Nasuni Real-World Use Cases and Analysis

1. Summary

Nasuni offers a cloud-native, SaaS solution for enterprise file services, with an object-based global file system in the back end and familiar file interfaces, including SMB and NFS, at the front end. It is integrated with all major public cloud providers and also works with on-premises S3-compatible object stores. Nasuni is usually implemented to replace traditional NAS systems, and its characteristics enable users to replace several additional infrastructure components such as backup, archiving platforms, and more. Recently the company added features for improved ransomware protection and advanced data management, making the solution even more compelling to enterprise users.

Over the last year, organizations rushed to find adequate solutions to respond to several challenges imposed by altered work and business scenarios. A massive acceleration of digital transformation initiatives, combined with the need to align budget expenditures and infrastructure resources to business demands in real time, moved users to adopt hybrid cloud technologies that can be adapted quickly to ever-changing business requirements. In this context, hybrid cloud combines core, cloud, and edge technology, and it responds to business needs that every organization has now:

• Data and applications must be globally accessible, scalable, and secure. With users now spread across smaller remote offices or working from home, global access to applications and data is a requirement.
• Flexibility and agility are fundamental requirements for an organization to be competitive. Organizations ready to adapt swiftly to changing scenarios are those that can take advantage of new opportunities while putting pressure on the competition.
• The ability to respond quickly to every business requirement, whether predicted or unforeseen, is essential. The events of the last year are a great example of how quickly business requirements can change. Organizations should also take into account the proliferation of regulations and risks associated with security threats such as ransomware attacks.

GigaOm interviewed Nasuni customers to delve deeper into their use cases and workflows to analyze how they use the technology, get indications on the real total cost of ownership (TCO), the return on investment (ROI), and how this hybrid cloud approach is helping them to build a flexible and sustainable IT infrastructure. To get a better picture of the possibilities offered by Nasuni, we selected customers in different industries and market segments. No matter the size of the organization, flexibility is key, and the ability to start small and dynamically grow or shrink infrastructure without giving up any level of security, service availability, and efficiency remains a top priority.

All Nasuni customers reported impressive TCO improvements over the previous solutions they replaced. At the same time, the ROI goes beyond infrastructure and touches several aspects of user experience and organizations’ overall level of productivity.