HDS Expands Sync and Share Across Mobile, Browser, NAS
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) expanded the capabilities of its Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere to include mobile and browser access to data stored in an array of NAS devices, independent of vendor.
HCP Anywhere, available now, is designed to address IT departments' concern with users' independent deployment of sync and share applications that may violate compliance and security issues, zap network resources, or use up storage and financial resources, Jeff Lundberg, senior product marketing manager, told EnterpriseTech.
"It was brought about by the IT department not feeling very compfortable with roadmaps, price lists, and customer names and things like that being in self-deployed apps where they can't do e-discovery and things like that," he said. "Users don't want to do something bad but they have their own personal pressures to get certain things done. If I can do it on my Mac personal laptop better than the PC that was issued by the company, I'm going to do that and get it done. This is giving users air cover from the rest of the company."
Personal sync and share services can endanger corporate information, agreed Gartner analyst Jeffrey Mann. "Data leakage through employees' use of consumer-grade file synchronization and sharing programs poses a significant threat to most organizations. Enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS) offerings provide security against this threat, along with benefits such as collaboration capabilities, simplicity and a user-centric design optimized for mobile experiences," he wrote in "Critical Capabilities for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing."
HCP Anywhere allows users to sync and share files of up to 2 terabytes, a capability HDS developed to meet the needs of one specific customer and now is available to all customers that use large files, said Garg.
The solution also focuses extensively on security: IT controls data and the entire solution resides within an organization's IT environment, said Lundberg.
"There is no portal you have to go to that's hosted by a third party," he said.
Partnering with Digilink, HDS now offers an HCP Anywhere Connector that gives IT departments "full data management" of Microsoft SharePoint from anywhere via desktop, mobile, or browser, according to HDS. A Microsoft Outlook plug-in allows users to share and collaborate. HCP Anywhere supports other Microsoft technologies including Windows Phone, Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service, Active Directory, and Active Directory Federation Services.
Organizations can purchase HCD Anywhere as a branded solution or a white-box product. Although many telecos and cloud service providers brand the offering with their name, some larger enterprises also take this approach, said Garg, product manager for HCD Anywhere, in an interview.
"IT services are really becoming a consumer-level service; really they're saying, 'we're competing. It's under our label rather than the vendor's label.' We offer that flexibility," he said. "We expect a certain set of enterprises … want to differentiate themselves and stand out, the others don't care about the branding aspect."
Unlike many sync and share offerings, HDS' solution is not a subscription model, said Lundberg. The company declined to provide specific pricing.
"This is a perpetual license. These are not the type of solutions that are easily ripped and replaced later on down the line. We're not going to sell this off like EMC did Simplicity. Owning these licenses outright from the beginning and paying one price, by year two, year three, this solution becomes quite a bit less expensive than subscriptions," he said. "When you look at, say, $5 per month per year per user, that adds up quickly. If you look at a small deployment – if you've only got 50 or 100 users that need a sync and share service – we're probably a bit more expensive. But when you get to 200 users and you want to keep it around for a while, this is a much more price-competitive offering."
There are multiple options, ranging from software-only to leasing services and financial tools that can make an acquisition resemble Opex more than Capex, added Lundberg.
