Introduction to CTERA Edge Filers (Cloud Gateways)
CTERA Edge Filers (gateways) seamlessly combine collaboration capabilities, local storage, cloud storage, and data protection functionality in a single, cost-effective package. CTERA gateways are available as physical or virtual appliances.
E-Series gateways, C200 and C400 gateways, are physical appliancesH-Series gateways, HC400T, HC400E, HC400, HC1200, and HC2400M gateways, are virtual gateways running under a VMware ESXI hypervisor on a range of physical appliances.V-Series gateways, virtual gateways, are software-based gateways running on a hypervisor, such as ESXi or KVM, or in a cloud, such as AWS.X-Series gateways, XC900 and XC1200 gateways, are virtual gateways, running on hyperconverged physical appliances providing high availability and efficient disaster protection.CTERA Edge Filers replace file servers and other traditional file storage solutions with a single, cloud-integrated and cost-effective solution. CTERA Edge Filers:
Incorporate Intelligent caching technology.Deliver unlimited file access to office users, with visibility to all organizational files centralized in the cloud, either private or public.Provide users with collaboration across offices and endpoints with no local storage restraints.Dynamically cache files from any secure cloud to the Edge Filer.Using the gateway, connected to a CTERA Portal, data is synchronized between your computer and the gateway drives, and then transparently saved to a portal in the cloud.
Once installed, the gateway is managed using a web-based interface or centrally through the CTERA Portal. The portal also allows users to sync content between the portal and the gateway, as well as between gateways located in different branch offices.
The gateway can connect to a portal cloud drive in one of following modes:
CACHING (Caching Gateway), supported on all gateways except for C200 gateways – Provides users with LAN speed access to all their home folders and shared folders on the portal. Local user accounts are mapped to the equivalent user accounts in the cloud, so that each user sees only his or her personal view of the cloud files. Users can access locally stored, synced copies of the folders they are allowed to access on the portal. The main storage is on the portal in the cloud with stubs saved on the gateway. A stub is a file with a tiny footprint that contains the metadata about the file, such as the file name, size, and modification date. Only the folder and file metadata and not the actual file content is saved locally. This results in the cost of storage being significantly lower. Also, systems with many file changes, where only some of the files are required locally, don’t over use bandwidth between the cloud and gateway. Only the required files are passed across the wire. When a user accesses a file stub, the file is opened without delay, where possible by streaming the file content from the cloud. After the download has completed, the file is unstubbed. Any changes to the file are synced back to the portal. Folders that are always required can be pinned, in which case the files in the folders, and not the stubs, are stored on the gateway.
SYNC (Sync Gateway) – Provides users with LAN speed access to a subset of their home folders and shared folders on the portal. Local user accounts are mapped to the equivalent user accounts in the cloud, so that each user sees only his or her personal view of the cloud files. Users can access locally stored, synced copies of the folders they are allowed access to on the portal. SYNC mode is similar to CACHING mode, but all the selected content is downloaded from the portal to the gateway requiring more local storage. Thus, if you only require a subset of the cloud drive and require it to be constantly available, using SYNC mode saves the user having to search through the whole cloud drive for the required files that is the case with CACHING mode where the whole cloud drive is presented t o the user, either as stubs or as pinned files available locally.
CLOUD BACKUP – Provides secure periodic point-in-time backups of local folders and files on the gateway that are not cached with a portal. Automated differential backup and restore functions include block-level deduplication, compression, and encryption technologies, ensuring secure and efficient synchronization between the CTERA Edge Filer and the cloud. Backups are encrypted using high-grade AES encryption and encoded to maximize bandwidth utilization. Users can recover backed up files. CLOUD BACKUP mode requires a backup license.
Note: Files synced with a portal are backed up from the portal.
When initially setting up the gateway, you connect to the portal and specify one of the following modes: CACHING, SYNC or CLOUD BACKUP. After the initial setup you can also configure the gateway in Classic mode.
Classic – Folders belonging to the gateway user connected to the portal are synced with the cloud drive on the portal.
CACHING, SYNC and Classic modes also combine the functionalities of a standalone Network Attached Storage (NAS) device with full capabilities and comprehensive backup functionality available with CLOUD BACKUP mode.
Automated differential backup and restore functions include block-level deduplication, compression, and encryption technologies, ensuring secure and efficient synchronization between CTERA Agent-installed computers and the gateway and between the gateway and the cloud. Backups are encrypted using high-grade AES encryption and encoded to maximize bandwidth utilization. Users can recover files stored locally on the gateway, or from cloud backup using a web browser.