CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform Reviews

Name: CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform
Brand: CTERA
Rating: 4.6 (8 reviews)

Vendor: CTERA

4.6 out of 5

8 reviews
100% willing to recommend

221 followers

What is CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?

The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform provides a cloud-native global file system over public and private object storage, revolutionizing the world of hybrid cloud data solutions. Enhanced by a rich data services ecosystem, CTERA enables enterprises to gain full control of their data for optimal edge performance, data insight, and governance. The platform focuses on security, providing features like data encryption, access controls, and ransomware protection. Centralized management tools enable efficient data control and monitoring. The platform is being used to replace legacy NAS and file servers, especially at remote locations, and simplify backup and disaster recovery of file data while providing the flexibility of multi-cloud deployments with infinite scalability. CTERA is at the core of hybrid cloud transformations of some of the world’s largest banks, healthcare organizations, global media groups, and government agencies, in deployments that scale to tens of petabytes.

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CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is the #2 ranked solution in top Cloud Storage Gateways, #3 ranked solution in top File System Software solutions, #7 ranked solution in top Cloud Migration solutions, #8 ranked solution in top NAS solutions, #9 ranked solution in top Disaster Recovery Software, #10 ranked solution in top Cloud Storage solutions, #12 ranked solution in top Content Collaboration Platforms, and #13 ranked solution in top Cloud Backup solutions. PeerSpot users give CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform an average rating of 9.2 out of 10. Based on the analysis of the 8 most recent CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform reviews, the overall sentiment is positive, with a sentiment score of 7.4. (Among the highest in the category). CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is most commonly compared to Nasuni: CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs Nasuni. CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is popular among the small business segment, accounting for 71% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a computer software company, accounting for 67% of all views.

Buyer's Guide

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform

November 2024

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Featured reviews

Igal Muginstein

Engineering & Network Division Storage, Backup & Os Team Manager at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees

First and foremost, flexibility is highly valuable. I can separate different workloads across various hardware platforms depending on the implementation, without being locked into a particular vendor’s hardware. For example, if I need a special filer for home directories to optimize performance or accessibility, we can create separate virtual machines. We also maintain a large archive because we need to store call recordings from our call center for seven years due to regulatory requirements. By using different virtual machines, we can separate data according to implementation needs and SLAs. Managing the data is simple since the platform operates on a virtual machine. The interfaces are user-friendly, and after two to three hours of training, our support staff is capable of using the interface to assist customers with file restoration. Adding new infrastructure, servers, and virtual machines is straightforward.

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Richard Saini

Lead Infrastructure Architect at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

File replication and versioning seem to work very well. We did have some challenges at the beginning, but all of that has been resolved now. It works very well. It does what our users require. Replication is excellent. We needed that, and the versioning is also pretty important. One of the reasons we chose CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform was the requirements we had to have ransomware protection. Our existing solution at the time would not have met those requirements of being able to restore from a ransomware incident. What we wanted from a platform was the ability to restore a snapshot or restore a file system or data back to a previous point in time, and CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform offered us that. Availability was a very key feature of why we liked the solution. It is effectively like the disaster recovery feature, and that also lends itself to replication. It works very well for our ransomware recovery objectives. There is business growth due to being able to offer greater storage capacity for them. Before, we were running into storage limitations, and now that we have enabled CTERA, we can accommodate more data and users. When it comes to reduction in recovery time objectives, we have not used it in that way. However, we are anticipating that our recovery time objectives will come down from over a month to hours or days. Recovery point objectives will also effectively be down to hours. It is hard to say how much it has freed up IT resources for other projects or tasks. Now that it is fully implemented and fully working, we are spending a lot less time looking after it. It has drastically reduced the amount of time we used to spend on backups. It is hard to provide the metrics, but six hours a month or something like that would be fair. The ransomware recoverability feature has definitely helped with our data protection mandates. It has reassured our security teams that we are in a good place with regard to securing the data and being able to recover the data.

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reviewer2588745

Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

I like that the glass is always half full with CTERA file services. It keeps the data hot for users on location and then tiers off older data. If you need it, the stub is still there. You can click on it, and it's back on the device. The replication and versioning work great. Users can self-serve basic restorations of one or two gigabytes, but administrators need to handle bigger restores of several gigabytes. CTERA has out-of-the-box data protection capabilities. It sends the data to the cloud. As soon as something is written to the device, CTERA copies it to the cloud, where it's versioned with snapshots so we can recover it. We haven't used Ransom Protect, but we'll roll that out with the next firmware upgrade.

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PeerAnalyst reports

Type	Title	Date
Category	File System Software	Dec 17, 2024	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Dec 17, 2024	Download
Comparison	CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs Nasuni	Dec 17, 2024	Download
Comparison	CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs Oracle ZFS	Dec 17, 2024	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
Nasuni	4.4	24.6%	100%	35 interviews Add to research
Panzura	3.8	12.7%	66%	2 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform offers scalability, flexibility, and resilience. It supports hybrid environments with seamless data access and quick recovery. Users find it easy to manage and valuable for backups, file sharing, and archiving. Features include user-friendly interfaces, data eviction, tiering, replication, and versioning. It allows workload separation, supports caching gateways, and leverages cloud storage integration. Administrators and users appreciate its intuitive design and educational support for effective usage.

"CTERA is a very scalable product, allowing us to grow."
"The features I find most valuable are in the gateways themselves. They have done a great job over the years of providing insight into what is happening with our products, with the batches that come through that are scanned. I enjoy that part of it, and it is fairly easy to use from our standpoint once we get to know the product."
"CTERA's instantaneous and redundant file replication, available across multiple geographical locations, ensures easy and user-friendly recovery."

Room for Improvement

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform requires improvements in monitoring, update processes without downtime, and cache size flexibility. Users seek better integration of features on legacy systems and enhanced logging for file activity. A single-pane-of-glass view for device management across regions and a more intuitive user interface are desired. Stability of Drive Connect, data segregation across storage nodes, and additional storage options for physical devices are also areas needing enhancement. JSON objects are transformed into Python dictionaries.

"Stability-wise, we just went through one issue that they addressed. We were having cloud sync issues."
"One of the bigger things that I would like to see is additional logging. There are logs in there. They provide us with the initial logs on what is happening on our CTERA device. I appreciate that, but they do not give us any further information. I would like to have more information on the logs themselves."
"One suggested improvement for the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is the ability to distribute data across multiple active backend storage nodes rather than the current limitation of a single active node."

ROI

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform has demonstrated a positive return on investment by significantly reducing overhead costs, simplifying data management, and enhancing collaboration across departments. The centralized storage and seamless integration with existing infrastructure have increased operational efficiency and data security. Additionally, the quick deployment and user-friendly interface have minimized training expenses and downtime, contributing to a streamlined workflow and improved productivity.

Pricing

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is competitively priced, offering cost savings compared to alternatives like EMC and Nasuni. Many users find its pricing reasonable, especially given its software licensing flexibility without the need for additional hardware purchases. Organizations appreciate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) benefits, and CTERA's pricing supports cost-effective upgrades and infrastructure scalability. Overall, it is a favorable choice for enterprises seeking efficient file services with competitive pricing structures.

"So far, pricing seems to be fine."
"I find the pricing reasonable. They offered us deals that helped us. Especially with the upgrade to a bigger unit last year, they were helpful with the deal."
"CTERA's pricing seems to be on par with some of the other players, such as Nasuni and Azure. They all have benefits, but CTERA is competitive for its features."

Popular Use Cases

Organizations primarily use CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform for scalable production file sharing due to uncontrolled file data growth. It serves as a centralized storage for live projects, internal and external file servers, and global file sharing across divisions, offering an on-premise caching server with cloud-based hybrid storage. CTERA is employed for client infrastructure, endpoint backup, SMB shares, and object storage, and utilized across commercial sites worldwide, integrating with existing platforms for broader archival purposes.

Service and Support

Customers report a highly responsive support team for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform, rating them between eight and ten out of ten. They find the engineering team collaborative and accessible, addressing urgent issues promptly. Early adopters experienced some initial challenges but received effective assistance. A ticketing system is efficiently used, with critical issues resolved quickly by the team, including individuals like Joe, Mukesh, and Shannon. Support quality and training have improved significantly, with positive customer interactions.

Deployment

Organizations find CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform's initial setup generally straightforward, although early adopters faced challenges with manual migration and lack of tools. Deployment timelines varied, from weeks to months, influenced by data volumes and infrastructure complexity. CTERA's support is highlighted for easing installation processes, training, and proactive updates. Maintenance includes routine upgrades handled by CTERA. Users can expand and integrate seamlessly with existing systems, achieving stable operations and leveraging new features with each iteration.

Scalability

Users express CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is highly scalable, suitable for large organizations with numerous users. It allows efficient data management through flexible eviction policies, aiding immediate space allocation. Some critique the licensing model tied to hardware, suggesting per-terabyte options. Scalability is achieved by upgrading capacities and adding gateways. While smaller devices face challenges, CTERA generally accommodates growing needs effectively.

Stability

Users faced initial bugs with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform. Recently, stability has improved, with minimal downtime. Some experienced synchronization issues without affecting data access. Reliability is rated high, ranging from eight to ten out of ten. Rare unexplained behaviors were likely setup-related. A significant cloud sync issue required disk rebuilding and caused substantial work, which was resolved with a new version. Stability is generally described as excellent, with minor issues occasionally occurring.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

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