Up-and-coming cloud file server provider Egnyte has released a new version of its software that is optimized for use with VMware’s data center virtualization layer — yet it features operation at local area network speeds.
No “forklift” hardware move is needed here. Egnyte Enterprise Local Cloud can be deployed as a virtual appliance on any VMware virtual machine — including VMware Workstations or VMware ESXi Servers — to enable enterprises to create a hybrid cloud storage system on their existing hardware and software.
That would include — as Java guru James Gosling likes to call them — “Big Hunk” mainframe servers, low-cost commodity-type x86-based servers, or a mix of the two.
Egnyte’s ELC acts as a local file server within the company’s network, allowing users to access files either locally or in the company cloud. It automatically synchronizes local storage drives with the cloud file server, even if an Internet connection is lost. ELC ensures that the files users are accessing are the latest versions and that data is up-to-date and accurate, Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain said.
“Our larger customers needed a way for their distributed users to operate at LAN speeds,” Jain said. “Earlier, large organizations were locked into big iron deployments. Now they can leverage virtualization to achieve low-cost file serving and cross-office collaboration.”
Hybrid cloud technology is at the intersection of two major trends in the IT industry: virtualization and cloud computing, said Rob Enderle, President and Principal Analyst at the Enderle Group.
“What this integration means is that large organizations can finally deploy cloud storage solutions that give their users ubiquitous access to documents and information without giving up the reliability, availability and robustness of local storage,” Enderle said.