Getting data moving faster is being approached a number of ways, including new networking technologies and memory architectures. Connected Data’s is addressing the issue with an appliance.
The company recently announced it had been granted a U.S. Networking Patent to support its private cloud file sync and share (FSS) appliances. The patent focuses on reducing network bandwidth issues that impede performance when sharing files across computers and mobile devices.
Tony Hampel, Connected Data’s senior director of product marketing, said traditional public cloud file sync and share storage services send the same common data from the cloud, downloading it to each device being synced. This process is repeated thousands of time a day in an organization, using up high amounts of bandwidth and making it highly inefficient.
The company’s Transporter for Business appliance uses Connected Data’s patented peer-to-peer file sharing technology to reduce the bandwidth required for sharing data by placing a network-stored folder on each device, he said. Once these folders are created, they are synchronized and file modifications are updated to the main folder, then synced to other devices via peer-to-peer communication. “The synchronization of a file happens on the LAN, not the WAN.”
The ultimate benefit is two-fold, said Hampel. Not only is there one occurrence of bandwidth usage and no additional Internet usage is needed to sync the devices, it speeds up access to data. If a large enterprise were to be using a public cloud service provider and sending the same data from the cloud to every device each time file syncing occurs, it could mean more than a million transactions are hitting their Internet connection daily, and creating a serious performance bottleneck.
In the typical cloud provider file-sync scenario, said Hampel, a single character change could have the same 5MB Power Point Presentation get synced across the Internet quite a few times a day depending the number of users. “Enterprises with a large population of employees are making changes all of the time.” Take it step further, he said, and consider an organization providing an HR document update for more than 100,000 employees.
In addition to reducing the number of times a file is transferred via the Internet, Connected Data’s appliance supports version control and only saves the changes made in the file. Hampel said this not only improves performance, but frees up bandwidth for other users doing different kinds of work.
Connected Data recently released results of a survey that revealed more than a third of companies plan to change their file sync and share (FSS) system in the next twelve months. IT managers who responded to the survey listed five top objectives for adopting a new FSS system: enhancing teamwork and collaboration; providing FSS for remote employees; providing a way to back up company data on a notebook/portable computers; acquiring a capability to share or distribute files too large to send via email; and providing mobile access for all employees.
The survey also found that 87 per cent of respondents would prefer to own and manage their own FSS system rather than rely on a third-party provider. Connected Data’s research also revealed that some organizations – nearly 13 per cent – are looking to eliminate the use of unauthorized service providers.