FileShadow Archiving Protection Service Supporting Drobo NAS

In a move that signals an expansion of the FileShadow Cloud File Assurance Service, hosted on the IBM Cloud, FileShadow, Inc. announced support for NAS from Drobo, Inc.

In addition to support for popular cloud file systems, FileShadow’s file archiving protection service will support archiving of files on local Drobo models 5N, 5N2, and B810N, to the IBM Cloud with IBM Cloud Object Services (COS).

The FileShadow Service delivers ’11 nines’ of durability for the Drobo files, providing the assurance that files stored on Drobo are available for a lifetime.

Tyrone Pike, president and CEO, FileShadow, remarked: “Our team has had great success in our work with Drobo to make our Cloud File Assurance Service for the Drobo NAS platform available after our launch. With this support, we can deliver complete on-site and cloud file protection for creative professionals, prosumers and the SMB market.“

Pike noted that by using IBM Cloud Object Storage, the FileShadow vault spans three US regions, including the East Coast (Virginia), Central (Texas) and West Coast (California), to eliminate the vulnerability of a single data center and deliver ’11 nines’ of durability.

“This level of durability is unmatched, allowing Drobo NAS customers to rest assured their data is instantly accessible and also fully protected off-site,” Pike said.

FileShadow’s file assurance service for Drobo is integrated with customers’ cloud storage on Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and Adobe Creative Cloud, providing a single cloud application for access to a consolidated catalog of files from on-site Drobo storage and cloud storage services.

FileShadow does not replace Drobo or cloud storage vendors. Instead, it assures immediate searchability, availability, and protection of the files stored within all of these sources by archiving each generation of every file. The service creates extensive searchable metadata on each file, its content and location (GPS) as well as OCR, and vision tags for scanned images.

Rod Harrison, CTO, Drobo, revealed that the two companies have been working together for the past nine months to develop the FileShadow – Drobo app. “We are excited that FileShadow has built a Drobo app that archives Drobo content to FileShadow’s File Assurance Services hosted on the IBM Cloud, which delivers ’11 nines’ of durability, and is a great complement to Drobo’s patented and proven BeyondRAID architecture.“

Ramin Rouzbeh, alliance integration architect and manager, Cleversafe/IBM, said: “Working with the FileShadow team has been rewarding for IBM. They bring a deep understanding of NAS and public cloud storage offerings such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, One Drive and Creative Cloud, coupled with a long-term knowledge of the Cleversafe Cloud Object Storage architecture. The result is an innovative archiving service that supports NAS and cloud storage in a single model, which creates a single interface and source of protection for files, stored on-site and on popular cloud storage services.“

Steven Gluckstern, executive chairman, TeacherCraft, LLC, also noted: “We use the FileShadow file assurance service to manage on-site Drobo files and multiple cloud storage accounts, supporting our academic research partners, curriculum writers, distributors and the service providers. With FileShadow, I can find the specific document, research paper, contract or studies I need ins, regardless of the Drobo or cloud service, from my Mac, iPad or iPhone. It makes my job much easier, and gives me the assurance that our files will be available for a lifetime.“

Howard Marks, a long time storage commentator and chief scientist, DeepStorage, LLC, remarked: “File services have long been at the heart of many SMB, and SME workflows. While vendors like Drobo have delivered NAS systems that meet their cost, performance and ease of use requirements, these smaller organizations have had a limited set of bad options for data protection and archiving. FileShadow fills that gap by connecting the Drobo NAS to the cloud to archive, protect and provide access to their valuable data.“

FileShadow is available free of charge through the beta testing period.