CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform Reviews

Name: CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform
Brand: CTERA
Rating: 4.7 (5 reviews)

Vendor: CTERA

4.7 out of 5

5 reviews
100% willing to recommend

219 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 #4 ranked solution in top Cloud Storage Gateways, #5 ranked solution in top File System Software solutions, #9 ranked solution in top Cloud Migration solutions, #11 ranked solution in top NAS solutions, #13 ranked solution in top Cloud Storage solutions, #14 ranked solution in top Disaster Recovery Software, #14 ranked solution in top Content Collaboration Platforms, and #18 ranked solution in top Cloud Backup solutions. PeerSpot users give CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform an average rating of 9.4 out of 10. Based on the analysis of the 5 most recent CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform reviews, the overall sentiment is positive, with a sentiment score of 7.3. (Among the lowest 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 68% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a computer software company, accounting for 64% 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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Valuable Features

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform offers scalability, flexibility, and resilience. Users appreciate the pricing, ease of scaling, and multi-vendor compatibility. It supports separate workloads on various hardware and simplifies data management and restoration with user-friendly interfaces. Critical features include efficient workstation backups, browser access, data eviction, rehydration, replication, and versioning. CTERA's data protection includes cloud storage with versioning and snapshots. The platform facilitates infrastructure expansion and ensures data safety during remote work.

"CTERA has out-of-the-box data protection capabilities."
"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 solution provides data eviction, where unused data is evicted from the local file, freeing up space. It also allows data to be rehydrated from the cloud when needed."

Room for Improvement

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform could benefit from enhanced monitoring included in the base package. Frequent feature releases can disrupt production environments. Improvements are needed in the user experience, particularly for the web portal and Drive Connect. Legacy customers require a clear upgrade path without hardware swaps. A global dashboard for device management across regions would be valuable. Improvements in searchability of snapshots and cache size limitations are also noted. Debugging and learning curve present challenges.

"It has a learning curve."
"It would help to have a global single-pane-of-glass view of all my CTERA devices. We have different regions, and we must log in to each portal to see what's happening with those. It would be nice to have a single portal to see the health of the devices, versions, and firmware upgrades. Sometimes, we want to dive into something more complex, like investigating why CTERA storage usage grew from 2 terabytes to 4 terabytes in a week. That's a little challenging. It's something we would like to see on the road map."
"The new Edge filer that they have comes with a lot more features than what we purchased. It would be better if we are able to add those extra features without having to swap out the hardware. A clear upgrade path for legacy customers would be beneficial."

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 features a competitive pricing model, particularly when compared to EMC, offering significant cost savings. Users find it affordable relative to competitors like Nasuni and Azure. Although CTERA delivers high Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) benefits, installation costs may vary due to hardware requirements for data migration. Compared to rivals, CTERA offers financial advantages, with users noting it as one of the best solutions available in Israel.

"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."
"It is hard to compare the costs if we want to retain the same model of a separate high-performance storage or certain things, but it is one of the cheapest solutions available in Israel."
"CTERA's pricing model is competitive compared to other companies that achieve the same thing. Their closest rival is Nasuni, and CTERA is significantly more affordable than Nasuni."

Popular Use Cases

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is primarily used for scalable data management, serving as the main production file share addressing file data growth. Organizations utilize it for customer infrastructure and internal file servers, embracing its hybrid storage features. As a backup agent and centralized storage, it supports on-premise caching and cloud-based master file copies. It functions as a global file share across organizational divisions, adapting to diverse operational environments.

Service and Support

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is highly regarded for its customer service and support. It receives ratings of eight to nine out of ten for being accessible and prompt. Users appreciate the direct connections with engineering teams and the ability to provide input. Though initial issues arose, the support team resolved them quickly via phone or portal. High-priority issues are addressed swiftly, demonstrating a strong support system.

Deployment

Organizations found CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform's initial setup generally straightforward but variable in time. Some completed the process in weeks, while others required months to a year for full adaptation. Early setups involved manual migrations, which were challenging without today's tools. Support was crucial in addressing issues during deployment. Current tools facilitate migrations from NetApp and Dell, enhancing ease of use. Initial setups benefited from proactive on-site assistance and comprehensive user training.

Scalability

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is highly scalable, utilized by a global organization with numerous users. It is perceived as infinitely scalable, with the ability to manage scalability by adjusting the eviction policy. Scalability can be achieved by freeing up space as needed. Some have noted that CTERA is scalable but suggest that the licensing model could be improved to avoid limitations on CPU and memory when running on-premises.

Stability

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform exhibits commendable stability. Initial bugs were resolved, leading to improved performance. No significant downtime was reported in the last four years, with only occasional synchronization issues noted but not affecting production. Stability was described as excellent, with users consistently having data access even during minor component issues. It received high stability ratings, often eight or higher, with users highlighting the absence of lag, crashes, or downtime, proving reliability for their needs.

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

Download our CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.