We have approximately 80 nodes around the world and we're using CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform mostly for unstructured file storage.

I appreciate the recoverability of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform, the fact that we have cloud sync working and we're able to use versioning as well as recovery of deleted files. It really makes life easy because people tend to change things and delete things when they don't mean to.

That's probably one of my favorite features of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform, but I also appreciate the fact that it's very flexible. It seems to be fairly bandwidth compliant, so we're always looking at ensuring we don't overload our circuits, especially when we're doing our cloud syncs.

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform has helped free up our IT resources for other projects and tasks. It's been very easy. When we do see issues, their support is top-notch and very responsive when we need help. It has really made it easier for us to be able to globally assign storage. We're putting local nodes rather than trying to put them in data centers and really having problems with overall timing. We always want our data close to our applications and our people. In this case, it helps a lot to maintain that.

We use CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform a lot because typically end users are not very good stewards of their own data, and CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform helps us when they break something or lose things. We had an incident in Illinois where we had to recover an entire directory because somebody deleted all the files, and we were able to do that. Someone also came to us saying they changed a huge spreadsheet they had been working on for months and needed to go back a version. That makes us look really good because we're able to quickly respond to those types of requests. It makes people think I have my superhero cape on because they're thinking it's all lost, they're doomed, and we're able to quickly and effectively go back and say, "Here you go," and it's not hours, it's minutes.

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is extremely scalable. For us it's probably about a 15-minute process when, especially in the cloud sync, somebody drops a large volume of data. I'm easily able to add on. They come in 50-terabyte chunks, so that's pretty scalable in my mind. It's not a huge oversell, so it's a pretty sweet spot for us when we're adding in new sites or new data, especially when it comes to doing desktop image backups and things of that nature. Someone might come to me saying, "Hey, I need a 10-terabyte node," and I'm easily able to spin that up within hours, not days.

When we implemented CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform early on, and we've been on the platform for three years, we have three different cloud portals. We have an EU portal, we have an Americas portal, and we have an APAC portal. It would be nice if we could combine that into one portal just for that global single pane of glass look. We've talked with them about that and they say it's challenging just because of some of the structure, but that would be something nice if we could get that. I integrated with Varonis, and because CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform didn't have initially a working relationship with that vendor, it would have been nice had that pre-existed us saying we need this. But that wasn't totally CTERA's fault. There was a lot of challenge working with the vendor to build out that interface.

A single pane of glass for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform would be beneficial. Everything else works fairly well. We've never had a point where we couldn't get to something that caused us to have a serious outage, and that to me is the mark of a good software package. It's never really caused us serious issues. We have our issues, that's true, and every software package does. However, we've always been able to meet the needs of the business, and we drive hard on security, stability, and scalability. From the scalability standpoint, that's one of the most important things to us. We're on their capacity-based licensing, so if I need to ramp up another CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform NAS, if we have an M&A, I can easily and quickly spin up another NAS and start doing that data transition fairly quickly.

The biggest maintenance issue with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is firmware upgrades. We've done a lot of transition from hardware solution to virtualized infrastructure in order to minimize that hardware lifecycle portion of it. We have to upgrade the firmware and sometimes that can be challenging in the nature of business of our size with 80 CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform nodes around the globe.

The issue we've had with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform happened recently in a firmware upgrade where there was a major database back-end upgrade and that took some time. For our smaller sites, it would be an hour or two, and I can build that into a fairly easy change window. But in our larger sites where we may have hundreds of terabytes of data, that database update process took maybe a day or a day and a half. That becomes more challenging, especially in a manufacturing environment where people are wanting to access configuration files. We had to pin the data locally because the data would be available on the local edge filer, but the cloud sync, while it was updating the database, the cloud files weren't available. That would be the other thing I'd like to see an improvement on: some way to do those database upgrades either in a more segmented fashion or in some type of offline environment. I understand the logistics behind that sounds easy, but I'm sure it's not.

We've been using CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform for approximately seven years.

We haven't had stability issues from CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform side. I've seen some challenges where users tried to use a NAS device in what I'll call an inappropriate method. We just had a recent instance where some of our users were storing Access databases out on a NAS, which the documentation clearly states is a bad idea. They bent over backwards to try and help us make it work, and we were able to do some things there. More often than not, we've never had any other types of issues from the CTERA side.

The learning curve for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform for our employees is not bad. When we have questions, support's been very responsive for us.

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform has helped free up our IT resources for other projects and tasks. It's been very easy. When we do see issues, their support is top-notch and very responsive when we need help. It has really made it easier for us to be able to globally assign storage by putting local nodes rather than trying to put them in data centers and having problems with overall timing. We always want our data close to our applications and our people, and in this case, it helps a lot to maintain that.

The quality and speed of support for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is some of the best in the industry. I've worked with a lot of different companies through the years, and even from simple questions to complex ones, they've been very responsive. To the point where sometimes I wonder when our dedicated support engineer sleeps.

Several of our people have taken their admin training class for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform, which obviously helps a lot because it gives an in-depth look at the operational factors involved.

I was not around when CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform was fully onboarded. However, I'm sure it was not a short process just because of our volume of data. We're storing currently right around 2.2 petabytes.

From an application standpoint concerning the Ransom Protect feature, it's not really that pertinent, but from a global support team perspective, we have a follow-the-support model. It helps that we're able to quickly respond globally to incidents, whether that be in APAC, EU, or the US. They're very good about making sure that we have the ability to do that.

I'd like to see a Varonis integration natively with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform.

Database upgrades in a segmented fashion or offline for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform would be beneficial. This review has been given a rating of 8 out of 10.

CTERA connected us with Bezeq, which is a communications company in Israel that also sells similar solutions, and we also set up a portal. We were then Bezeq's integrator, until Bezeq decided to stop the activity with this product, from the beginning of 2025. Bezeq customers who want to continue working on the product go to us, we have our own portal as well.

Over the years, CTERA has shifted its focus away from local and cloud backup, concentrating instead on the file server with smart storage, HFILER, and caching mode, which we are aligned with. We have continued to deploy backup, archiving, and other complementary solutions on top of CTERA’s platform.

Since we have a big cloud environment, we back it up to CTERA’S portal and we use its archive.

CTERA first took that direction 4-5 years ago. My relationship with CTERA is around 17 years old and every time a new version comes out or additional features are released, they update me. You could say we are their BETA SITE here in Israel. It’s been rewarding to expand our capabilities together throughout the years. I look at it that way because a lot of times they send me information and ask for my thoughts.

We are CTERA’s main exclusive partner integrator in Israel, in the world of SMB. There are other companies with which we are also in contact, but they are more interested in the enterprise market, like Binat, which works with CTERA but with Enterprise customers. We also have a channel with them for business, where we are the executive arm.

Over the years, we have acquired a great deal of knowledge with CTERA, whether it’s with the portal, if it’s on the side of end customers, or with migration.

In regards to our main use cases would be migration from legacy storage such as Dell EMC, NetApp, IBM CALLSTORAGE. It’s a traditional file storage that we use with CTERA’s tools and our tools. A migration to CTERA’s environment happens when a client has a small file server in his office and has a big portal behind him. So we connect him, if he has different branches, or work-from-home scenarios or international users.

CTERA is a company that continually evolves with the latest modernization and technology. Its solution is built to handle ransomware and is strongly security-oriented, which is what I appreciate most about it. The fact that the U.S. Department of Defense and major enterprises in the U.S. have adopted this product speaks volumes. The company’s roots trace back to Check Point, giving it a strong foundation in security-first thinking. In recent years, ransomware attacks have become increasingly common, and CTERA has integrated anti-ransomware capabilities directly into its product, well before you even need additional defenses like EDR or XDR. To me, this makes it a fantastic solution that ensures the files you’re working on remain safe and protected.

Even in cases where companies have suffered ransomware attacks and turned to us for help, CTERA has proven to make the recovery process significantly faster than any other solution I’ve seen. There’s no need for elaborate reconstructions, files are safeguarded in the portal, ensuring business continuity from day zero. Once the issue is identified, operations can resume immediately. Our experience shows that CTERA is constantly advancing its solutions, and now, with the growing trend of AI integration, they are adopting it in an optimal way.

Another important advantage is volume reduction. CTERA allows us to maintain consistent pricing for our customers by optimizing storage. In the past, when storage was full, we felt compelled to purchase more. Today, with the ability to archive workloads securely in the cloud, where they remain accessible at all times, there’s no need to worry about constantly expanding on-premises server capacity.

In the cloud-based world, CTERA provides a significant advantage. For example, at RealTime, we deliver cloud services to our customers, and when a customer requires a file server, we deploy a small one in the cloud. Since cloud storage disks are expensive, CTERA’s smart archiving allows us to keep only what’s necessary on the live server while moving the bulk of the data into efficient archive storage, cutting costs substantially.

Instead of storing an entire 10-terabyte dataset on costly SSD disks, we only need to store about 500 gigabytes. The full 10 terabytes remain accessible in CTERA’s portal, at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional cloud servers.

One of the biggest advantages of CTERA is the ability to reduce a customer’s storage costs while eliminating the need to worry about backups or infrastructure after migration. This directly lowers IT expenses, and because the cloud enables limitless scalability, customers can continue to grow without concern for infrastructure limitations.

Ransomware protection is another key benefit. With CTERA’s security tools, I can confidently assure customers that their data is safe from ransomware threats. And even in the rare event of an attack, recovery is far faster compared to other solutions. These capabilities set CTERA apart from competitors in the market.

CTERA also offers a unique on-site solution that is especially valuable for companies with multiple branches. It is far superior to platforms like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive, because it simplifies user access management and provides localized support. Unlike large vendors such as Microsoft, where customers are often routed to remote support engineers who may not fully understand the issue. CTERA delivers VIP-level support in the customer’s own language. This combination of business continuity, simplicity, and personal support is every company’s dream.

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform helped free up IT resources for other projects or tasks. In the past we deployed and maintained our own systems, and I did not realize how much time and resources that took until Oded advised me to migrate to Azure. That's when I realized how much time it freed me up to develop the business and introduce other solutions.

This was a great solution and part of RealTime’s philosophy, we looked for a “set-and-forget” solution instead of continuously chasing support. Today, things have become simpler. The solution works and executes much better, and it frees up time to deal with other things and introduce additional activities.

Overall, there has been a time saving of between 30% and 40%, which is a lot, since RealTime doesn’t only deal with CTERA but also with cloud services, interterminal customers, Microsoft 365, integrations, and upgrade

Ransom Protect has helped us reduce downtime by 90%. In trials, we saw that it was able to prevent data intrusion and encryption. Even before implementing this feature, recovery time was fast, users were back to work in less than two hours.

We hear from other companies not working with us that recovery can take one to two weeks. With CTERA, we have seen a 90% reduction in time for file storage recovery.

I have a really good impression of CTERA’s Enterprise File Services Platform for file replication and versioning. It works properly both locally and in the cloud portal. Any customer who requests their retention policy according to their requirements is able to receive the data, and we can deliver the results they want in just a matter of minutes.

We used CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform for disaster recovery. This saved us about 90% of time because, as soon as a customer experiences a file server crash while using CTERA, we can bring them a new machine, synchronize it to the cloud, and within an hour or two, the metadata is delivered correctly. The customer can see their files and get back to work.

There was one case with a large accounting company that had close to four million small files, totaling 3–4 terabytes. I told my employees to pay special attention to it. Our technician brought a machine to their office, accessed the data, started the synchronization, and within three hours everything was back.

If this were an old traditional Windows file server, this would’ve taken us at least 24 hours until the systems would be back up and running.

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform helped reduce our recovery point objectives.

There’s an issue with permissions, they aren’t always as transparent for customers as Microsoft’s, for example. Integrations with AI could also be improved, and error messages should be clearer, more detailed, and less general.

Another area for improvement is simultaneous file editing. I understand a fix is in progress, but it hasn’t been released yet. The main problem is that if two people are working on the same file, for example, one in the U.S. and one in Israel, they can overwrite each other’s work without any notification. I would like to see functionality similar to Microsoft OneDrive, where you can immediately see if someone else is editing the same file.

It’s a very stable platform.

It’s very easy to scale, there weren’t any complaints from our customers.

They have improved a lot. I would rate them an 8 out of ten.

Deploying CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform into your organization’s firewall was not complicated at all.

After my company does the implementation and trains the employees, it’s very smooth, we don’t get any complaints. There are always questions and casual glitches but not anything that’s out of the ordinary.

We ourselves are CTERA’s main integrator in Israel. We acquired the knowledge ourselves. We did it in-house.

The investment I made on CTERA through Azure was returned within two years.

I believe CTERA could improve their pricing experience by customizing price lists per region. For example, there is a difference between what is sold to customers in Israel versus U.S. customers. I often explain that the market here is different and requires more creativity. In some cases, prices need to be adjusted downward. I understand the business side, of course, CTERA needs to make a profit but this is still an area for improvement.

When you sell a solution with all the benefits we’ve discussed, but the cost is high, some customers compare it to free or bundled alternatives. For example, companies that purchase a Microsoft 365 license automatically receive OneDrive without paying anything extra. In my opinion, CTERA’s pricing should be more proportional and accessible so that cost is not the factor preventing customers from purchasing.

If there was an improvement in the price, at least in our region, it would be easier for us to sell it and it would be easier to develop it and increase revenue. It is worth the price. The benefits I receive, the defense I receive, the fact that my data is there make it worth it, but not everyone sees it that way, which is the difficulty.

At first, the learning curve was much more complicated. I was the one who learned the technology and pushed it forward. It was not easy. But over the years, the solution has evolved, and implementation has become simpler. Whenever we need to implement something or run into difficulties, we get all the support we need from CTERA, their team is always there to accompany us. Today, everything is much easier than it was a few years ago.

I would rate CTERA a nine out of ten.

We use it as a hosted cloud solution. We had initially tried Azure File Sync, but that did not work. Due to certain security concerns, I was tasked with researching alternatives. I evaluated several options, including Cohesity and Nasuni, before finding the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform to be the best fit for our needs. We performed a proof of concept with our applications director, and based on the positive results, I recommended the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform to senior management.

The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform's replication and versioning capabilities are reliable, and we have not encountered any major complaints in these areas. We have built-in high availability and disaster recovery support through our architecture, which includes three CTERA filers. One is on-prem on Apollo 4200. The second filer is a VMware virtual machine, and the third one is in Azure. In terms of the application servers, we have three application servers sitting in the Azure cloud, and we also have two database servers. We have a replication server between Database 1 and Database 2, which also sits in Azure. That is the primary architecture as far as CTERA is concerned. The replication works pretty well, and I did not find any major complaints regarding the replication aspect. We do get notifications if something does not happen or if there are any error messages, but that is in a normal stride.

The product has significantly contributed to reducing our recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). That is what they promised. We have stub files on the filers that we use. It has been helpful in the reduction of storage, RTO, and RPO.

We were able to see its benefits immediately because that is how it has been structured. Once we migrate and upload the data to the cloud, we see all the magic happening almost immediately or within a couple of hours. Once we upload the data through the filer, it goes on the portal. From the portal, the metadata changes are made into the filer, and from the portal, it does a sync on all the other filers. It takes an hour to two to sync up all the devices within the infrastructure.

We never had any problems or any security concerns related to data protection. It has been good so far, so I believe they have something robust and secure out there. We do have a parent company that looks into any security concerns, and we have never received any complaint related to the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform.

The best feature is the migration tool within CTERA.

It is easy to learn. I work as an infrastructure engineer, so I manage the storage. I manage the VMware infrastructure. I manage a little bit of cloud. I manage the compute as well, so for me, it was pretty easy. Once I understood the architecture, it was pretty easy. Currently, I am the primary engineer who provides all necessary support for all our users, and for me, it was pretty easy to understand. Once I understood the architecture, it was pretty easy to put all the pieces together and go about it.

One area for improvement is the migration tool, which at times does not work as designed, necessitating the use of alternative solutions like Robocopy.

AI and automation features could enhance the platform, such as AI-powered search, predictive storage analytics, and intelligent alerts for proactive monitoring. Predictive storage analytics will help with better capacity planning. There can be some sort of intelligent alerts for proactive monitoring.

The reporting and analytics features could be improved for better customization and documentation capabilities. When we wanted to know the total amount of storage that we have put into Azure through CTERA during a specific period, we had to go about it in a roundabout way. It was not very easy. Customized reports and documentation will be helpful from a client's perspective.

Performance and scalability can be enhanced for faster operation. They could make it a little bit faster, but that probably requires fine-tuning from the infrastructure perspective.

We have been using the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform for about two to three years.

It is very stable and reliable. We have not experienced any major problems from the platform side. Any issues were related to the hardware.

It offers good scalability options, including vertical and outward scalability. We can add resources as needed.

Their technical support is pretty good. They take ownership of the call, and I enjoy working with them. It is pretty easy.

They are excellent. They are available 24/7, and I have been able to contact them even at odd hours. They swiftly address concerns and take ownership of the call, providing a very satisfactory support experience.

We previously used Azure File Sync but encountered security concerns from Microsoft. We had to bring it down.

It was not very easy or very complicated. We had an Azure engineer and CTERA support to help us out, so it was pretty easy. Once we understood the concepts and defined what exactly we needed, such as how many filers and failover devices were required, it was very easy. After we had the image, we provisioned the servers in the cloud, and it was not very difficult. It was pretty easy.

It was implemented by my coworker, who has since left. It probably took a couple of weeks, but we were not working on it every day and all the time. It was done based on the availability of the engineers and the availability on the CTERA side as well. It was a big project because we have tons of application servers and file services. We also had a hardware issue. We had various phases, such as defining the architecture, migration, testing, etc. It was tested at every level, and then it was finally put up in production.

In terms of maintenance, for the CTERA filer that is on a physical server, I had to get in touch with CTERA engineers to upgrade the CTERA firmware. I also had to do the HPE hardware firmware upgrade. I had to upgrade the drivers on the NIC cards. Such maintenance has to be done.

We worked with CTERA support as well as our own team including an Azure engineer. The implementation was facilitated by their guidance.

I am positive that CTERA has helped reduce the total cost of ownership by eliminating the need for manual storage management and reducing storage service processes. Previously, whenever we needed storage, I had to carve out a LUN presented through HPE OneView. It was a process. Now, I do not have to worry about storage. This has definitely saved a great deal for the organization.

I am not directly involved in the pricing aspects, but I understand that CTERA's pricing is competitive and within industry standards.

We tried Nasuni and Cohesity, but CTERA stood out due to its ease of use and superior security features.

Overall, I would rate the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform a nine out of ten.

We use CTERA in almost every site we use. It is the platform for every commercial site that we have in the world. We have around 198 of their devices locally, and we also have CTERA devices in our central locations for each region.

Even though we have added additional devices throughout the four years, we have been able to do that and cover it 24/7 throughout the world with four resources. CTERA can make it easier on your staff in that respect. When it is deployed and connected with proper Active Directory and bandwidth, and things are moving properly, you do not need to touch it. You do not need to do a lot. That is the nice part of CTERA.

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.

For the technical side, they have done a very good job over the last couple of years. Joe, Mukesh, and Shannon have done a great job teaching our staff. Joe Scott comes across as almost like a professor when he is teaching. He is very good at it. Once you learn how the system works, it is fairly easy, but there are a lot of little things that can go wrong. There are a lot of moving parts within it, so a lot of things can happen. You can do all the right steps and follow the runbook that is provided by CTERA, but you still need CTERA to help you dig down deep when you find an issue because new ones happen all the time.

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. For example, if we do identify an issue, where could we use those logs? We have to download a specific log that only goes to them for them to review. We have no insight into it even if it is something that is on our side or our issue. I would like to have more visibility into that.

File replication-wise, they do a good job, but I would like to see a little bit more on folders. If somebody has touched a folder and moved it, I would like a little bit more details on that. We have certain folders for specific sites. Some people have access to them, and suddenly, a folder disappears. It could be because operations deleted it or moved it, maybe accidentally within another folder. There should be logs that we could go back to and see when those file folders were moved or touched and have an idea. Right now, we do not have this information. It is a big search if we lose a file or the operations team deletes a folder with scanned images in it. We do not get a log that says that so and so in operations touched this and hit the delete button. Such information is essential for doing RCAs when we have issues like that.

It does a very good job with data protection, but I would like some additional logs. I would like some additional ability to see who touched the folders. We have to let operations be able to touch certain folders because of the way our system is developed. Unfortunately, within CTERA, we do not have those logs. I would love to have those logs. If we turned on additional logging, it would fill it up so quickly that we would not be able to maintain and have enough storage. That is our issue. I would like to see additional logging available that did not occupy so much of our storage space so that we could see when somebody touched a folder and moved it. That would give us the last little piece to ensure that our data security is optimal.

It would be nice if there was an intermediary between HC400s and going bigger, something that would allow additional storage or even add storage to the HC400s, which recurrently cannot do. We have smaller scanning sites that use a physical device. These physical devices have very limited storage, so we end up running out of storage at times. There is no real alternative without going to a larger scale in three-node Nutanix and blowing up the site, and it may not be ready for it. It would be nice if there was an intermediary between the HC400s and going bigger. We should be able to have additional storage or even add storage to the HC400s when we get to that point where we are low and we do not have much storage on that HC400. It is not a large device. There are only three and a half terabytes. Once that storage is gone, you cannot add any more unless you club another HC400 with it or go to a bigger device. Clubbing an HC400 is a lot more hassle than it is worth.

I have been using the solution for over four years.

Stability-wise, we just went through one issue that they addressed. We were having cloud sync issues. We had things deployed for years, and we were suddenly getting cloud sync issues that were crashing our sites. When it took the site down, we had to physically rebuild the actual disk and then download the data. It caused us a lot of pain from the standpoint of working through it. It required a lot of copying of images. It was a lot of work for us on our end. They worked through it. Shannon did a good job of keeping us abreast of what was going on and the steps they were taking to resolve. It took a little bit longer than what we wanted, and we had several more cloud sync issues, but, eventually, they came out with a new version to deploy. That seems to have taken care of the issue.

They do a very good job with scalability. CTERA is a very scalable product, allowing us to grow. The smaller HC400 devices do not scale well if placed in a site on the cusp of needing a larger setup, but everything else that CTERA has product-wise does very well.

We use the ticketing system regularly, and it works well. It has gotten better over time. When I first started, we would contact them a lot by phone for P1s or severity ones. I found that to be very cumbersome and less reliable, but since then, we have been able to work through those issues. By having Joe, Mukesh, and Shannon, we have been able to resolve some of those issues. If we supply a ticket, they are able to find a way to help us. We sometimes do call. We can now also get on the calendar and schedule time. That is a nice feature. When we first started out, everything was on call, and those people we were calling did not have a clue of what they were doing. That has changed a lot over the last four years.

They have also done a good job recently from the training aspect. Joe, Mukesh, and Shannon have done a good job with the relationship and the relationship building. They have been able to work with us even when we look at licensing and the amount of licenses that we have to purchase for all these devices. They have worked with us even on that.

This is my first opportunity to use and work in this environment. I came from a different technology before, so this is my first introduction.

It is easy to deploy. We have a team that helps set up the system before it goes live, and they have really got it down to an art at this point.

For one site, we can probably get it stood up with servers and other things that are needed within about two weeks. It is fairly simple. It also depends on the download it takes and how much data that you want to use. There are a lot of variables in there, but it would take about two weeks.

They are always looking to upgrade their versions, which is great. Most recently, they upgraded their version to help with an issue that we were having in CTERA. That was good. However, when I first got here, we were on so many different versions of CTERA that we committed ourselves to only upgrading once a year. They may have several versions or two other versions coming out throughout the year, but we only upgrade once. We have so many sites and so many places that we have to touch. We can only do it during downtime, which makes it very difficult for us, so we deploy the version at the beginning of the year and do not touch it for the rest of the year.

We did not use any third-party integrator or consultant. We worked directly with Joe and the team.

Its benefits can be seen immediately. It is an edge filer that does well when it is operating at its most efficient. You can see its benefits immediately when the storage is correct, the latency is lower, and there is proper bandwidth and a good connection with Active Directory. You can go from a site that has no CTERA device and that was just sending over the wire because it was a smaller scanning site to begin with. After deploying a CTERA device, you can immediately get benefits from it.

There are so many moving parts of CTERA because you are connected not only to Active Directory; you have the network connections, routers, switches, etc. There are many things that it goes through to get to your central environment, including your overall bandwidth from the ISP. If everything is working and operating as it should, it is a good service. You do not need to touch it a lot. You need to have everything working, and that is no fault of CTERA. There are a lot of moving parts when you look at everything that goes into it.

I would rate it an eight out of ten. We have many third-party products that are not edge filers like CTERA. From a product standpoint, they compare well, but the support really lifts CTERA higher. The support aspect is very significant.

I primarily use the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform for SMB shares and object storage. To accommodate my growing needs, I plan to migrate the Hitachi Content Platform for archival purposes and expand to a broader platform.

CTERA's instantaneous and redundant file replication, available across multiple geographical locations, ensures easy and user-friendly recovery. Even end users can effortlessly restore files to previous versions.

Our disaster recovery solution utilizes the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform in an active-active configuration with a primary gateway at one location and a secondary gateway at another, working as a potentially remote site and our primary data center, respectively. This setup ensures continuous access to data, as users can seamlessly connect to the secondary gateway if the primary location experiences an outage. The active-active configuration provides instantaneous failover, eliminating the need for manual intervention.

Our Recovery Time Objective has been improved compared to previous solutions, eliminating the need for multiple configuration changes. By updating the Domain Name System to include both the primary and secondary systems in the Failover System, we ensure continuous service even if the primary system fails, eliminating the need for manual intervention or Disaster Recovery procedures.

Our Recovery Point Objective, compared to previous solutions, is optimal with minimal outages or impacts.

The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform offers immediate benefits due to its unique approach, distinguishing it from legacy solutions.

It helps free up some IT resources for other projects or tasks.

CTERA enhances data protection with ransom protection, which tags unusual activity and restricts unauthorized access. This helps identify malicious activity within the environment. Additionally, CTERA offers basic protections, including database server-level replication, ideally restricted in a DMZ-like scenario.

The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is a hybrid solution that supports both on-premises and cloud environments. This means we can use cloud storage, such as GCP or Azure buckets, as the backend while deploying services on-premises or in the cloud. Additionally, caching gateways can be placed at different remote locations to improve performance. A vital advantage of this platform is its instantaneous recovery capability, allowing seamless access to a secondary gateway if the primary one fails, a feature lacking in the previous solution.

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. This enhancement would allow for data segregation, enabling administrators to define which data is stored on specific nodes and optimize allocation across geographically diverse gateways.

I have been using the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform for four-plus years.

I haven't encountered major issues with stability. There are minor issues now and then, but nothing major.

Scalability is straightforward and simple. It's easy to upgrade, increase capacity, and add multiple gateways as needed.

Initially, I sought support often, but in recent years, I've been managing on my own. I have not needed to contact technical support as frequently as before.

I previously used Hitachi Content Platform and NetApp for my data storage needs, but I have since transitioned to CTERA as it better aligns with my requirements. Due to its superior suitability, I am migrating my other platforms to the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform.

The initial deployment was straightforward. CTERA assisted with deployment initially, but now I handle it by taking the latest image for new installations. Installation in the cloud only takes a couple of minutes.

Initially, CTERA was involved in the deployment, but now it's completely done by me.

So far, pricing seems to be fine. Unlike other solutions that require hardware purchases, CTERA offers software licensing with flexibility across multiple infrastructure providers. I can use their software licensing with my own infrastructure setup.

I would rate the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform nine out of ten.

The latest version of the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform offers enhanced NFS support and object archival capabilities, including more flexible retention settings. Previous limitations have been addressed, resulting in significant improvements.

The stop file did not apply to on-prem NetApp or the other solutions. Users might need to adjust how they interact with data.