A StorageVault is a configuration in the Syncplicity orchestration layer that enables IT administrators to designate specific storage endpoints for users, groups, and folders. An Enterprise Edition only feature, StorageVaults allow you to store content in a hybrid cloud consisting of off-premise public cloud storage or on-premise based storage.
Syncplicity Cloud Storage is the only StorageVault that is available to an enterprise customer until the IT administrator sets up on-premise StorageVaults for the company.
You might choose to have your content stored on premise for a variety of reasons, including:
- Flexibility and control over the storage layer so organizations can meet or exceed requirements for corporate or industry compliance, or data residency.
- Utilize excess storage capacity that is available across multiple storage arrays in the data center.
- Retain complete control over your data. Your files are never cached or even pass through the Syncplicity service; instead, they move directly from your storage to your users’ devices.
Changing the storage endpoint from the cloud to your own data center does not change the user experience.
StorageVaults can use any storage array that supports NAS or Object Storage. For NAS systems, you can use NFSv3 to access any third-party NAS, EMC Isilon scale-out NAS, or EMC VNX (in file only or Unified modes). For Object Storage, you can use EMC ECS or Atmos arrays, or EMC ViPR software.
In addition, you can designate a storage endpoint in an Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment. The installation and configuration procedures differ slightly than when designating on-premise storage endpoints.
To configure on-premise or AWS storage, you need to install the Syncplicity On-Premise Storage Connector. This is server software that runs as a virtual machine and connects the Syncplicity orchestration layer in the cloud to your storage endpoint. You need at least two on-premise Storage Connectors but you can deploy more for Scalability and High Availability purposes. In most cases, an SSL offloading load-balancer is deployed in front of these Storage Connector virtual servers.
For security, you enter an Access Key when you configure the Storage Connector. The Access Key is a shared secret between an on-premise deployment and the Syncplicity service, used to identify and authenticate the on-premise deployment.
Once the Storage Connectors are installed and configured, you can easily create and manage StorageVaults. When creating a StorageVault, simply point it to the storage endpoints, enter the Access Key, and allocate space for this StorageVault. Each StorageVault configuration typically points at one URL, which is usually the load-balancer.
Once you have the StorageVaults configured, an administrator can create Storage Sets, which allows the administrator to assign user groups to specific StorageVaults. Simply, the relationship between the user and the storage endpoint is Users > Group > Storage Set > StorageVault > On-Premise Storage Connector > storage backend.
To manage StorageVaults, Enterprise IT administrators can:
- Resolve conflicts of StorageVaults for users who are a member in more than one group by maintaining a unique storage set priority
- View Dashboard and Reporting per StorageVault
- View default StorageVault for a user and a group
- Create a folder on behalf of a user to specify a StorageVault for this folder
A video is available that describes the setup of the On-premise Storage Connector