Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

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2 Table of Contents Introduction... 3 MezeoFile TM File, Sync and Share Clients 4 MezeoCloud TM... 7 MezeoCloud Architecture... 8 Mezeo Management Console.11 REST APIs and Cloud Storage The Mezeo Ready Ecosystem Typical Use Cases and Summary... 16

3 Introduction What keeps CIOs and CSOs up at night? There is a growing and justified concern in corporate IT concerning employees using public cloud storage services such as DropBox (many times going against corporate policy) and putting sensitive company information at risk. While cloud storage undoubtedly offers considerable cost savings and flexibility, there are lingering concerns about the security and reliability of storing sensitive information in a public cloud. The dilemma corporate IT faces is the consumerization of IT, or the shift of consumer products into the business environment. Business users are now demanding business tools with the same functionality as the tools they use in their personal life. Employees want easy access to files on-the-go using the device of their choice whether that is a laptop, smartphone or tablet. Users also want tools that offer instant storage, pay-for-what-you-use pricing and ease of use. This often leads to rogue adoption of consumer tools in a business environment. These tools are readily available, inexpensive, and usage is often not monitored due to lack of IT resources. What is frightening is that many of these consumer tools do not have appropriate security and control features; and therefore do not protect the IP of the organization, posing significant compliance, legal and financial risks. It is a real problem and it is happening everywhere. Enterprises facing a data security problem driven by the consumerization of IT need more than a no use policy. They need tools that end users will embrace and leverage tools that will improve efficiency and effectiveness. Enterprises are looking at both public and private cloud storage options as an affordable and highly scalable option to address the continuous growth of storage. Most see limited use cases for public storage clouds, such as a second site copy of encrypted data. An attractive option, in terms of security and compliance, is a private storage cloud behind the firewall. A private storage cloud enables multiple use cases, including anytime, anywhere access, backup to the cloud and file server replacement, while supporting compliance policies. Mezeo also provides an option for a federated cloud with some data behind the firewall and some stored within a service provider s data center. Mezeo understands these challenges, and we developed our MezeoCloud TM and MezeoFile TM solutions with these in mind. MezeoCloud enables a private storage cloud by transforming industry standard infrastructure into a storage cloud. MezeoCloud is platform agnostic and can transform storage that is in use today into a highly available, highly scalable, highly performant storage cloud. MezeoFile clients provide anywhere/anytime access to the data on this storage cloud. MezeoFile offers a comprehensive set of capabilities comparable to consumer-based offerings and requires little to no end user training. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of Mezeo solutions for the Enterprise: MezeoCloud and MezeoFile. For additional information, please visit or contact us at info@mezeo.com. 3 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

4 MezeoFile File Sync and Share Clients To help IT regain control of corporate data, IT has two choices: 1. forbid use of consumer-based tools that store data on public clouds, or 2. deliver a corporate-based alternative that offers the same functionality and ease of use as consumerbased tools, but that stores data behind the corporate firewall or with a trusted service provider, allowing IT to maintain control. MezeoFile offers the anytime, anywhere access to stored files through a variety of client access points. These include supported web browsers, tablets, smartphones, and native Windows and Mac clients. Branding, or white label support for the clients is also available. Organizations using MezeoFile can provide secure file access and sharing to remote users around the world. Client Overview and Features Upload, download, copy, move, delete and view files directly from any supported client. Easy-to-use navigation with native menu functions. Securely access, share files and collaborate from any supported client. Sync files on your desktop with the cloud. Web Browser Clients While Tablet and SmartPhone access are growing at exponential rates, secure access via traditional web clients is still a requirement in today s enterprise. MezeoFile web clients are fully functional, customizable client interfaces that provide you with secure access to your cloud storage from any web-enabled device. Figure 1: Initial view into directory structures for file sharing and collaboration. Figure 2: Users can easily collaborate on documents. Comments can be made and versions tracked. 4 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

5 Secure Sharing: Users can easily share stored content. The sharing can take place with existing users and also securely with external users. MezeoCloud offers LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) integration that enables dynamic sharing with established groups. The user sharing the files has the ability to enforce access levels, access expiration and more. In addition to putting the control of a file with its owner, sharing a file also eliminates the issues relating to large files such as the inability to them. Users can share files without having to physically move them (for example, on a flash drive) or them. Figure 3: Secure share enables users control over who has access to the documents and for how long something that cannot be done with a public link. Mezeo Tablet Clients Tablet popularity and use has exploded in the marketplace and organizations are looking for solutions that provide secure file access for users on the go. With full encryption and access controls, the Mezeo ipad and Android tablet based clients enable secure, flexible access to files from remote offices, home offices, or in the field. Figure 4: Sample ios tablet view. Figure 5: Sample Android tablet view. 5 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

6 Mezeo Smartphone Clients Mezeo leverages the OS for the iphone and Android to provide customers with access to their information from a convenient, familiar and intuitive interface. Customers can easily access and share files in the cloud, without storing a single file on the phone. Figure 6: It s easy to finish your expense report before you get back to the office and you don t have to learn a new interface Figure 7: Have access to your data anytime and anywhere on ios (Figure 7) or Android (Figure 6.) MezeoFile Sync Client Mezeo provides a native application for Windows and Mac that allows users to synchronize files from their desktop to and from the cloud. Native apps for Windows and Mac Sync folder is created on local machine Any changes to the sync folder are immediately uploaded to cloud Cloud changes are processed every 5 minutes Syncing is bi-directional with conflict management Simplified user interface to reduce training and support efforts Offline access to files Pause/resume/exit Figure 8: Sample Sync Screen Shot 6 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

7 MezeoCloud: The MezeoFile clients are designed to empower users. The clients access the MezeoCloud platform, which is designed to give control to IT. MezeoCloud provides the storage services layer for cloud scale applications. The MezeoCloud product enables the implementation of public, private or hybrid cloud storage solutions. By providing REST API access to storage, Mezeo transforms industry standard architecture (servers, storage and networks) into storage clouds. When evaluating a cloud storage solution, an enterprise should carefully evaluate: Security: What access controls are available and how do they integrate into an enterprise security infrastructure? Is data protected in-flight and at rest? Interoperability: Will it easily integrate with existing applications? Will it work in a hybrid environment if I decide to work with a service provider in the future? Flexibility: Will it easily fit into my existing infrastructure? Does it work with standard hardware, or will I be locked into one vendor? Ease of use: Will my employees use it? Availability: Can I build a cloud with the same availability characteristics as my mission critical storage infrastructure? MezeoCloud software is an enterprise-class solution ideal for organizations looking to implement a private storage cloud. Security: MezeoCloud is a secure, hardware agnostic solution that provides security in key dimensions including: Encryption in flight and at rest Integration into identity management systems Logging for audit and compliance Policy based data management MezeoCloud Benefits Reduce costs and complexity: use your existing storage infrastructure to enable affordable cloud storage for backup/archive, tiered (secondary) storage and file server replacement. Address security needs: offer a fully encrypted private storage cloud with access controls. Meet compliance requirements: automate policy-based archive to the cloud, and use geo-location to address data location requirements. Ensure business continuity: quickly deploy and provision storage to users as needed, and use geo-replication to enable a second site backup and warm disaster recovery. Improve productivity: offer URL publishing, secure sharing and access to files anytime, anywhere using Web, desktop, tablet or smartphone. Interoperability: Flexible access is available using REST Web Services APIs, CDMI and WebDAV. The MezeoCloud Storage API enables advanced services and programmatic access to Mezeo-enabled storage clouds, and the Mezeo Interoperability API enables seamless interoperability of applications developed for Amazon S3 and Eucalyptus-based storage clouds. Flexibility: The MezeoCloud architecture provides massive scalability and excellent performance with multiple access points. MezeoCloud provides anytime, anywhere access to files using web browser, smartphone or tablet access clients. 7 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

8 The MezeoCloud Architecture The MezeoCloud platform is deployed on industry standard architecture (servers and network) and is storage agnostic, allowing an organization to optimize existing IT investments. The platform attaches to existing storage infrastructure with concurrent read/write access. Figure 9 represents a sample deployment. To expand the number of users supported, simply add a node. Figure 9: Sample MezeoCloud deployment architecture 8 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

9 MezeoCloud features a meta data storage technology that provides massive scalability. The fault tolerant architecture distributes meta data among all nodes in the cluster, providing faster access to content without having to access the physical storage where the file resides. Automatic load redistribution allows additional capacity to be added immediately. Meta data is created, written, and associated with the ingested objects/files. Information about files and the file hierarchy as well as file publishing and shared access is maintained within the distributed data store (file catalog) that is designed for high availability. For performance and flexibility, the file catalog and meta data are stored separately from the actual files. MezeoCloud Features End-to-end encryption (SSL in transit and 256-bit AES at rest) with full access control. REST Web Services API and Interoperability API Data Management using Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) Easy provisioning with storage quota settings Identity management integration with LDAP or AD Storage agnostic Deployed on Linux based server technology Figure 10 represents the MezeoCloud architecture. The top layer represents access points via the APIs. The next layer shows the API-enabled services, including geo services and a storage connector. Geo services allow you to connect and store files in one or more clouds. MezeoCloud offers asynchronous georeplication. The storage interface allows for advanced features to connect to storage. For example, encryption can be done by Mezeo or by a storage device. Multiple Storage Connector Modules are supported by a single storage cloud. Figure 10: MezeoCloud Architecture 9 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

10 MezeoCloud Features Provisioning and Authentication Support: The MezeoCloud software integrates with the current authentication systems or corporate directory (LDAP, AD, PAM, etc.) for authentication. Organizations can leverage the SNIA (The Storage Networking Industry Association) CDMI (Cloud Data Management Interface) for integration into the provisioning environment. Multi Tenancy: MezeoCloud supports various provisioning models including multi-company/business unit, multi-user and reseller. Tenants can use isolated storage for physical separation. MezeoCloud hosts multiple tenants through the use of realms. This allows for branding of the clients, Web addresses and notifications in each realm. Flexible Integration Points: The Mezeo Interoperability API (IOP) enables access to applications developed for other commonly used storage clouds, such as Amazon S3 and Eucalyptus based storage clouds. Integration with common backup/recovery application such as Asigra and CommValult is enabled via IOP to provide backup services to the cloud. The MezeoCloud storage platform (CSP) API enables programmable integration cloud gateway solutions for additional backup, archive and other services. Rapid Scalability: The stateless architecture of the MezeoCloud platform server enables linear scaling. Each instance of MezeoCloud supports a large number of accounts, and an IT department can easily increase capacity by adding additional instances. Multiple Storage Options: Mezeo lets organizations leverage their own storage infrastructure or introduce their choice of industry standard data storage products. A Storage Connector module simplifies the process even further, allowing organizations to quickly convert any type of storage to an object store. Advanced Services: The Mezeo platform enables a wide range of advanced services to end users, via the MezeoFile clients and/or the REST Web Services APIs: Uploading of multiple files of any type: Files of any type (documents, presentations, PDFs, website images, videos, music and more) and size can be uploaded, stored and instantly shared. Real-time access: Mezeo gives real-time access to stored files. Presentation view: Stored objects are exposed in a single, flat namespace; allows for flat objectbased view, hierarchical view, tag-based view (or a combination) of data. Path based access: Includes namespace access, which simplifies the use of the existing Mezeo CSP API for applications that rely on path-based naming as opposed to object storage unique identifiers. Permission management: Role-based permission management and share expiration lets customers manage their private and public shared data. 10 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

11 Notifications: Account holders and non-account holders get notifications when files/folders are shared or when they have been assigned to a project. Publishable URL: Mezeo lets users generate public URL links to share and publish files on forums, blogs and websites. Data security and control: Mezeo uses industry-leading 256-bit AES encryption for each stored file with SSL encryption for files in transit. Patented Online Recycle Container: Users can now delete and restore files right from the Web. Mezeo Management Console The MezeoCloud solution includes a browser-based management console. Management functions are performed via the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) API and with the introduction of this console, administrators of MezeoCloud can use this for initial domain creation, provisioning of users and storage allocation, and ongoing operational management. Although most organizations will use a provisioning application integrated with CDMI, the underlying CDMI calls are wrapped into this interface to provide a more friendly way to manage the services at this level. Figure 11: An example of a Mezeo management console showing top level domain with optional LDAP integration. 11 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

12 How the Mezeo Solutions work: REST APIs and Cloud Storage With the emergence of cloud storage, a new service-oriented architecture (SOA) storage infrastructure has emerged. Cloud storage, as we define it in this paper, is storage accessible via a network, such as the internet. REST reflects the architecture of the Web, meaning it is very efficient and Web-like in nature. First, it is stateless, which provides for storage access in the unpredictable and highly latent networks that comprise the Internet. The MezeoCloud platform is a stateless Linux implementation; therefore, REST APIs are the obvious choice for the Mezeo server. Second, it is highly efficient, enabling Web scale by allowing many clients to interact with many servers against a pool of objects. REST allows interactions via a network to occur with a minimum of overhead. REST also accommodates caching at both the client and the server, which can dramatically improve efficiency. For these reasons, REST Cloud Storage APIs are the choice of Web developers creating Web applications. REST APIs provide programmable access to storage and enable developers to extend the capabilities and services far beyond what is offered by traditional storage offering advanced services such as secure file access and sharing. There are other access methods that are often associated with cloud storage access (such as NFS, CIFS and WebDAV), but these are not optimal when the storage is accessed via the Web. While WebDAV is useful for an Internet connection, (as are NFS and CIFS) it only supports traditional file operations such as store and retrieve, versus the robust set of services that Web Services APIs can deliver. Mezeo exposes three REST APIs: Cloud Storage Platform (CSP): enables advanced services and programmatic access to Mezeo enabled storage clouds and provides for easy development of mobile applications. Interoperability (IOP): enables seamless interoperability of applications developed for other storage clouds such as Amazon S3 and Eucalyptus. Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI): facilitates seamless integrations to provisioning and billing systems. As enterprises continue to move various workloads into the cloud, they will only reap the rewards in control and trust from cloud platforms once they are interoperable. The ability to enable a compatibility API is the first step in the right direction towards universal interoperability, which is a key decision metric for cloud providers in validating a raft of cloud enabling technologies. Agatha Poon Tier 1 Research Research Manager, Global Cloud Computing A key concern of enterprises building their cloud strategy today is interoperability: selecting flexible solutions that allow future integration of private and public clouds, or creating universal interoperability. Mezeo has addressed this need with the Mezeo Interoperability API, which allows developers to create a single integration to multiple storage clouds. At a business level, this translates into more flexibility, more functionality and more options. 12 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

13 Mezeo Cloud Storage Platform API: Enables advanced services and programmatic access to Mezeo enabled storage clouds and provides for easy development of mobile applications. Figure 12. Mezeo Cloud Storage Platform API The Cloud Storage Platform API attempts to conform as much as possible to REST architecture. The design of the API is centered around three main concepts: Resources, Representations, and Methods. Resources are identified by a URI and represent data objects within the Cloud Storage system. Each Resource supports one or more Representations, which are a physical data format (such as XML or JSON) used to represent the Resource. Representations are identified by Cloud Storage-specific Content Types (a.k.a. MIME Types) defined in this document. Methods are a standardized set of operations which behave in a uniform manner over all supporting resources. Each Resource supports one or more Methods, which are used to retrieve or update the state of the Resource. Understanding the Interoperability API The Mezeo Interoperability API enables seamless interoperability of applications developed for storage clouds such as Amazon S3 and Eucalyptus. At a development level, this provides a compatible interface for developers to Amazon S3, Eucalyptus, etc., and allows applications written for these platforms to interoperate with Mezeo-enabled storage clouds with little or no modification. This API enables customers and service providers to integrate additional services such as backup/restore to the cloud. Applications such as Asigra, CommVault, and others that make use of the IOP API can use Mezeo as a pass-through to support backup to cloud storage. 13 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

14 Understanding the Cloud Data Management Interface Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) is a functional interface that applications use to create, retrieve, update and delete data elements from the cloud. As part of this interface the client is able to discover the capabilities of the cloud storage offering and use this interface to manage containers and the data that is placed in them. In addition, metadata can be set on containers and their contained data elements through this interface. This interface is also used by administrative and management applications to manage containers, accounts, security access and monitoring/billing information, even for storage that is accessible by other protocols. The capabilities of the underlying storage and data services are exposed so that clients can understand the offering. Capabilities Compliant implementations must provide access to a set of configuration parameters known as capabilities. These are either boolean values that represent whether or not a system supports things such as queues, export via other protocols, path-based storage and so on, or numeric values expressing system limits, such as how much metadata may be placed on an object. Because a minimal compliant implementation can be quite small, with few features, clients need to check the cloud storage system for a capability before attempting to use the functionality it represents. Containers A CDMI client may access objects, including containers, by either name or object id (OID), assuming the CDMI server supports both methods. When storing objects by name, it is natural to use nested named containers; the resulting structure corresponds exactly to a traditional filesystem directory structure. Objects Objects are similar to files in a traditional file system, but are enhanced with an increased amount of and capacity for meta data AAs with containers, they may be accessed by either name or OID. When accessed by name, clients use URLs that contain the full pathname of objects to create, read, update and delete them. When accessed by OID, the URL specifies an OID string in the cdmi-objectid container; this container presents a flat name space conformant with standard object storage system semantics. Subject to system limits, objects may be of any size or type and have arbitrary user-supplied meta data attached to them. Systems that support query allow arbitrary queries to be run against the meta data. 14 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

15 Domains, Users and Groups CDMI supports the concept of a domain, similar in concept to a domain in the Windows AD model. Users and groups created in a domain share a common administrative database and are known to each other on a "first name" basis, i.e. without reference to any other domain or system. Domains also function as containers for usage and billing summary data. Access Control CDMI exactly follows the ACL and ACE model used for file authorization operations by NFSv4. This makes it also compatible with the Microsoft Windows system. Metadata CDMI draws much of its metadata model from the XAM specification. Objects and containers have "storage system metadata", "data system metadata" and arbitrary user specified metadata, in addition to the metadata maintained by an ordinary file system (atime etc.). Logging CDMI clients can sign up for logging of system, security and object access events on servers that support it. This feature allows clients to see events locally as the server logs them. More than just file sync and share The Mezeo solutions offer much more than just file sync and share including storage on demand and ease of deployment for internally developed mobile applications. In addition, Mezeo has partnered with leading vendors to offer a robust and comprehensive solution for developing a private cloud. The Mezeo Ready Ecosystem Mezeo technology has been integrated and tested with a list of Mezeo Ready backup, archive, cloud gateways, cloud service delivery and storage and file system solutions. The MezeoCloud platform, combined with the proven solutions of our Mezeo Ready Partners, offers a complete, service-enabled cloud storage offering anytime, anywhere access to the Storage Cloud that can be quickly deployed in any technology environment. The Mezeo Ready partner community is made up of service providers, developers, solution providers and technology partners all focused on delivering cloud storage solutions. Mezeo partners with leading technology providers to deliver compatibility and easy integration into today s applications and Web services. Combined with the MezeoCloud storage platform, Mezeo Ready partner solutions enable an integrated cloud storage solution that can be quickly deployed in any technology environment. For a 15 Mezeo Software for the Enterprise

16 complete list of Mezeo Ready partners, please visit Typical use cases for Mezeo-enabled cloud storage service: Anytime, anywhere access for the mobile professional: provide mobile business users with secure file access and sharing via Mezeo Web, desktop, tablet and smartphone clients. File Sync: syncronize files on your desktop with cloud storage. Programmable cloud storage with the Mezeo Interoperability API: easily integrate existing applications written for Amazon S3 and Eucalyptus or write your own to Mezeo Open APIs. Backup to the cloud: leverage Mezeo Ready partner solutions to enable low cost, automated backup to a Mezeo based cloud and enable warm DR with geo-replication. Archive to the cloud: leverage Mezeo Ready partner solutions to move data to lower cost tiered Mezeo based cloud storage. Server attached cloud storage: reduce the number of file servers needed by moving data to the cloud. Summary While the cloud storage market continues to evolve, we know two things for certain: data storage and usage will only continue to grow, and cloud storage offers an affordable alternative to traditional storage for today s budget conscious organizations. While attractive, at first glance, public cloud storage services are not yet an option for most organizations due to corporate mandates and security concerns. For these users, a private cloud offers a secure, controlled solution behind the firewall. Mezeo offers a solution for enterprises looking to protect corporate data by providing users with a corporate alternative to consumer based tools that store data on public clouds. At the same time, Mezeo can help organizations reduce costs, improve productivity and ensure disaster recovery and business continuity. The cloud storage market will continue to mature and consolidate. In the near future, it will be imperative for enterprise private clouds and service provider public clouds to interact. The MezeoCloud offering is an enterprise-class solution ideal for organizations looking to implement a private or hybrid solution and the MezeoFile access clients provide user what they demand. Selecting a secure, flexible solution such as MezeoCloud and MezeoFile will ensure that your investment leverages standard technology that will scale and give you the flexibility and customization that you need to be successful. For additional information on Mezeo, visit or contact us: Mezeo Software 3900 Essex Lane, Suite 600 Houston, Texas USA Phone: Fax: info@mezeo.com 2012 Mezeo Software. All rights reserved. EWP Mezeo Software for the Enterprise