The 10 Coolest Enterprise Cloud Storage Products In 2018 (So Far)

Cloud Storage For Everyone

Cloud storage, particularly for businesses, does not mean just storing zeros and ones in a cloud. Instead, it's all about how the data is moved to the cloud, how it is accessed, how it is brought off the cloud, and how it is monetized, secured and analyzed. In other words, the more important part of cloud storage is the management of the data in the cloud.

CRN is taking a look at 10 new cloud storage offerings introduced in the first half of 2018. It is a diverse set of offerings, many of which include both an on-premises and a cloud component. The focuses of the highlighted technologies include enhancing security, adding scalability, leveraging machine learning, and more.

Here's a look at some of the interesting ways data in the cloud can be better managed.

(For more on the biggest news of 2018, check out "CRN's Tech Midyear In Review.")

Asigra v14

Asigra in May unveiled release v14 of its cloud-based data protection software, which it named Cloud Backup Evolved. The new version combines data protection with cybersecurity capabilities to address new malware threats including ransomware "attack loops" that target backup data in such a way that the malware can re-infect a clean system during a data recovery.

Asigra Cloud Backup Evolved includes what the Toronto-based company termed the industry’s first zero-day attack loop preventative technology using bi-directional malware detection, zero-day exploit protection, variable repository naming, and two-factor authentication, along with military-grade encryption, to fully protect against advanced ransomware and other cyberattacks on backup data.

ClearSky Data Adds Scale-up NAS

ClearSky Data, which develops on-demand primary storage with built-in cloud backup and disaster recovery, in May added new hybrid cloud, scale-up NAS service to give customers a way to move large file workloads to the cloud while paying only for capacity needed. The Boston-based company's ClearSky NAS service offers flexible on-demand management of file data, which includes Microsoft SMB support, support for user and group policies for storage allocation, automated cloud-based backups and disaster recovery, unlimited scaling, and end-to-end encryption.

Cloudian Partners With Machine Box

San Mateo, Calif.-based Cloudian, which develops on-premises enterprise object storage systems with infinite scalability to public clouds, is working with Machine Box, the San Rafael, Calif.-based developer of machine- learning technology, on ways to use artificial intelligence and machine learning with media content. In May, the two unveiled their first offering, one aimed at using facial recognition and pattern-detection technologies to add metadata to storage objects as a way to make it easier to search and retrieve content.

Machine Box’s ML technology can be trained to recognize any type of image, and then add that information to the metadata of the storage object. The technology can be run on data sitting on-premises or in a cloud. The application can be pre-trained or can be trained by the user.

Commvault Extends Data Management To Office 365

Commvault in May expanded its enterprise data protection, archiving and management technology with advanced integrations for Microsoft Office 365. The Tinton Falls., N.J.-based storage software developer enhanced its Commvault Data Platform and Commvault Endpoint Protection offerings with improved data protection, migration, security, eDiscovery and compliance for Office 365 customers. This includes the archiving of redundant data before migrating to Office 365, the development of storage-agnostic eDiscovery of Office 365 content, improved data governance, and the use of Microsoft Azure Stack as a hosting target for Office 365 data management. For service providers, the enhancements work with multi-tenant service platforms.

Egnyte Improves Content Governance In Microsoft Environments

Egnyte, a developer of cloud-based smart content collaboration and governance, in April expanded its Egnyte Protect offering for the Microsoft ecosystem to make it easier for businesses to classify and monitor content across Microsoft repositories including Windows File Servers, SharePoint and OneDrive. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's Egnyte Protect helps Microsoft users comply with industry regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, GLBA, PCI-DSS, and more. Businesses can also monitor the exposure of sensitive data via pre-defined markers such as PII (personally identifiable information) and then quarantine the content to help avoid potential fines or sanctions for non-compliance. Egnyte plans to build on its Egnyte Protect for Microsoft functionality with additional access control features slated to be introduced this fall.

Nakivo Automated VM Failover

Nakivo Backup & Replication v7.4, brought the Sparks, Nev.-based company's virtualization and cloud backup software new capabilities to improve the use of clouds for disaster recovery. Automated virtual machine failover replicates VMs to a disaster recovery location and then run them as a single failover job for fast recovery. Fail recovery to source capability lets accidentally deleted or corrupted files be recovered directly to their source VMs or to a different location. Also new are enhanced AWS EC2 instance backups on-site or in the cloud, bandwidth throttling on a per-job basis, and the ability for the application to back itself up in case its own server goes down.

Panzura New Private Secure Site Mode

Panzura, a developer of enterprise hybrid cloud NAS technology , in March introduced its new Private Secure Site Mode to is Panzura Freedom offering. According to the Campbell, Calif.-based company, a private secure site is an installation which for security purposes requires absolutely no external communications. The Panzura Freedom Private Secure Site Mode disables all external public communications to help ensure compliance with stringent security requirements. This gives companies total control over stored data without risk of outside monitoring or attack. The Private Secure Site Mode comes as part of the company's Panzura CloudFS enterprise file system built specifically for the cloud.

Rubrik Alta 4.2

Rubrik's new release 4.2 of its Alta cloud data management platform, unveiled in June, adds AWS EC2-native backups to better protect cloud-native workloads. With Alta 4.2, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company makes it easier for businesses to protect data related to cloud-native applications for artificial intelligence, real-time-analytics, IoT, and other use cases. Using AWS’ API-based functionality, Alta 4.2 now makes it easier for business to run production applications, source data, backup and recovery software, and archival storage on the cloud.

Also new is integration with VMware's vCloud Director for developing elastic private cloud environments. Rubrik also introduced its Envoy service for MSPs looking to accelerate self-service in co-hosted tenant environments.

SwiftStack Intros Multi-Cloud Features, Makes Them Open

SwiftStack, a San Francisco-based developer of multi-cloud data management technology, in June introduced new capabilities for multi-cloud use cases and simplifying workflows spanning both private data centers and public clouds, and sent those capabilities to the open-source community in the new 1space project. New to the offering is live migration of applications and data between private or public clouds. Also new is an improved policy engine to manage data across its entire life cycle in multi-cloud deployments, including ensuring data is automatically placed for optimal compute, analytics, access to external clients or third parties, or archiving. SwiftStack also improved search options for end users.

Veeam DataLabs

Veeam Software in May unveiled a new component to its Veeam Hyper-Availability Platform, the Veeam DataLabs. Veeam DataLabs is a new copy data management feature that lets businesses create new instances of their production environments on-demand. The Baar, Switzerland-based data protection software developer said this lets users easily use production data for such scenarios as DevTest, DevOps and DevSecOps, and for security and forensics testing and on-demand sandboxes for IT operations.

Veeam DataLabs provides developers with the ability to dynamically spin up instances of the production environment as they design new features in a self-service fashion as a way to ensure teams are developing and testing with the most recent copies of data.