CTERA’s Edge X series weds the CTERA global file system with the HPE SimpliVity enterprise-grade hyperconverged platform

Secure enterprise file services provider CTERA Networks has announced the CTERA Edge X Series, which they see as the industry’s first unified edge solution combining out-of-the-box hyperconvergence and multi-cloud data management. The Edge X Series integrates their global file system together with the HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged platform.

“This will be our new flagship gateway product – we call them Edge filers,” said Jim Crook, Director of Marketing  at CTERA. “Built on HPE SimpliVity, our Edge Filer runs as a VM together with multiple tier-1 applications. We think we are bringing best of both worlds together.”

CTERA has been in business since 2008, and has raised $100 million in funds to date, starting with a $9 million Series A round in 2009. Its founders were cybersecurity experts from the Israeli defense industry who had founded an earlier company, SofaWare Technologies, which was acquired by Check Point. CTERA’s corporate headquarters are in New York City, and their R&D is in Israel. Their customers include well known enterprise brands like McDonalds and Unilever, large financials like the Carlyle Group, as well as multiple agencies within the U.S. Department of Defense, including the Air Force. They also have many midmarket and SMB customers.

CTERA edge filers provide file storage, collaboration, and backup in an all-in-one solution, which gives users local access to an infinite amount of cloud-based files, while continuously synchronizing file changes to a global file system. The Edge X series is a net-new model in the Edge portfolio, and becomes its most powerful member. Aimed at large office environments, it has much more memory , 192 GB compared to the 64 TB in the H Series, which is targeted at medium offices.

“The H Series with 64 TB has very large capacity at the edge but it is not HCI, so it can’t run third party VMs on it,” Crook said. “The X Series can. The X Series also has inline deduplication, which neither the H Series not the ROBO-focused E Series does.”

This is not CTERA’s first hyperconverged offering. They have one with Nutanix. But Crook stressed that this one is better suited to customers who want a simple out-of-the-box solution.

“A Nutanix customer would install us on top,” he said. “That one isn’t sold in the same pre-integrated way as the Edge X. With this, it’s all-in-one out of the box.”

While CTERA has multiple relationships with hyperconverged players – Cisco is also a partner, as well as a investor – Crook said that HPE was the most natural fit to partner with on this flagship model.

“HPE is the vendor with whom we have had the longest and strongest partnership,” he said. “We have been in HPE Complete for quite a while. This was a natural progression to unite us and HPE SimpliVity and put them together in this way.”

Crook said that there are several key use cases for the Edge X Series.

“It has the ability to manage a lot of remote locations at scale – from 10 to tens of thousands,” he stated. “From a consolidation standpoint, this is a huge benefit. This makes it ideal for Remote Office File Services, especially at scale. VDI is another major use case, with the Edge X series serving as the storage target. We’ve had some deployments in the past with our clients in VDI. It’s  becoming more of an option, especially in financial services, and we see this as a strong market.”

Crook said that the channel rollout for the Edge X Series would be the same as their other product lines.

“That baked-in HPE partnership will be a strong presence in this case,” he commented.