A Folder of Opportunity
November 15th, 2008 by Ross Chevalier
Remember when we all stored our stuff on servers, on our F: drive or Home drive? Availability was never a problem. Those servers were reliable, backed up and very secure. Encrypted in connection and protected by the best file system on the planet. Life was good.
It’s different today. We live the web life, we use many devices, and very often we are working in a state of disconnect. Several years ago Novell delivered a technology called iFolder that worked well but had some limitations. It could be a bit slow, and it used less “open” connections. We also were not so dependent on our disconnected selves, or as likely to use more than just one computer as is the norm today.
Today’s marketplace has created an opportunity. We aren’t the only player in it, but we are absolutely capable of being the leader in the enterprise space. Let me share why I think this is so.
Disconnected is great, but backup is typically an action we initiate. That creates risk of data loss. Cloud storage is a great idea, but where specifically are the servers? Who has access to them? What kind of protection of data privacy is ensured? When you read the EULAs, it’s frightening. Sounds complicated in addition to being risky. Amazon does EC2, Google has a storage capability in addition to GMAIL. Microsoft has its Live Mesh service out in beta. EMC acquired Mozy. Some of these technologies include user agents to automate the synchronization. Novell is certainly capable of playing in this cloud model if needs be, we build to open standards.
Yet there’s a gap. The gap exists in control of the storage location, the service level agreements, the protections and the redundancy. The things that enterprise customers absolutely must have. Fortunately Novell can solve this problem.
In the coming SP for OES 2 everyone is aware of the awesome Domain Services for Windows, but there is an element equally important, the next generation of iFolder.
What makes this iFolder ideal for the enterprise? Here’s what I see. The new iFolder does have a user agent to automate the synchronization. It uses http as its communication protocol and that means security doesn’t get compromised by extra open ports. The new iFolder does encryption in the stream and offers encryption on the server store. And unlike the original iFolder, it also allows you to share iFolders with other users. It’s the best of the original iFolder, with the best of the open source version, merged together in a fast, secure tool.
Live Mesh, EC2, the Google tools and all the rest focus on being the storage location. They are doing what they are designed to do. But in most cases, enterprise customers don’t want or can not trust the storage to an outside party without a lot of controls in place, and for the most part, these controls are not fully implemented yet. They want to manage their own central store, to control access to data and to provide data integrity for their users who operate both connected and disconnected from the corporate environment. Only Novell provides the customer the rich capability to control and manage all elements of the folder and data management, with agents that run on Windows, Linux and Macintosh and that can leverage the best server side file systems for reliability and scale. The other beautiful thing is that the customer also gets to choose the medium for storage be it server attached, network attached or a full storage area network. This is yet another differentiator we bring to bear, that being no dependency on a specific physical or logical platform.
Some people think we were early to market with the original iFolder. I submit for your consideration that we today have a “folder of opportunity” Take some time, if you will, to learn about the new iFolder and then discuss it with partners, customers and prospects. It’s our time, let’s grab it.
Until next time, peace.
Ross