The best enterprise cloud storage offerings of 2018

To The Cloud

Storing data in the cloud isn't about picking the least expensive cloud provider. It's about picking the right solution set that can help a business manage its data, no matter where it may be located.

The good news is, businesses and their channel partners have a long list of cloud storage, archiving, and management providers to choose from. Here's a list of 10 of the top storage technologies from established cloud players as well as startups that can help meet enterprise storage needs.

This article originally appeared at crn.com

Amazon EC2 High Memory Instances For Large In-Memory Databases

Cloud giant Amazon Web Services in September announced the availability of new high memory instances that offer up to 12 TB of memory and will scale to 24 TB in 2019.

The new instances have been built to run large in-memory databases. The company said that the new instances can deliver the most memory of any SAP-certified cloud instance, and can be integrated with all AWS services, including storage, networking, the Internet of Things, analytics, and machine-learning services.

Asigra TrueNAS Backup

Cloud backup software vendor Asigra in August launched Asigra TrueNAS Backup Appliance, a physical hardware offering integrated with ransomware detection capabilities. The company's latest backup offering, in partnership with iXsystems, combines Asigra Cloud Backup V14 software with iXsystems’ TrueNAS storage, and includes the OpenZFS open-source file system and volume management.

In May, the Canada-based provider revealed version 14 of its cloud-based data protection software, Cloud Backup Evolved. The offering combines data protection and cybersecurity to handle brand-new malware threats.

CloudBolt Hybrid Cloud Management Platform

Cloud management provider CloudBolt specialises in automating "cloudbursting" through its power-scheduling feature that saves customers on public cloud costs, while also conserving private data center resources. The startup's technology can work across a variety of private and public cloud environments.

Founded in 2012, CloudBolt in June announced it had received a US$23 million Series A funding round from Insight Venture Partners. The company's software is being featured in the AWS Marketplace.

Cloudian And Machine Box Partnership

Cloudian, a developer of on-premises, object-storage systems that scale to public clouds, this year partnered with Machine Box, a developer of machine-learning technology. In May, the companies unveiled their first offering, which uses facial recognition and pattern-detection technologies to add metadata to storage objects to make it easier for users to search and retrieve content.

In August, the company raised an impressive US$94 million Series E funding round.

Ctera Enterprise File Services Platform

Enterprise file storage startup Ctera Networks helps enterprises deploy secure cloud file services and modernise their legacy IT infrastructure. The company today is a storage partner in the Amazon Partner Network that offers a virtual private cloud IT-as-a-Service platform that customers can use to store, sync, share, protect and govern data across endpoints, remote offices and servers, according to the Israel-based company.

Ctera received US$30 million in Series D funding in October.

DropBox Third-Party Software Extensions

A user favourite, DropBox for Business offers a secure, cloud-based content management and file storage service for enterprises. The company's latest feature lets users more easily edit files on the web within Dropbox.

DropBox's new software plug-ins from partners including Adobe, DocuSign and Vimeo will let users perform tasks such as getting a signature on a PDF without needing to launch a separate app or in-browser window, thanks to deeper integration with third-party tools.

Elastifile Expands Google Cloud Marketplace Offering

File storage provider Elastifile in September announced the availability of the Elastifile Qwiklabs learning module, as well as several enhancements to its data management platform. The company also has added support for new storage configurations in Google Cloud Marketplace, which will facilitate the creation of small storage clusters for any Google Cloud disk type. The small clusters are ideal for use as Dev/Test environments and for rapid prototyping, Elastifile said.

Elastifile today is available on Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and bare metal on-premises environments, with Microsoft Azure availability coming soon, according to the company.

Google Drive For Business

Google Drive, a popular storage solution among consumers, has become an offering fit for the enterprise.

The company’s G Suite Business and Enterprise editions include Vault, an option that allows businesses to archive corporate data and meet compliance regulations across G Suite products including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Teams Drive, Google Groups and Google Hangouts Meet. Drive is also available as a stand-alone offering, called Drive Enterprise.

HPE's GreenLake Hybrid Cloud

Hewlett Packard Enterprise launched GreenLake Hybrid Cloud, a solution that combines on-premises private cloud with AWS, Microsoft Azure and Azure Stack in a pay-per-use model.

Unveiled in June, GreenLake Hybrid Cloud is a cloud management service that offers performance optimisation, cost controls, security and compliance. A true, channel-friendly solution, GreenLake Hybrid Cloud was built from intellectual property HPE acquired from Red Pixie, a top Microsoft Azure cloud provider, and Cloud Technology Partners, a top AWS cloud provider.

HubStor

HubStor, a cloud data management provider founded in 2015, specialises in secure archiving and backup on its storage-tiering solution for unstructured data.

The Canada-based startup, which was recently awarded Microsoft Gold ISV Partner Status, offers services on top of Microsoft Azure Storage Service for Enterprises, letting these customers better manage and protect their mission-critical unstructured data. In September, the company introduced support for Immutable Storage for Microsoft Azure Blobs, a new data protection and compliance feature on Azure.