CentreStack transforms traditional file servers into cloud file servers

Gladinet Cloud Enterprise is a file sync and share solution. It is usually installed in a data center, with a public IP address and a SSL certificate for a DNS name. The server agent is a client for the Gladinet Cloud Enterprise. It can be installed in a remote location, typically on a file server inside an Active Directory domain. It can proxy the Active Directory calls and File Server access over by communicating to the Gladinet Cloud Enterprise server. Here is a video demo session for the Gladinet Cloud Enterprise and the server agent. For more information, please visit http://www.gladinet.com and check out the file server section.

Gladinet Cloud Enterprise is a file sync and share solution. It has extensive support for Active Directory. We will have series of articles documenting the different Active Directory support scenarios. Today’s article will start from two most basic scenarios: Active Directory is local to the GCE in local area network Active Directory is remote at client’s location, over the Internet Local Active Directory Local Active Directory can be connected directly via LDAP or LDAP with security settings. In this case,  it is very easy to set up. From the web portal, log in as tenant administrator, go to the management console and then Advanced->Active Directory to set it up.   Remote Active Directory When  Active Directory is at a remote location, customers typically will be reluctant to open firewall for the LDAP access over the Internet. In this case, we recommend installing the Server Agent and the Server Agent will proxy out the Active Directory connection and also the File Serve

Here is the video for the Group Share with Active Directory, in the Cloud blog.   For more information, visit http://www.gladinet.com and visit the enterprise section.

So what is new? That may be the first question. Group share is not new, Active Directory is not new either. With a Microsoft Active Directory domain and file server, users can do group share and collaboration in a local area network already. The new stuff is that now you can do it in the cloud, without VPN. Also you can extend the access method to web browser and mobile phones, in addition to the traditional desktops, PC and Mac. Lab Setup To show how it is done, we have a lab setup with one Gladinet Cloud Enterprise Server, One Active Directory Server and One Windows File Server. For demonstration purpose, the Active Directory Server and the File Server can co-exist on the same Windows 2012 server. As shown below, Gladinet Cloud Enterprise is running at “Windows 2012 R2 Gladinet (11)”, which it will have a public IP Address and DNS name. The Active Directory and File Server are running at the “Windows 2012 R2 AD (10)”. This Active Directory server can be behind the second firewa

Here is the demo video to go with the 2-Step Verification blog published yesterday.   For more information, visit http://www.gladinet.com

2-Step Verification adds an extra layer of security to your Gladinet Web Portal Access. By entering a one-time verification code from your mobile phone after you type your password, you can make it much tougher for an unauthorized person to gain access to your Gladinet account. On the demands of many of our enterprise customers we are very excited to announce that Gladinet Cloud Enterprise has added this security feature that helps protect your Gladinet Web Portal Access from threats like password compromise and identity theft. Enable the Feature Tenant admin can enable the 2-Step Verification feature in Cluster Manager\Cluster Settings\Settings by checking the box ‘Turn On 2-Step Verification’. Once the feature is enabled by the tenant administrator, users will see the ‘Two-Step Verification’ option under their username in web portal.

Today we had an online session about how to turn Windows File Server into an online collaboration platform. Traditionally Windows File Server is a local area network collaboration platform. In order to use the file server, a VPN is required if the access is from outside. With the cloud storage and the Gladinet Cloud Enterprise, The reach of a traditional file server can be extended from local area network to a wide area network (the Internet and the cloud).   For more information, please visit http://www.gladinet.com for the enterprise section.

This video demonstrates accessing SoftLayer Object Storage from Windows Desktop. The SoftLayer Object Storage is mounted as a Windows Drive. In addition, local folders can be attached to SoftLayer Object Storage for two-way synchronization.

SoftLayer Object Storage is based on OpenStack Swift. It is one kind of cloud storage services. As a cloud storage service, it is a basic building block to construct an online file sharing solution. This video demonstrates using IBM SoftLayer Object Storage, together with Gladinet Cloud Enterprise to form an online file sharing solution.

This is part of the OpenStack Swift EFSS (Enterprise File Sync and Share) series of videos. This video demonstrates how to use Windows Phone (8, 8.1 and above) to access files and folders on OpenStack Swift Object Storage. For more information, please visit http://www.gladinet.com

When you use Gladinet Cloud Enterprise to setup your own file sync and share solution,  sometimes you have files coming from multiple sites that you do not wish to have replication into one site. However, you have users from multiple sites that mostly use the files coming from their own site instead of doing cross-site access. For the multiple site with replication solution, that is the File Server Agent solution, which we covered in the past. Now today’s article is about multiple sites without replication. So you want users in NY accessing the files from New York and you want users from LA accessing the files from Las Angeles. Here is the video about the setup. For more information, please visit www.gladinet.com and go to the enterprise section.

Managed Service Providers (MSP) have been using Gladinet Cloud Enterprise for file sync and share solution for their customers.  The auto client upgrade is a big feature because it makes the service provider’s life easy since they may also manage the customer’s desktop. One of the concern in the past is how to test the client auto-upgrade before it is pushed out to a lot more users. Now here is the answer, the administrator can select some users to try it out first. Provide the Email Addresses of the Users to Auto-Update the Clients Login as the cluster admin and go to Cluster Manager\Cluster Settings\Settings and provide the email addresses for whom the latest client should be published in the ‘Apply to Users:’ field and click on ‘Publish’.

A useful use case for cloud storage is to do file server to file server synchronization over cloud storage. The file servers may come from different locations. In the past, it is not easy to replicate a folder from server A to server B. A VPN needs to be in place for synchronization to happen. It is also not easy to access file server from remote location. Again it requires a VPN. This video demonstrates that we can use cloud storage to do file server to file server synchronization. The end result is that both site can access to the same file server contents and also enable multiple-site, and multiple-place access to the same set of folders. For more information, please visit www.gladinet.com

SoftLayer Object Storage is based on OpenStack Object Storage. For IBM customers who wants to have a enterprise file sync and share solution completely self-contained within SoftLayer infrastructure, they can setup SoftLayer virtual server running Gladinet Cloud Enterprise and connect to SoftLayer Object Storage as the backend storage. This video demonstrates how to setup an Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) solution based on SoftLayer infrastructure and using SoftLayer Object Storage.