CentreStack transforms traditional file servers into cloud file servers

More and more service providers are running POC (Proof of Concept) on OpenStack Swift nowadays. They are looking for ways to extend their service portfolio to include file sync, sharing and collaboration solutions. OpenStack Swift in a nut shell solves these problems: How to scale up object storage cheaply and quickly. How to make object storage reliable with built-in redundancy and How to provide the service through API (Application Programming Interface) to developers so developers can write more applications on top. To use an analogy, OpenStack Swift is like a hard drive that never runs out of capacity and never crash, but will never be an end-user facing product in its own. OpenStack swift requires developers to add additional values before it is usable to end user (Similar to hard drive needs to be put into a PC and presented by an operating system before an end user can use). Gladinet Cloud Enterprise is one such application that adds value to OpenStack Swift. As shown in the ...

In the past articles, we covered OpenStack Swift web front-end so you can access through a web browser. We also covered how you can have a desktop client that connects to OpenStack Swift from your PC or Mac desktop. This article we will discuss mobile clients, such as iOS App, Android App and how they connects to OpenStack Swift. Two years ago, you saw Gladinet products had direct access capabilities to OpenStack Swift. Direct access gives you file-by-file view of what is in the OpenStack Swift instance. However, direct access also limited the access client’s capability to the OpenStack Swift’s programming interface, such as read/write/delete operations. As we continue to enhance the products and continue to understand user’s requirements, we saw a gap between the direct access method and what users really want. Users are very familiar with the direct access method, since floppy drive and hard drive. In this sense, the direct access method to cloud storage  doesn’t provide much...

Sharing folders across the Internet is a very good use case for cloud storage. As a service provider, you maybe thinking about a folder sharing solution that you can use for your existing user base. If you have cloud storage service yourself such as OpenStack Swift , EMC Atmos or whatever it is, you can use Gladinet Cloud to achieve what you want for a folder sharing solution. This article focuses on OpenStack Swift. Once you understand how it works, it can work for your other kind of cloud storage service as well. We will walk through manual configuration of an OpenStack swift account with Gladinet Cloud. This is a step that can be fully automated later on. By configuring it manually, it shows how OpenStack Swift and Gladinet Cloud works together. Step 1 is to acquire a Gladinet Cloud Team account from www.gladinet.com .

Gladinet and HP Cloud started a round of joint promotion with 1TB free HP Cloud Object Storage for your Gladinet Team Edition account. The regular Gladinet Team account comes with 100MB storage. The storage will be based on HP Cloud Object Storage. This will bring the total storage to 1.1 TB when you sign up with a new Gladinet Team Account . You will see the promotion in multiple places. You will see it from both Gladinet’s home page and also HPCloud home page .  It is on Gladinet partner page . It will show up on Gladinet blog and later on, other places as well. HPCloud Object Storage is based on OpenStack Swift, with KeyStone integration. The KeyStone part is known as HP Identity Service. Gladinet Cloud has an open plugin architecture so it is fairly straightforward to plug in HPCloud Object Storage as one of the default storage. HPCloud Object Storage provides a place for customers to store data. Gladinet Cloud provides a way to access, backup, sync & share, with team ...

OpenStack is getting popular. There are many companies working on OpenStack now to help services providers or enterprises with their own instance of OpenStack. Let’s say you are one of the companies that has an OpenStack instance with Swift object storage.  Now the next step is to find an easy way for your users to use it. You may have  a wish list of how you can access the OpenStack swift object storage, including accessing it from web browser interfaces; accessing it from iPhone and iPads, accessing it from Android devices , PCs , Macs and so on. With Gladinet solutions, the above methods are all good and ready. This article will discuss accessing OpenStack Swift Object Storage from web browser interface, just like you would with a file manager like Windows Explorer. Fast forward to the end, you will have Gladinet Cloud Cluster installed next to your OpenStack instances, providing access directly from your own data center. Or you can have Gladinet host the cluster for you...

Earlier this month, Rackspace announced the release of Rackspace Private Cloud Software, powered by OpenStack and code-named Alamo. The new offering is designed to make it easy for organizations to install, test and run a multi-node OpenStack-based private cloud environment. It is an offering designed for services providers and enterprises. OpenStack has two components, compute and object storage. This article focuses on the object storage, code named swift, as it is related to building a team oriented file and folder sync and share solution, working together with the Rackspace Private Cloud Software. File Sync & Share solutions are pretty common on the public cloud as one of the most common application of cloud storage. For example, Box and Dropbox are the most successful ones promoting file sync and share solution over public cloud. Many service providers will now look to OpenStack and also look for a dropbox-like or a box-like solution for their own private cloud,  OpenSta...

If you are setting up OpenStack Swift Object Storage, you may need a quick and easy way to connect to your OpenStack Swift instance, such as a desktop client, with the possibility of mapping a network drive to your OpenStack Swift container. This article discusses Gladinet Cloud Desktop client and how it can be used to connect to OpenStack Swift cloud storage, with KeyStone support. You will first install Gladinet Cloud Desktop professional or starter edition.  At the end of the installation, it will ask you to mount at least one cloud storage. Gladinet Cloud Desktop Professional/Starter There are two entries related to OpenStack Swift KeyStone. One entry is shown above. The other is shown below.

SoftLayer Object Storage was introduced earlier this year. Since it is based on OpenStack Swift Object Storage, Gladinet has a suite of solutions ready to use, ranging from a desktop client to web browser based file explorer to mobile clients. From a functionality perspective, there are features like backup, sync, peer sharing and team collaboration (Covered in the previous blog – Add a BASIC Layer on top of OpenStack Swift ) There will be a series of articles documenting the solutions that works with SoftLayer Object Storage. This first article will show the easiest way to get it going, connecting to SoftLayer Object Storage from your Desktop, with a mapped network drive. All that you need is the Gladinet Cloud Desktop Starter Edition, a free download. After you download and install it. It is all ready to go. You will also need your SoftLayer Object Storage account credentials ready. You can login to your web based SoftLayer management console You will see your account credent...

The BASIC layer, on one hand, refers to the basic end user needs when it comes to cloud storage. The BASIC layer, on the other hand, refers to the sum of B ackup, A ccess, S ync/ S hare, I dentity and C ontrolled C ollaboration. End user won’t use OpenStack Swift storage directly because the interface is too primitive (such as read/write/delete objects). With a BASIC layer stacked on top of the OpenStack Swift, the basic needs are met and now it is ready for end user to use. It means the BASIC layer helps to sell OpenStack Swift Object Storage. So What is in a BASIC Layer?

Gladinet has been supporting OpenStack since there was OpenStack. You can connect to an OpenStack swift (Object Storage) instance from Gladinet Cloud Desktop, Gladinet Cloud Server and also Gladinet Cloud Team Edition. OpenStack KeyStone is an identity service (or user login service). The benefit is that it can tie different OpenStack services together by providing a service catalog after user signs into OpenStack KeyStone. Within the service catalog, there will be end points and connection information for OpenStack Swift Object Storage. With the latest Gladinet release, you can find support for OpenStack KeyStone 2.0.

With cloud storage getting more popular, many businesses are looking to online storage for a team workspace solution. Traditionally these solutions are provided by Windows File Server and SharePoint Server, thus the team workspace solution was limited to a local area network environment. When enterprises are looking for the team workspace solution in the new cloud storage context, many are still looking because they want to have full control of their data.  Many service providers are looking too because they want to enter the market with a online storage solution with team workspace features. With OpenStack and Gladinet Team Edition, it is possible to build a windows file server/SharePoint server replacement solution in the cloud for enterprises and for service providers. The combined solution provides the following benefits. 1. Web Browser Based Access to Files and Folders.