Enterprise File Sync & Share Solution with OpenStack Swift

Turn Your OpenStack Swift into a Box/Dropbox-like Sync & Share Solution

Introduction

You installed and deployed OpenStack Swift and it is ready for business. That was the easy part. Now the real challenge is how to turn it into an easy-to-use solution for end users.

Problem Statement

Most end users won't use OpenStack Swift storage directly because the interface is too primitive. That interface is designed for developers who can write programs to leverage the basic reading, writing and deletion of objects. Instead, end users need an access platform for OpenStack Swift storage that covers their basic (Backup, Access, Sync\Share, Identity management and C ontrolled Collaboration) access needs.

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Feature Highlights

Gladinet Solution

Gladinet Cloud provides an access platform that satisfies these needs and includes support for a wide variety of heterogeneous clients. Furthermore, all the user facing components of this access platform can be rebranded while the management infrastructure (Gladinet Cloud Cluster) can be hosted in any datacenter.

There are three related products: " Gladinet Cloud ", "Gladinet Cloud Enterprise" and " Gladinet Cloud Enterprise for Service Provider ".

"Gladinet Cloud" runs on our public Gladinet site, providing access, backup, sync , and team collaboration features for business. It provides three important components: cloud storage, clients to access the cloud storage (mobile devices, desktops, file servers, web browsers) and the access infrastructure which brokers communication between the clients and the cloud storage with added benefits like distributed file locking, instant file server migration, active directory integration and more.

"Gladinet Cloud Enterprise" packages all of the "Gladinet Cloud" access infrastructure into a package that an Enterprise can install on-premise, or inside a DMZ to have full control and security protection, with optional native Active Directory integration. You can set any OpenStack Swift storage (or your own file servers) as the default cloud storage and provide it to your employees. This product is a good fit for a single enterprise.

"Gladinet Cloud Enterprise for Service Provider" is the same as "Gladinet Cloud Enterprise" with support for multiple tenants and integration with multiple AD domains. This is a good fit for a service provider who wants to support multiple businesses through a single instance. It includes some branding options out of box. It has multi-tenant support, offers full branding (through Gladinet consulting), and everything else you need as a service provider to run "File Sync and Share Solution" in your own data center, under your own control. It can also scale easily to provide a multi-server farm that can support hundreds of thousands of users or more. The full branding includes web site, native clients, mobile clients, and all "skin" changes.

Click the "Try It Free" button below to try Gladinet Cloud on www.gladinet.com, or contact partner@gladinet.com for more information about partnering with Gladinet to provide your own dropbox-like interface to OpenStack Swift storage.

Want to See It Live First? Test Drive Gladinet Cloud Team Edition on Gladinet-Hosted web site.

Test Drive

Feature Contents

ACCESS FILES ANYWHERE

Gladinet Cloud Team Edition provides access methods from a web browser, native desktop client, iOS App, Android App and file server. When you are on the road, you can use the mobile applications to access your files. When you are in the office, you can connect to your on-premise file server for access. You can also access them from your desktop at home or use a web browser from any location on any client. When you deploy the Gladinet Cloud solution, the gladinet.com URL in the following pictures will become yourcompany.com.
» Access all your files from any web browser	Gladinet Cloud can be accessed from all major browsers, including IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.
» Map your storage account as a network drive	Having a drive letter on your desktop for cloud storage access is very easy to understand and use. The above Desktop Team Client can be branded after you fill out a branding template.
» Access your files from your mobile device	You can access Gladinet Cloud from your iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone 8 device with native applications.
» Mount your storage account as a file server volume	You can install Gladinet Cloud Server on your existing file server to seamlessly migrate it to the cloud. You can brand Gladinet Cloud Server too

SEAMLESSLY MIGRATE LOCAL FOLDERS TO CLOUD STORAGE

Gladinet provides unique synchronization technology that allows you to attach local folders to cloud storage. Attaching a folder means that its contents immediately become accessible to any device from any location (even before the sync is finished). It also means that the attached folder will be synchronized with the cloud and any changes made in the cloud from a remote mobile device will be synchronized back to the attached folder. This is a powerful solution with no bulk ingestion roadblocks.
» Sync ANY local folder to cloud storage	You can right click any local folder and select "Attach to Gladinet Cloud". The attached local folder will be synchronized with the cloud.
» Instant Migration	After you attach a local folder to your cloud storage account, it will immediately appear in your Gladinet Cloud web portal and all Gladinet clients. While the sync may still be happening in the background, you can start browsing the folder structure and you will be able to randomly access any file - even before the synchronization is complete.
» Unify file server structure from multi-site	You can attach local folders from multiple servers in multiple locations to your Gladinet Cloud team account. The folders will appear under the root folder of your Gladinet drive to provide a unified view of the file structures across multiple sites.

COLLABORATE WITH TEAM FOLDERS

Administrators of the team account can create team folders for collaboration. Once a team folder is created and assigned to a user or group, the team folder will appear in the root of their Gladinet drive. Users can lock/unlock files, add comments and setup notifications.
» Share an entire folder with team members	You can create a team folder from the "share menu" and then assign team members to the folder.
» Assign read-only/full permission to team member	Each assigned user can be given full control or read-only permissions.
» File locking	You can manually lock files inside a team folder. If you are using an Office application from your desktop and save to the team folder inside your Gladinet Drive, the file will be locked automatically.
» Versioning	By default, new team folders have versioning enabled.

SECURITY FEATURES

Gladinet Cloud Team Edition provides encryption, file locking, auditing and permission control at the folder level, with client-side enforcement.
» Folder Level Permissions	Not only can you assign users at the team folder level, you can also set folder level permission for individual folders within the team folder.
» Encryption	From data-in-transit encryption based on industry standard SSL to data-at-rest encryption, your data is secured between your devices and Gladinet Cloud.
» Shared Items Protection	There are different methods available to protect items that you shared with the team members and external users.
» Team Folder Protection	You can assign read-only access or full-control access to users. For users that are not assigned to the team folder, they don't have a way to see the team folder content.

USER MANAGEMENT

In Gladinet Cloud Team Edition, there are several ways to create a user. You can use the simple user creation form for single users or the batch user import form which allows multiple users to be created at the same time. There is also Active Directory user import which allows you to import users from an existing active directory implementation. You can also designate multiple team members as delegated administrators.
» Simple User Creation	From the user manager page, click 'Create New User' and complete the form. A new user will be created.
» Batch User Creation	You can use a CSV (comma separated value) format file to batch create users.
» Delegate Administration	The very first user is the default administrator for the account. You can also create delegated administrators for the account.

ACTIVE DIRECTORY INTEGRATION

If you have at least one Gladinet Cloud Server installed inside your active directory domain, it can serve as the authentication integration server helping to import active directory users into your Gladinet Cloud team account, with single sign-on.

SHARE FILES AND FOLDERS

You can share folders and files with your team members. Team members receiving these shares will see the files and folders under the "Files Shared with me" folder. You can assign read-only permission or full access to the shared items. You can also share folders and files with someone outside your team, who doesn't have a Gladinet Cloud account. They can receive read-only access, protected by a password.
» Share files & folder (Owner/Sender view)	For the owner of the files and folders, it is the same process sharing items with users, whether the user is part of the team or the user is external to the team.
» Team Member Receiving Shares	Team members receiving the share need to login to their team account to see the shared items.
» External User Receiving Shares	External user will receive an email invitation about the shared items. By clicking the shared link and providing a shared password, the external user can view the shared items inside their web browser.

FILE SERVER INTEGRATION

Gladinet Cloud Server is part of the Gladinet Cloud Team Edition. By connecting your cloud storage to a file server, multiple office users can then connect to the file server without a Gladinet client through file shares on the LAN. This has multiple benefits. For example, it unifies file structures across multiple sites into a single namespace and can be used to seamlessly migrate your existing file server to the cloud.
» Cloud-based distributed file system	Attached local folders will show up in your Gladinet Cloud team account root folder. Inside the parentheses next to the folder, a server name will appear to show where the folder is coming from. This provides a unified namespace for distributed file system.
» Publish network shares to your storage account	You can take any folder in your Gladinet Cloud account and turn them into a network share on a file server.

Plug-in Your Own OpenStack Swift Cloud Storage

For service providers that need an access platform for their own team cloud storage product, it is also very easy to rebrand Gladinet's service, together with the service provider's own cloud storage solutions, such as OpenStack Swift.
Provide default storage	For best user experience, Gladinet Cloud comes with default storage. You can config default storage to be your OpenStack Swift account
OpenStack & KeyStone	You can also use your existing OpenStack cloud storage account if you want more control of your data. You can also trim the supported storage provider list to the ones you need.
API Support	You can also integrate Gladinet Cloud with your existing user provision process.

White-Labeled and Self-Hosted Options

For service providers that are looking for an access platform for to create their own dropbox-like or box.net-like solution with their storage, they can white-label and self host the Gladinet Cloud solution. Gladinet Cloud Cluster is built on top Microsoft Web Platform and can be installed with the Microsoft Web Platform Deployment tools on Windows Servers.
Our Solution. WE Host. YOUR Brand.	You can pick any of the Amazon EC2 region and we will host the solution for you, with your brand.
Our Solution. YOU Host. YOUR Brand.	You can install Gladinet Cloud solutions on your own servers.