Businesses are always looking for ways to improve efficiency, cut costs and increase productivity. One of the best way to do so is by using cloud storage. Cloud storage provides an easy way to store your data remotely on a secure server with minimal cost.
Businesses can save money by offloading their expensive servers and storing all their files in one central location, which eliminates downtime from hardware failures or catastrophic events like fires and floods.
StoneFly is a Microsoft Azure Cloud Service Provider (CSP) Partner and Azure marketplace partner. We leverage Azure storage platform to deliver our patented storage OS as an Azure virtual machines for SMBs, SMEs, and large enterprises.
Here are 11 reasons why you should choose our solution with Azure blob storage:
Advanced Data Security for Your Business Data
Data security is table stakes. It just needs to be there, and you need know that it’s there, and any business using Azure cloud knows this better than most. Microsoft has been working in the cloud space since early 2000s and one of its biggest differentiators has always been security. Many businesses have learned this first hand over the years as they’ve lost valuable data due to misconfiguration or hack attacks from compromised systems or even their own employees not following best practices.
Azure cloud offers industry leading multi-factor authentication as well as a slew of other options including identity protection which alerts users when an attack occurs so they can respond accordingly before its too late – all with no additional hardware costs! This is one reason why more businesses around the globe are moving their workloads to Azure.
Unified Cloud Storage for All Your Workloads
Combine NAS (file storage), SAN (block storage), and object storage in a unified storage space in Azure blob storage using StoneFly’s Azure virtual machines. This is a good way to get all your data stored securely and synchronously without increasing management overhead.
NAS, SAN, and object storage are three very different types of storage that are widely used by enterprises as well as personal users alike.
NAS is typically used for small businesses, SANs are usually reserved for big businesses with more sophisticated needs, and object storage is often used when you need to store things like logs or files but not necessarily databases. These three storage function on their own separate set of protocols and typically offered as standalone storage solutions.
StoneFly’s patented storage operating system allows you to set up a consolidated unified storage space in Azure blob storage that works with all three protocols.
Build a Collaborative Space for Remote Branches and Employees Working from Home (WFH)
StoneFly’s storage in Azure gives you unified cloud storage for all of your different types of workloads. This gives businesses a great way to provide their remote branches and employees working from home the same level of file sharing capabilities as if they were in the office.
This means that you can set up Azure blob storage as the central hub where all your business data is stored. You can connect globally dispersed teams, departments, and branch offices to share data and work in a collaborative and productive space.
Furthermore, you can offload on-premises storage systems to Azure blob storage and even replace locally redundant storage systems completely.
Reduce Infrastructure Costs – Store Data in Azure Storage
StoneFly’s Azure virtual machines let you run your own local NAS, SAN, and object stores in Azure storage without adding any hardware infrastructure costs at all.
This greatly reduces the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of running a business since Azure storage does not require additional overhead in terms of servers or other equipment while delivering the same level of performance if not better than locally redundant storage systems!
StoneFly’s storage in Azure allows you to seamlessly move data between Azure blob storage and your on-premises NAS, SAN, or object based storage. This helps reduce TCO by allowing you to replace existing hardware with Azure virtual machines that are more cost effective.
StoneFly Azure storage is priced based on the amount of data you store and how often you need access to your files. The Azure storage pricing calculator gives you a general idea of pricing so you can estimate what it could cost to use Azure cloud storage for your business workloads.
Highly Available Azure Storage for Business Workloads
If your company data is not available, it’s no longer a business. We all know this yet businesses of all sizes still struggle with keeping their (online) data available 24×7. If something goes wrong with on-premises storage, you can be sure that in the event of a disaster, Azure storage is highly available – Your business data will remain accessible and usable while Azure automatically recovers your services without any downtime Azure storage also has a 99.99% SLA which means you can sleep easy knowing that your sensitive data will be there when you need it. This level of reliability and resiliency can mean the difference between being down for hours to just seconds; imagine how this would affect your business if you’re able to maintain 100% availability?
Expensive equipment like RAID controllers and redundant arrays are no longer needed with Azure storage because its built-in fault tolerance takes care of everything for you!
Upgrade Your Data Storage Infrastructure with Azure Blob Storage
Upgrade your infrastructure and reduce storage costs easy data migration more importantly, with StoneFly Cloud Storage, you can easily transfer your existing data from any cloud storage provider or other on-premise solution into the Microsoft Azure Cloud within minutes!
This is ideal for businesses looking to upgrade their infrastructure while reducing overall storage costs by consolidating all of their storage needs in a single place that’s protected by industry leading security measures. Improved Performance Get more done, faster!
With up to 15x performance improvement over legacy NAS solutions as well as 20% reduction in IOPS cost per TB you’ll see a measurable increase in productivity and collaboration while lowering total cost of ownership.
Access Your Business Data from Anywhere, Any Device
Don’t let outdated data storage solutions limit your business moving forward. StoneFly cloud storage brings the power of the cloud to any device, anytime you need it so that your employees, partners and customers can access their critical data from anywhere they have an internet connection.
Businesses can use StoneFly cloud storage on their own terms including storing and accessing data from off-site locations or even across multiple geographic regions using different providers.
StoneFly cloud storage is cloud-agnostic meaning it’s not tied to Microsoft Azure blob storage exclusively: you can also migrate your existing data from Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Compute without having to change a single thing! This scalable advantage added with transparent multi-provider support means that businesses no longer have to choose what provider they want their data stored with, they can now choose how much of their business critical data needs to be stored on which provider based on real flexibility.
Simplify Compliance with Industry Regulations
Business regulations have been a challenge for businesses to comply with especially in the cloud space. StoneFly cloud storage makes this easy by providing cost-efficient, secure and compliant storage of your data which includes the ability to regularly back up and audit your data at any time and storing it either on or off-premise.
As a Microsoft Azure CSP partner, StoneFly is able to extend HIPAA compliance (the most stringent security requirements in the world) to all of its customers by leveraging Microsoft’s global infrastructure.
What’s more is that there are no additional tools or software needed to maintain simple compliance as well as one single location where you can store all of your regulatory documentation and records: StoneFly cloud storage provides an integrated platform for every aspect of running your business.
Scale Data Storage Capacity with Ease
Data is growing exponentially, but the last thing any business wants to do is spend days manually moving and expanding capacity!
StoneFly cloud storage can scale the size of your Azure blob storage with a few clicks without any downtime – saving you time and money.
In addition to file storage, StoneFly cloud storage also allows users to seamlessly scale block blobs. If your company does a lot of streaming data processing or big data development, then having massively scalable and secure block storage will be incredibly beneficial.
With simplicity and convenience being top concerns for businesses today, StoneFly cloud storage helps solve all of these issues using simple tools and quick setup process as well as 24/7 support to ensure the highest level of satisfaction.
Tiered Data Storage Infrastructure with Automated Transfers
Automatically set up hot tier, cool tier, and archive storage tiers by utilizing different types of Azure blob storage.
Azure object, page and block blobs are designed for use cases requiring the highest flexibility in size starting from 1GB all the way up to a petabyte or more. StoneFly cloud storage will help ease the burden of data management complexity while increasing flexibility for access and retrieval.
For example, you can store your high-priority data (frequently accessed data) such as financial records in premium storage with Azure block blob storage which has a faster download speed than object or file storage. Your infrequently accessed data could be stored in slow-tier object or file blobs where it would cost less but still get quick retrieval times when needed.
All of the different options and combinations between all three types of Azure storage are available to StoneFly cloud users through a simple, seamless interface that requires no downtime or maintenance.
Furthermore, StoneFly cloud storage enables users to automate data transfer between hot tier, cool tier, and archive access tiers. You can choose to transfer data based-on the data of creation and/or access frequency.
Store data efficiently and get the most out of your investments!
Built-in Data Protection Features of StoneFly Cloud Storage
In addition to Azure cloud’s native features, StoneFly cloud storage also delivers an array of data protection capabilities for no additional cost.
The built-in data protection features include:
Air-Gapped Volumes
Air-gapped volumes are isolated and detachable target storage volumes in Azure storage.
These are offline, encrypted and stored offsite, so they are immune to cyberattacks such as ransomware and other malware that target data access. This is a great option for storing sensitive information–even more so if it’s a really high risk or highly regulated industry like healthcare.
Immutable Delta-Based Snapshots
A delta snapshot operates by only copying the blocks that have changed since a previous backup or snapshot instead of copying all the blocks. This means less time and space is used, which can prove to be one of the most significant benefits in the face of rapid data growth.
Furthermore, immutable snapshots lock the ability to edit, overwrite, and delete snapshots for a set span of time. This in turn protects your data from threats like ransomware attacks, hackers, malware, and human error.
By utilizing this technology, StoneFly cloud storage can further reduce costs by storing snapshots as blobs on Azure which eliminates any need for expensive tape-based or disk storage systems.
Encryption at rest and in transit
When you store your data on a traditional cloud storage network, the data is only encrypted in transit. However, StoneFly storage in Azure encrypts data-at-rest and in-transit. This makes sure that your file data is always fully encrypted and decrypted inside the Azure blob storage platform through which no one can access it without first decrypting it.
Conclusion
StoneFly uses Azure storage platform to deliver cloud storage build to take your business workloads to the next level. With StoneFly cloud storage, you can:
- Protect your business workloads from cyber-threats.
- Set up a cost-effective unified storage space with multi-protocol support for unstructured data (NAS), structured data (SAN), and object storage.
- Start as small as 1TB and scale out to petabytes or more.
- Store sensitive and confidential business data in air-gapped volumes.
- Get compliant with industry regulations such as HIPAA/HITRUST, FedRAMP, CJIS, FISMA, and more.
- Build a collaborative file storage and sharing environment for remote branches and employees working from home (WFH).
Business data storage needs to be quick, simple, and seamless. There’s no room for complex storage infrastructures in today’s fast-paced market.
Simplify your cloud storage today with StoneFly storage in Azure. Get your free trial from the Azure marketplace!
