It is our primary storage.
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It is our primary storage.
It is easy for our organization to manage data using Panzura.
We take snapshots of everything every hour. It does incremental backups. We have several different types of backups, so we never have a problem with restoring if anything ever happens.
Panzura Detect & Rescue does a good job of detecting threats in real-time.
Panzura Edge helps give people access to the Panzura system on iPads or nontraditional devices, and it works great for that. It is very important for us to have secure data access for mobile devices.
Panzura has not helped to reduce data storage costs. We have all of our storage on Azure, but one thing they allowed us to do was to have a good way of archiving data. We do not have everything in hot storage anymore. We have some in cold storage. They had a way for us to move our data to a lower-cost tier.
We were able to realize its benefits pretty much immediately. We bought it originally for four offices and did a proof of concept for the first month. Within two weeks, we bought 23 additional units to put in all our offices.
It is a very solid product. We keep all of our older files on their system. It is easy to restore if a file gets deleted. We have good disaster recovery. It is very reliable and very quick, and we do not have files that get overwritten because it locks the file.
For me, it is the stability aspect. It is a lot more stable now than it ever has been, but just keeping that stability is important. Previously, a new update would come out, and there might be something wrong with it, or it may not sync up as well as it should, or it may cause something to lose access to the server. We have had some problems in the past, but in the last couple of years, we have not had any issues like we had early on.
There could be a slightly better dashboard or a better pane of glass. When something goes wrong somewhere, there should be a little bit better alerting with issues before they become a big problem.
We have been their customer for 12 years.
We have had some problems in the past, but in the last couple of years, we have not had issues. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.
The support has been good. We have had stretches in the past that were not as good, but over 12 years with someone, you are going to have some ups and downs. The support staff and the number of people they have on staff right now are truly good.
Positive
We were using a software program from Peer Software. It was a long time ago. It might work better now than when we used it, but it was not replicating data between our offices in real-time. We would have to wait a long time before it would replicate our files between offices.
I am pretty sure it is easy. When we put new units in, it goes quickly. They have a cloud offering now that you can get up and running in less than an afternoon.
It does not take a lot. One person can get it set up pretty easily.
When it comes to maintenance, we have a person who will apply updates to the system. One primary person at my work takes care of it.
It has helped increase our organization’s network resilience, but it is hard to quantify. Panzura is a hundred percent better than what we had before. Previously, we had latency issues with syncing up files between offices. Files were not locked, leading to overwrites which cost us literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost time and revenue. Since transitioning to Panzura, it has been like a night-and-day difference.
It is not bad. It is like everything else. Pricing has gone up quite over the last couple of years, but everybody's pricing has gone up. For what they deliver, it is right in line with what everybody else has.
You could start with just a handful of offices and do a proof of concept to see how it goes for you before deploying it enterprise-wide. I would start with either a small group or maybe small offices, two or three offices, and see how it works.
Overall, I would rate the product a nine out of ten.
Our digital services business handles physical documents by converting them into digital formats for delivery to our customers. This process involves receiving hard copies, scanning them, and utilizing the Kofax application to generate soft copies.
To support this workflow, we operate a vast network of scanning sites across more than 15 regions. In the US alone, we have over 30 sites, with major hubs in Dallas and Freehold serving as primary intake points.
To ensure all scanned documents are processed on our centralized server, we utilize CTERA Edge Filers to synchronize data from these remote locations to our central sites. We currently manage a fleet of over 250 Edge Filers across the entire Iron Mountain network to maintain this synchronization.
Zones, CloudDrive Folders & CloudDrive Folder Group feature enables data to sync between locations, avoiding unnecessary transfers of all data. Data sync happens based on the defined policies helps in increasing enterprise productivity and improving business continuity. Block-level deduplication reduces data transfer and storage requirements.A highly platform-independent solution helps enterprises reduce infrastructure costs and maintain business continuity with greater ease. It helped us streamline operations and minimize the technical & operational challenges.
The user interface is excellent. The centralized GUI allows us to efficiently manage and configure all our Edge Filers from a single, user-friendly console.
Regarding file replication and versioning, while the platform offers robust versioning capabilities, we currently limit our use of this feature due to storage constraints associated with our terabytes of data.
In terms of data protection, we utilize the platform's wide array of features, including various encryption methodologies and ransomware protection, to secure our environment.
We have also found the platform to be highly stable. Although we initially encountered Cloud Sync DB errors when CTERA was first introduced at Iron Mountain, the latest version has resolved these issues and is performing reliably.
Finally, scalability is one of the platform's strongest attributes. It is highly flexible and adapts easily to our requirements. The licensing model, such as the transition from various licensing models, allows us to scale our data capacity as needed without being locked into an initial purchase.
There are some micro-level loggings that would have been better in improvising, and all those details are in the pipeline. Recently, we heard about the Samba, which is currently using an older version that needs upgrading. Apart from that, everything is exceptional; the product is exceptional. To be honest, when it comes to performance and reliability, it performs well in our Iron Mountain network. The problem isn't CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform; it's with the infrastructure we have. If you have good infrastructure, it works fine; if there's an issue with your infrastructure, no application can help you with that. We faced challenges like AD connectivity issues, but solutions are available. We don't have proper infrastructure for managing that.
I have nearly four plus years of experience with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform.
When it comes to stability, I would say it is good and perhaps even better than before. Earlier, when it was introduced to Iron Mountain, we experienced issues with Cloud Sync DB error. However, with the latest version, we are not observing those issues and find it more stable now than previously.
The scalability of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is one of the best parts; it is highly scalable. It totally depends on the customer's requirements. The licensing supports various data sizes, such as EV16 supporting up to 16 terabytes, and if you exceed that, you move to EV32. You can change whenever you want without being locked into your initial purchase.
I have contacted the technical support or customer support for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform. The speed and quality are exceptional, as CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform has some of the best technical support. It depends on the type of incident, as they have critical, high, and low severity levels. For critical issues, we receive a call within 10 to 15 minutes of creating a request. That's among the best things about CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform.
Positive
Similar solutions include an application called Nasuni, Wasabi, which we tried. Before CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform, we worked with multiple vendors, testing various applications including Panzura, but ultimately concluded that CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is performing better compared to other applications.
The initial deployment of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is very easy; even a non-technical person can easily deploy it.
We just need one person to deploy it; even a non-technical person can do that.
Ransom Protect is helping a lot. Moreover, the data we are using is only accessible to Iron Mountain employees, and the scanned data resides exclusively in the Iron Mountain network, making it inaccessible to outside customers. That's why we are not using that feature across everywhere; only recently for new customers where some users work from client locations, we enabled the VPN but have concerns about data security, which is the reason we enable the ransomware feature only in a few locations, not everywhere. But again, it's helping a lot.
I have seen effects on the Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point Objectives. Recovery Point Objective is based on the projects, and at Iron Mountain, we have that agreement. I'm not sure about the specifics, but it's very less, less than an hour for both. I haven't gone through the documentation regarding the agreements; only the management knows the details.
Concerning pricing, I have no idea as billing and POCs are handled by a different team, but from the information I have, it's a competitive price when compared to others. These solutions are specific to particular requirements and do come with a cost, but they definitely have a competitive pricing model.
When it comes to deploying it for the first time, if you are provisioning it on the cloud, we use a Terraform script for deploying the DB and application server. If you're doing it on-prem, like Nutanix or ESX, manual execution is required. It hardly takes 15 to 30 minutes to spin up the DB and app server, and for all the configuration, it takes a maximum of one hour, not more than that.
I would rate this product with a review rating of 10.
