Data transfer specialist Aspera announced the beta availability of Drive, a unified sharing and collaboration platform for big data combining desktop explorer integration with support for on–premise and cloud storage, and with security, management and access control.
Drive brings remote file browsing, transfer, synchronization and package sending and receiving to the desktop, browser and mobile device. The API allows for granular, centralized control over content access, security and bandwidth, regardless of content storage location–on premise or on cloud.
Aspera’s platform allows for transfer and synchronization of file sets of any size and any number at any distance, with the access control, privacy and security of the company’s technology. The platform’s architecture allows Drive to be deployed on-premise, in the cloud or in a hybrid model.
The user experience builds on Aspera Connect, Cargo, Sync and Mobile and unifies Shares and Faspex paradigms on the backend to achieve an enhanced file-sharing experience, which extends to email and mobile platforms. Large files and directories can be sent and received as attachments directly within Outlook email with the Aspera Outlook plug-in, and the company’s Faspex mobile applications for Android and iOS are also compatible, allowing sending and receiving content directly from the mobile device.
Other features include the ability to automatically sync local folders with remote Project Shares and other Drive users, as well as integrated secure desktop browsing of remote shares, projects and files. Synchronization supports directories with arbitrarily large numbers of files, while users can also employ drag-and-drop transfer to and from remote shares and projects (on premise and on cloud).
On the security side, the platform offers integrated on-the-wire encryption and encryption at rest, allowing for secure global distribution and exchange of content, and email notification on new package availability or new content uploaded to a share lets users know the data transfer has been successful.
Administrators can manage user authentication, access to content and transfer bandwidth policies and security settings across all storage locations both on premise and on cloud, and access to upload, download, sync and view-only can be managed centrally by user and by group from the shares administrative interface.
Aspera server nodes may be on premise, on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure or other supported cloud platforms, and administrators can configure secure access points transparently to users. In addition, transfer bandwidth policies and security can be set per user and per group.
Finally, all common enterprise and ad hoc authentication schemes are supported. Faspex 3.5 and Shares 1.6 now support Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) authentication, as well as authentication via multiple Active Directory and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories, and self-provisioned user accounts.