Ctera Partners With HPE SimpliVity For Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Cloud Gateway

Storage vendor Ctera Networks is teaming up with Hewlett Packard Enterprise's SimpliVity hyper-converged infrastructure technology to create a new unified compute and storage edge appliance for multi-cloud management.

The new Ctera Edge X Series appliance is the first hyper-converged cloud gateway that is integrated with HPE SimpliVity, said Oded Nagel, chief strategy officer for New York-based Ctera.

"We're providing full edge computing and data management on the same box," Nagel told CRN. "It combines Ctera's global file system with multi-cloud management and cloud data duplication with SimpliVity's hyper-converged infrastructure to provide edge capabilities with tiering to the cloud."

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The result, Nagel said, is an easily managed way to bring cloud storage to the edge. "The Ctera Edge X Series software runs as a storage solution with the ability to cache data and tier it to the cloud, while SimpliVity continues to run on-premises applications," he said.

The Ctera Edge X Series appliances are shipped fully configured, Nagel said. The SimpliVity hyper-converged infrastructure systems are OEMed by Ctera from HPE, and the final combined offering is sold by Ctera channel partners, he said.

"HPE can also bundle our V Series software with SimpliVity for their channel," he said. "It then becomes the same solution as an X Series, but solution providers will have to integrate it in the field."

HPE acquired SimpliVity in early 2017.

Nagel said he does not expect channel conflict with HPE as Ctera channel partners have deal registration protection.

Customers can use the new Ctera Edge X Series to do remote office file services with the Ctera software providing CIFS and NFS file services with caching and deduplication to on-premises or public clouds, Nagel said. "This lets users access data on the cloud itself or have access to the gateway from anywhere," he said.

Customers can also store and run their virtual desktop infrastructure operating system and unstructured data at the edge, with the data stored as on-premises NAS and tiered to the cloud, he said.

Ctera has always had a strong focus on protecting data at rest and data in motion, and with its new SimpliVity partnership will help manage data in remote offices from a security and efficiency perspective, said Michael Anderson, managing director at Sycomp, a Foster City, Calif.-based solution provider and partner of Ctera and HPE.

"It's important to have a global strategy for data wherever the data is," Anderson told CRN.

The Ctera Edge X Series provides the ability to scale in branch offices in a more significant way than current hardware, Anderson said.

"We specialize in tier-one finance clients," he said. "We believe the solution will allow us to address the large financial institution remote office market."

In addition to the Ctera Edge X Series, Ctera offers its E-Series for small offices with up to 50 users; its H Series for medium and large offices, with both Ctera hardware or running on HPE DL server hardware; and its V Series software-only virtual appliances that run on any hardware.