XenData Cloud File Gateway is software that runs on a Windows Server 2016 or 2012 R2 operating system and provides file-based access to cloud object storage. It allows your existing file-based applications and workflows to use cloud object storage without need for modification.

Yes, Cloud File Gateway software can be installed on either a VM in the cloud or an on-premises Windows server.

The XenData gateway software takes control of a logical disk volume on the on-premises server or the cloud VM and this is used to cache frequently accessed files. Policies are defined that can provide highly granular optimizations of the cache. You can set different retention rules for different file types and different folders. For example, specific file types in specific folders may be written to the cloud and also held on disk cache for a week after written or last read; whereas others may be removed from cache immediately after they are written to the cloud.

By keeping frequently accessed files cached on an on-premises server, you minimize the use of your Internet bandwidth and greatly enhance file read performance.

You can also schedule time windows when you can still write to disk cache but the copy to Wasabi is postponed. This is useful when Internet bandwidth is limited and there are busy times when it is in heavy demand.

You can write, read, delete and rename files. The system supports partial file restores. You can create new folders, rename empty folders and delete empty folders.

You can use SMB, NFS, FTP or local file transfers.

You create a file share as you would for a standard Windows logical drive using the standard Microsoft utilities.

The only limits are those of the Windows operating system that you are using.

Yes. Objects created by 3rd party applications may be imported into a Cloud File Gateway. Wasabi Client and files uploaded using the Wasabi Management Console are fully compatible with the Cloud File Gateway.

Yes. Objects held in other clouds may be imported into the Cloud File Gateway file structure, creating a multi-cloud global storage solution.

The Cloud File Gateway is fully compliant with the Microsoft security model. The Windows computer that runs the XenData gateway software may be installed in a domain or Workgroup. The only limitations are those of the Windows operating system.

The network attached to each Gateway instance, supports standard Windows file locking. However, conventional file locking does not extend to Wasabi object storage. A Global File System implemented using two or more Cloud File Gateways uses a different mechanism to avoid conflicts, as addressed in the next Q and A.

When multiple Cloud File Gateways form a Global File System, each gateway has one or more dedicated Wasabi buckets which may be accessed by other gateways. If we consider the simplest case with just two gateways, A and B, gateway A could write a first version of a file in one of its containers. If Gateway B then overwrites the file, a second version will be created in a container under its control. The system may be configured such that this second version is the version that is accessible across the entire Global File System. But the first version stored in the container belonging to gateway A is always retained. This approach combines the ability to have global collaboration and ensures that files uploaded by a specific gateway are always retained.

An Anchor Point is a XenData term for a path prefix added to the files stored in a Wasabi bucket or set of buckets. This is useful when organizing the Global File System. For example, if you import a file structure that was previously uploaded using Wasabi Client into a dedicated bucket and this relates to a project called ‘verde’, you may want to add an Anchor Point such as \verde\ when it appears in the Global File System.

No. There is no deduplication or compression.

The volume of files stored in the cloud is unlimited but the disk cache volume is limited to 256 TiB. A single gateway is limited to 2 billion files, no matter whether stored on the disk cache and/or in the cloud.

All data transferred is encrypted using SSL/DLS.

US West, US East and Northern Europe

It is XenData File System Mirroring software that runs on the same server as the Cloud File Gateway software. It allows any file-folder structure on your network to be mirrored to Wasabi Cloud storage. FS Mirror is ideal for creating data protection and disaster recovery copies of your network file systems.

It runs as a recurring scheduled task that is configurable from every hour to monthly.