The Enterprise File Fabric for Rackspace

Storage Made Easy®
Providing an Enterprise File Fabric™ for
Rackspace
www.storagemadeeasy.com

The Storage Made Easy (SME) Cloud File Server is a comprehensive Enterprise File
Synchronization and Sharing (EFSS) solution built on top of the SME ‘Cloud Control’ Gateway.
The SME Cloud Control Gateway allows IT to control access to RackSpace and transform it into a
private corporate ‘drop box’ style solution.
The SME Cloud File Server layers collaboration, synchronization, governance, BYOD, audit,
security, encryption, back-up and migration capabilities on top of RackSpace to give
organizations an enterprise grade EFSS solution.
STORAGE MADE EASY ENTERPRISE FILE SHARE AND SYNC SOLUTION
FOR RACKSPACE
WHITE PAPER | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 2

For companies looking to leverage their existing identity management system such as Active
Directory or LDAP, Storage Made Easy provides built-in LDAP and AD integration.
Users can authenticate with the SME login service using their existing Active Directory or LDAP
credentials. Access is granted based on delegated authentication from the existing Active
Directory or LDAP server.
Storage Made Easy does not store the passwords but passes through requests to the underlying
Identity Management System.
Out of the box Storage Made Easy supports (multiple) Active Directory or LDAP servers but can
be integrated with other identity management systems.
User home directories can also be auto-created on ﬁrst login via an Active Directory or LDAP
system.
SINGLE-SIGN-ON (SSO)

RackSpace is one of the most foremost used public Cloud Storage solutions in the world. It is
already being used in many small and large companies throughout the world.
The use of Object Storage coupled with privacy concerns means that companies want an easy
way to access object storage data in addition to knowing ‘who’ has access to data that is stored
remotely, ’when’ they had access, and ‘what’ they did. To this end SME extends the use of
RackSpace in 6 critical areas:
1. Enabling sensitive data to be encrypted with a private key prior to being stored on
RackSpace. The private key is then needed before the ﬁle can be retrieved and viewed.
2. Enabling share data to have ﬁle sharing policies in which, for example, a password has to
be assigned and / or links are set to be time expired.
This feature can work not only from the web but also with an Add-In integration directly in
Microsoft Outlook. A similar add-in integration for Mac users that use RackSpace extends Mac
Mail with similar controls to the Outlook Add-In.
EXTENDING THE USE OF RACKSPACE

3. Full file event auditing is provided to enable companies to have complete audit logs for all
file events including remote file IP’s etc of users who downloaded documents and users who
shared documents and controls to set GEO location restrictions. This can also be configured
to output in syslog format to work with solutions such as Splunk and other log aggregators.
4. Enabling key data to be archived to / from RackSpace easily.
 
This provides a mechanism to backup infrequently used files to other storage options or to
keep copies of files available in the event of disaster recovery for flexible business continuity.

5. Audit Watch
Cloud administrators can set up an Audit Watch on files which enables them to be informed in
real time of any file activity on any file or combination of files, or even a folder, that is stored on
RackSpace. Once the designated file event takes place the administrator will receive an alert
informing them of the event and which user invoked the event.
This can be extremely useful to keep informed of file access, changes, sharing or downloads on
any type of file.

6. File Locking / File Versioning / Comments
File Locking is built in for files that are shared as part of a team folder. When files are opened in
editors they are automatically locked and unlocked.
When files are updated or revised this creates a new versions of file and this file revisions are
handled by the SME solution. The administrator of the SME solution can control how many file
versions are kept and also easily restore previous versions.
File comments on files can be added to any file but are particularly useful to files that are stored
in Team folder. Team members can subscribe to receive notifications whenever the contents of
a file or folder are commented.

RackSpace does not support WebDav, FTP, or SFTP by default but Storage Made Easy adds these
features making it easy to interact with RackSpace or share data using common protocols.
As an example FinSer Corporation, a ﬁnancial services company, based in San Antonio, TX,
announced with Storage Made Easy its use of the SME dedicated Cloud appliance for managing
its RackSpace Cloud Storage. You can read more at: http://sme.io/1mNCRcX.
ACCESS RACKSPACE FROM ANY PROTOCOL

RackSpace is accessible from native Drives in Windows and Mac
The Storage Made Easy Web Drives for Mac, Windows and Linux are a great opportunity to
extend access to RackSpace directly into a users desktop as a ‘Home Filer’ user replacement.
This is useful when the company needs to replace existing access to a ﬁle gateway. Devolving the
access to users by means of the drive is often a more scaleable and controlled means of access.
DRIVE ACCESS INTO RACKSPACE FROM ANY DESKTOP

Secure links to RackSpace files can be done directly from Microsoft Outlook and Mac Mail, or
new files can be uploaded from the desktop directly to RackSpace and shared as a link. All such
files shared in this manner are audited and can be password protected and time expired.
EMAIL INTEGRATION WITH RACKSPACE FROM OUTLOOK / MAC MAIL

RackSpace can end up storing a lot of structured documents such as Word, Powerpoint, Excel,
and PDF ﬁles. As part of the Storage Made Easy solution a Cloud Content Connector can be used
that integrates with the provided Apache SOLR instances and indexes data remotely stored on
RackSpace so that ﬁle searches can be conducted on content.
iPhone Search Example:
SEARCH THE CONTENT ON FILES STORED ON RACKSPACE

RackSpace files and private data shares (CIFS / NFS / NAS / SAN) can be united in a single
interface for anywhere access through desktop cloud drives and mobile devices.
Although Storage Made Easy functions as an interface to RackSpace, companies can still take
advantage of uploading files direct to RackSpace, outside of the SME solution, as SME can
‘discover’ and index these new files on demand.
Also note that no files are stored on SME. SME does not replicate data, it indexes data about the
files including the location to download. File Caching is done directly in the desktop or mobile
Apps.
UNIFY RACKSPACE FILES AND PRIVATE DATA
Access files & local files shares in a unified interface form inside or outside
the corporate firewall

USE THE BUILT IN PDF ANNOTATION TO MARK UP PDF FILES STORED
ON RACKSPACE
Storage Made Easy provides a built in PDF Annotation suite that enables companies to easily
annotate against PDF documents stored on RackSpace.
The SME PDF solution is platform independent and works on multiple platforms such as
Windows, Mac Android, iOS, and Linux. It is developed in HTML5 technology and optimized for
mobile devices and desktop use.
All annotations are audible and the solution can be setup to work with issue codes and deﬁned
cases.
All annotations are audited and tracked providing an ideal solution for companies who operate
in the medical and legal industries as well as other other PDF ‘heavy’ industries who require PDF
annotation.
As SME provides the ability to also tag documents stored in RackSpace, as well as providing full
content search, locating PDF documents is also easier.

INTEGRATION WITH BEST OF BREED OFFICE EDITORS
Storage Made Easy provides customised web integration with the Zoho Oﬃce Editor (Zoho API
key required) which provides collaborative round trip creation and editing of documents stored
on RackSpace.
Also additionally / alternatively Storage Made Easy ships with its unique ‘CloudEdit’ functionality
that can open any oﬃce document for editing directly on a users desktop and save any
changes back to RackSpace.

If you are using Amazon WorkSpaces, the new remote desktop service, or any another RDP
solution such as Citrix, the Storage Made Easy Windows App Suite is a perfect for enabling users
to work with RackSpace data using the Cloud Drive and Cloud Sync features.
Enabling Cloud Drive and Sync access with WorkSpaces
PERFECT FOR AMAZON WORKSPACES OR REMOTE DESKTOP ACCESS

The Storage Made Easy Solution, in combination with RackSpace Object Storage is deployable in
a fully scalable highly available architecture.
DEPLOYABLE IN A SCALABLE HIGHLY AVAILABLE ARCHITECTURE
Exact topologies will of course vary based on exact requirements but SME can work with the
architecture teams to understand and help in this area.

STORAGE MADE EASY
@SMEStorage
/StorageMadeEasy
/company/storage-made-easy
ABOUT
STORAGE MADE EASY®
The Storage Made Easy Enterprise File Fabric™ enables IT to regain control of
"cloud data sprawl" to unify on-premises and on-cloud ﬁles into a single easily
managed converged infrastructure with policy-based controls for governance,
audit and security.
The File Fabric solution provides a “blanket” enterprises wrap around all their
data: on premises, within public and private clouds, as well as on third-party
software vendor clouds (SharePoint Online and Salesforce for example).
Customers use the SME File Fabric product to unify corporate data to enable
workgroup collaboration with universal controls for security, encryption, audit,
and data access. Companies will have access to a greater understanding of
where and how sensitive data is stored, transferred, and accessible
with particular focus on how companies are able to police and audit data to
ensure enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in
addition to other regional data legislation.
USA +1 415 477 1053
UK +44 20 8212 7316
EU +41 435 080 078
sales@storagemadeeasy.com
Free hosted and enterprise free trial available from
www.storagemadeeasy.com
Storage Made Easy® is the trading name of Vehera LTD REG NO: 07079346

The Enterprise File Fabric for Rackspace

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