Novell and NTP today announced their own versions of file sharing services for mobile devices. Novell announced Filr and NTP unveiled Universal File Access.
Both apps address file sharing in a similar way, by using an organization's existing filers and active directories for user identification and access rights.
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Novell, which was acquired by Attachmate Corp. in 2010, said it's getting back to its roots in intelligent workload management through its Filr service. Novel's Filr service leverages a business's existing infrastructure through an on-premise, virtual appliance that exposes applications to users through traditional file servers.
The virtual appliance integrates with a company's active directory, including NetIQ eDirectory and Microsoft Active Directory, which it then uses to authenticate users. So, there's no need to create a new user repository in order to find out who accessing content behind the firewall, according to Eric Varness, vice president of product management at Novell.
"We're tapping into the file and networking expertise that we've been selling for 30 years," Varness said. "You can't compare us to Dropbox as they're more consumer market oriented ... and Box.com is still cloud based."
Filr uses wireline encryption through secure socket layer, the same type of authentication that banks use for online transaction processing. On the mobile devices, Novell relies on the built-in device encryption. That can be enforced by using an mobile device management (MDM) tool such as ZENworks Mobile Management.
Filr also offers global search capabilities across an organization, also based on a user's access rights. If a user makes changes to a file offline, those changes will be synchronized when they're back online.
The application also allows employee collaboration on a file with the ability for multiple users to add commentary and work on a single document simultaneously while keeping the document secure.
NTP's Universal File Access
NTP's Universal File Access is a SaaS offering that maintains a connection with an on-premis Windows virtual machine (VM) and integrates with common storage hosts, in a private cloud or even object stores to offer access to corporate data behind the firewall.
NTP's Cloud Connector offers one or more services that maintain a connection between internal storage hosts and its Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Manager.
"Those VMs communicate with our suites of applications developed for Android, Windows and iOS," said NTP CEO Bruce Backa. "All the user has to do is get all the VMs running in the hosting environment and tell the VM which shares to make available across the cloud."
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