EMC this week extended the reach of its file transfer and synchronization software to any SMB or CIFS-based storage offering as part of an effort to bridge the divide between on-premise and cloud-based systems.
Jeetu Patel, general manager for the Syncplicity business unit at EMC, says that with the introduction of EMC Syncplicity Panorama, IT organizations can take control of file transfer and synchronization inside their organization in a way that allows them to give users access to all files from their mobile devices regardless of where they are stored. Previously, users of Syncplicity could only access files in the cloud or stored specifically on EMC storage systems.
By adding support for SMB and CIFS files, Patel says those end users can now access files stored in their home directories, other file shares and even Microsoft SharePoint, in addition to a wide variety of external cloud storage services.
IT organizations can manage all that activity via a single administration console, which Patel says greatly simplifies the job of an IT administrator at a time when end users are storing more files then ever inside and out of the cloud.
As the line between internal and external IT services continues to blur, IT organizations are going to need to find ways to seamlessly provide access to files regardless of where they are stored. In fact, the ultimate goal should be to make sure that from the perspective of the end user, the actual location of any given file is little more than an afterthought.