CTERA Rolls Out Channel-Friendly Cloud Storage Portal

Hybrid cloud-based storage and data protection vendor CTERA Networks is
reaching out to service providers, including MSPs and resellers, with a cloud
platform that is a turnkey solution for delivering cloud-based storage and data
protection services, from creating service plans to remote maintenance of
appliances, including the CloudPlug and C200.

Available immediately in SaaS and Datacenter editions, CTERA Portal includes
easy-to-use tools for remote provisioning and centralized monitoring of storage
appliances, managing and optimizing cloud storage, and running online backup
services.

CTERA CEO Liran Eshel tells Channel Insider
service providers are the Israeli-based company’s natural partners for
delivering Cloud Attached Storage services. "What we hear from the market
is that the channel wants to have more control over the services they offer.
CTERA Portal makes it possible for our partners to deliver their services
quickly, cost-effectively and with deployment options that suit their business
needs."

In addition to control, the channel is looking for more flexibility, adds Rani
Osnat, vice president of marketing. "What we’re trying to do is really
provide a very flexible way for resellers to offer cloud services. If you use
it as software as a service, you have nothing to invest in up front."
Partners can be up and running in hours, he says.

For partners looking to control all aspects of the online service, the Data
Center edition is the choice.
"We see both flavors as relevant in the market because both kinds of
channel partners exist."

The company is also launching a major firmware upgrade (2.0) to its Cloud
Attached Storage appliances—the CloudPlug and the larger C200 appliance—that
combine local network storage with off-site cloud storage and backup. The
firmware includes a host of new enterprise-grade and unique features: Secure
Remote Access to view files over the Web and manage the appliance remotely,
from any PC or mobile device, no client software needed; Local Snapshots for
instant access to previous file versions stored on the appliance, an additional
layer to the snapshots available in the cloud backup; Laptop Backup, optional
managed agents that enable backup of devices outside the office LAN;
and additional features like Active Directory support, NFS,
iSCSI support, Apple Filing Protocol, Apple Time Machine support and enhanced
Windows shell integration.

According to Roy Miehe, president and CEO of
MSP Portal, CTERA’s technology provides an ideal path to the cloud: "It’s
easy to integrate, flexible and a step ahead of the competition."

IDC’s Brad Nisbet, program manager for
storage and data management services, states SMBs are facing the same pressure
to store, manage and protect growing volumes of digital information of larger
organizations. "Cloud storage is rapidly gaining adoption within the SMB
space, and solutions that focus on delivering cost-effective and user-friendly
managed services, such as those powered by CTERA, will continue to fuel the
fire."

The portal can either be run by CTERA (SaaS edition) as a cloud service,
offering the quickest and cheapest way for partners to offer managed storage
services, or installed in-house (Datacenter edition). It allows the creation of
both prepaid and pay-as-you-go service plans, user self-provisioning, real-time
monitoring and reporting, efficient storage management, integrated billing and
credit card payment, and integration with other systems via open standards.
CTERA Portal can use third-party cloud infrastructure such as Amazon S3 or
Rackspace Cloud Files as its back-end cloud storage, as well as direct-attached
and SAN storage.