Though the enterprise file sync and share market saturated with vendors, storage giant EMC is touting its cloud-based file management and collaboration platform, Syncplicity.
In an interview with ITWeb, Owen Kilbane, sales leader for EMC Syncplicity, EMEA, noted that Syncplicity is an enterprise sync and share solution enabling corporates to control how, and where their corporate data is accessed from mobile devices, and shared both internally and externally.
EMC Syncplicity is a policy-based software-as-a-service solution leveraging a hybrid-cloud storage environment, said Kilbane.
Other similar services on the market include Box, Dropbox, Egnyte, Citrix ShareFile, and OwnCloud. Gartner analyst, Jeffrey Mann, notes that concerns about DropBox security is driving interest in products like Box, Egnyte, Yousendit, Sharefile, Syncplicity, Accellion and many, many others.
Syncplicity was formed in 2008 and was acquired by EMC in 2012, said Kilbane. Over the past two years, Syncplicity has extended the product functionality to include StorageVaults - the ability to provision hybrid storage at a user, group and folder level, together providing the functionality that meets the needs of large enterprises, he added.
Kilbane argued that Syncplicity differs from other services in three areas. With Syncplicity, end use experience is frictionless, resulting in zero end user training, and users create and store content in their normal file directories and their desktop, he said.
"It enables IT to define fine-grained policies to support different user communities. For example, sales may have a different set of sharing policies from that of the legal team," he added. "It enables IT to provision the correct storage to match the business problem they are trying to address.
"For example, the marketing team could have a folder called 'marketing videos' which is mapped to an EMC Isilon Storage Cluster while having another folder called 'external communications' which is mapped to cloud storage."
He also pointed out that EMC Syncplicity is aimed at companies who recognise the value of sync and share solutions, but are concerned, from a compliance perspective, on where their data is, and who's accessing it.
EMC Syncplicity addresses four use cases, Kilbane added. "Companies who have deployed consumer cloud sync and share; companies who need to ensure mobile users have access to the latest information, in real-time; companies who need an efficient way of moving large files around, and want to replace old FTP technologies; and for companies who want to benefit from real-time document availability and back-up."
According to Kilbane, large corporates are openly concerned on who has access to their data, and where is it being held.
He also pointed out that Syncplicity integrates into EMC both from a storage perspective, and from a software perspective. EMC Syncplicity leverages EMC storage such as ATMOS, Isilon and VNX, whilst supporting EMC ViPR and Isilon MobileIQ delivering mobile access to home directories or file shares, he explained.
It also integrates with the complete ECM suite of solutions including EMC Documentum, EMC Captiva, EMC xPression, and the recently announced EMC InfoArchive, he revealed.
"Over the past five years, we have seen the growth in the use of mobile devices, and the need to access content - anytime, anywhere, on any device. However, when an enterprise deploys cloud-based only solution, they have just lost control over their key asset - their information."
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