systems' Hitachi Data Ingestor

The Hitachi Data Ingestor (HDI) from Santa Clara, Calif.-based HDS is a caching device that presents traditional NFS and SMB or CIFS interfaces so users and applications can find and access data via their traditional operations. When a file is written, HDI sends a copy to the Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) object storage, which handles data protection, compliance, data placement, and so on. Once a copy is on the HCP, files on the HDI can be converted into links to free up space, or can be "pinned" to the HDI to prevent the conversion. If a linked file is accessed, it is repopulated onto the HDI.

Nasuni Cloud Storage Gateway

Nasuni's cloud storage gateway combines on-premise hardware with cloud storage and a cloud-based file system the Natick, Mass.-based company claims delivers built-in protection, unlimited scalability, and fast, secure access for any device from any location. As a result, the need for backing up data is eliminated.

Nasuni says it currently has more than 12 petabytes of storage under management, and that it has never suffered a corruption event or lost customer data.

NetApp AltaVault 4.2

NetApp's AltaVault cloud-integrated storage solution, which was enhanced just this spring, enables customers to securely back up data to any cloud at what the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company claims is up to 90 percent less cost compared to on-premise solutions.

AltaVault offers end-to-end security for data at rest and in flight, and has an intuitive management console for easy deployment. Customers can integrate AltaVault with their current backup architectures and cloud providers. AltaVault 4.2 can be deployed as a physical or virtual appliance in the customer’s data center, or as a cloud-based appliance.

SoftNAS Cloud NAS

SoftNAS Cloud NAS is an enterprise-class NAS and cloud storage gateway virtual appliance that combines local storage, S3-compatible cloud object storage, data protection, replication, and high availability into a single solution for SMB customers and for enterprise branch and remote offices. Houston-based SoftNAS said the solution can replace legacy file servers and expand backup to the cloud with a full set of NAS capabilities and multicloud support for AWS, Microsoft Azure and CenturyLink clouds.

SoftNAS Cloud NAS utilizes on-premise storage capabilities for speed and local file access, while taking advantage of cloud storage for off-site backup, folder synchronization, and nearly limitless capacity. Use cases include backup, disaster recovery, data mirroring to cloud-compute resources, and data replication for remote and branch offices.

SwiftStack Filesystem Gateway

The SwiftStack Filesystem Gateway can be added to an existing SwiftStack deployment to provide an additional way of accessing objects using known filesystem protocols sharing the same cost-effective, scalable hardware aspects as the SwiftStack Nodes, according to San Francisco-based SwiftStack.

The SwiftStack solution enables the delivery of private cloud object storage within and across data centers for content delivery, active archive, and data-centric workflows. It is managed by an out-of-band controller, and includes scale-out nodes with rolling upgrades as well as a filesystem gateway interface for traditional applications.

Talon CloudFast For Azure Files

CloudFast from Mount Laurel, N.J.-based Talon helps distributed enterprises centralize and secure file-level data in Azure as it delivers enterprise global file sharing and collaboration to business users. CloudFast for Azure Files extends centralized file sets by mounting to SMB shares hosted by the Azure cloud in a high-performance scenario. It supports Active Directory and managed ACL control, security, and enterprise file locking semantics to ensure coherency and data integrity.