Aspera Drive Delivers Extreme File Sharing to the Desktop

Next generation file sharing and synchronization for big data speeds global collaboration

London(04 Apr 2014)

Aspera, Inc. , an IBM Company and creators of next-generation software technologies that move the world’s large data at maximum speed, today announced that Aspera Drive, a new high-performance file sharing and synchronization solution, is now available to all customers. The powerful and easy-to-use platform, built on the unique Aspera FASP  technology, combines high-speed secure transfer, remote browsing and synchronization of any size data from the user’s desktop to any content location – on premise and throughout the cloud.

Organizations using today’s file sharing services to improve data access and document sharing face the inherent limitations and risks of these services. File size limitations, slow performance over the wide area network and concerns over content security have limited enterprise adoption to simple collaboration scenarios. 

Aspera Drive overcomes these limitations with a powerful and secure data sharing and collaboration application and backend platform. Teams can securely browse, sync, send and share files and directories of any size directly from Windows Explorer and Mac Finder, with maximum speed at any distance with full privacy and access control. Content is securely transferred from its native location with transparent browse and sync control in the desktop.

The FASP transfer platform, which powers the Drive file-sharing ecosystem, eliminates the trade-off decisions across access, security, infrastructure and cost. Customers have the flexibility to deploy in-house on dedicated infrastructure, in the cloud with virtual servers and storage, or using hybrid infrastructure combining on premise and cloud. These options allow organizations to take full advantage of storage and bandwidth at any location, retaining full control over security and service levels, while enjoying the fastest possible access and transfer times.

“Aspera Drive brings the power of Aspera FASP directly to the desktop of users across the enterprise,” said Michelle Munson, Aspera co-founder and CEO. “The elegant end-user experience preserves all of the speed, security and reliability of Aspera technology and provides it to any individual in the extended organization.”

Aspera Drive – the Desktop Experience

Aspera Drive enables the transfer and synchronization capabilities of the Aspera High-Speed Transfer Platform directly within the desktop file explorer:

• Users can remotely browse shared files, and easily move those files and folders between platforms with a simple drag and drop from Windows Explorer and Mac Finder.
• Users can directly synchronize any network file system or local directory with remote servers and other Drive users, or mirror content from remote sites.
• Large files or entire directories can be delivered as faspex packages to remote project teams by simply right-clicking and entering the recipient’s email address. Users can also subscribe and automatically receive faspex packages to their Drive Inbox.
• All data remains secure with a powerful and flexible security model combining authorization with enterprise Active Directory/LDAP, fine-grained access control and encryption over the wire and at rest.

Next Generation Web and Platform Experience

Aspera Drive is powered by Aspera’s latest high-performance digital delivery platform, which unifies all of the file sharing and package sending capabilities into a web application tier that deploys in conjunction with Aspera high-speed transfer servers on premise or in the cloud.

• Native support for direct transfer to IBM SoftLayer, Google Storage, OpenStack Swift, Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure Blob enables direct high-speed transfer to, from and between cloud and on-premise infrastructure. The deep integration with the object storage APIs adds transfer management features including pause, resume, encryption over the wire and at rest, and HTTP fallback.
• The platform supports access control, integrated remote transfer and email integration.
• The new auto-scaling platform scales transfer capacity in real time with automatic start/stop of transfer server instances, automatic balancing of client requests, and configurable service levels to manage transfer load, “burst” capacity and decommissioning of unused instances.
• Share-to-share transfer, upload, download and synchronization incorporate the Aspera Shares authorization and access control, and are available directly via a new Shares API.

Aspera will be showcasing Drive and its entire suite of high-speed transfer software and services at NAB 2014 at the Aspera booth (SL8511). For more information on Aspera Drive, please visit http://asperasoft.com/software/transfer-clients/drive