Public and private clouds are great tools to enable anywhere, anytime access to files and records. However, many organizations and businesses still need their on-premises network storage, which provides more options for admin security, control, and data sovereignty. Across the public and private sector, these organizations are turning to hybrid solutions to leverage the benefits […]
Public and private clouds are great tools to enable anywhere, anytime access to files and records. However, many organizations and businesses still need their on-premises network storage, which provides more options for admin security, control, and data sovereignty.
Across the public and private sector, these organizations are turning to hybrid solutions to leverage the benefits of both cloud and on-prem infrastructure. Not only do these hybrid solutions provide more flexibility for remote employees, they also ensure organizations are able to meet privacy and security requirements, while facilitating collaboration between internal and external partners and teams.
However, every organization has different requirements when it comes to divvying up the data over a hybrid environment and may also be using different tools and technologies to host their data.
The IT infrastructure involved will inform the constraints and possibilities of a hybrid environment. Different cloud services provide integrations with various on-prem tools or technologies, and the specific organization and management of data will also influence which solutions are deployed.
Network File Sharing (NFS) is a protocol that allows you to share directories and files with other Linux clients over a network. Shared directories are typically created on a file server, running the NFS server component. Users add files to them, which are then shared with other users who have access to the folder.
An NFS file share is mounted on a client machine, making it available just like folders the user created locally. NFS is particularly useful when disk space is limited, and users need to exchange public data between client computers.
Samba is an open-source implementation of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. It allows the network data access between Windows, Linux, UNIX, and other operating systems, by enabling access to Windows-based file and printer shares. Samba's use of SMB allows it to appear as a Windows server to Windows clients. It has the added advantage of being accessible by Linux, Unix and Mac users.
Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface.
Amazon S3 can store any type of object, which allows uses like storage for Internet applications, backups, disaster recovery, data archives, data lakes for analytics, and hybrid cloud storage.
Most organizations already have data they maintain and store, which means selected data must be able to move between local file servers and the cloud when creating or maintaining a hybrid environment.
S3 storage can be set up as a local disk drive via LAN, which enables users to move data between the S3 storage and the local server. However, there is no enterprise-scale solution to handle this sort of migration.
FileCloud’s ServerSync provides the answer, as an enterprise-grade, hybrid solution to help manage content and records across on-prem and cloud infrastructure.
FileCloud ServerSync synchronizes files and permissions stored in on-premises Windows/Linux file servers to the cloud. It maintains copies of files and permissions in sync between the cloud and on-prem storage. This synchronization enables a hybrid cloud approach with traditional LAN access, even when users are off-site or remote.
FileCloud ServerSync can be used for multiple scenarios, including (but not limited to):
In this setup, we have a local NFS/SAMBA server configured in Linux used as a local data repository. It is accessible locally inside the company network from different types of clients (Windows, Linux, and Mac) that interact with the data stored there.
The data is moved to S3 cloud storage using FileCloud ServerSync for archival. The data will sync between the local file servers and the S3 storage and is accessible externally through the FileCloud web interface.
Interested in trying FileCloud for your own migration to a hybrid environment? You can check out the FileCloud Tour or sign up for a free trial today!
Article written by Wail Bouziane, Solutions Architect Team Lead
Edited by Katie Gerhardt, Junior Product Marketing Manager
