FileShadow, Inc., the newest venture from serial entrepreneur Tyrone F. Pike, is formally launching the FileShadow Cloud File Assurance Service today at IBM Think. FileShadow is hosted on the IBM Cloud utilizing IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS), providing “prosumers” and businesses with “11 Nines” of†durability to make files stored on popular systems including Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and Adobe Creative Cloud instantly findable regardless of location and “available for a lifetime,” company representatives said.
As cloud file services become pervasive, consumers and businesses are faced with the increasingly difficult task of cataloging and finding their stored resources. Even more challenging is the worry of security and safety of the files in the event of cloud failure (a risk that no current entity “owns” but would cost an estimated $19 billion in losses for the U.S. economy alone, according to Lloyd’s of London).
FileShadow provides users with a single location for instant access to a consolidated catalog of your files from all of your cloud storage vendors.†It does not replace these vendors. Instead, it assures the instant findability and availability of your files within all of these sources by archiving and indexing each generation of every file. Thanks to extensive searchable meta data on each file, the file content, OCR of scanned images, file locations and†vision tags, it is no longer necessary to know and remember where the files were uploaded regardless of the service you used.
The IBM Cloud is a natural choice for the FileShadow platform, according to Tyrone Pike, FileShadow president, and CEO. FileShadow chose IBM Cloud due to the breadth and depth of high-value services it offers, including serverless computing with IBM Cloud Functions, IBM Cloud Object Storage, and the ability to use flexible and open runtimes such as Node. The IBM Cloud also lays the foundation for FileShadow to connect its platform into additional advanced cloud technologies, such as AI, data analytics, and Internet of Things services.
“Our team has had great success porting our Cloud File Assurance Service to the IBM Cloud,” he remarked. “IBM Cloud Object Storage has provided us with industry-leading durability, allowing the FileShadow vault to span three U.S. regions including the East Coast (Virginia), Central U.S. (Texas) and West Coast (California), providing our customers with ’11 Nines’ of durability and preventing the vulnerability of any single data center to a catastrophic event.”
“We’ve built the IBM Cloud to deliver more than simple cloud infrastructure. Our focus has been on delivering capabilities and tools which allow companies to more easily move data to the cloud, connect it into higher value services, and create new ways to drive revenue from it,” said John Ponzo, IBM. “The work FileShadow has done on the IBM Cloud is a perfect example of this, and their choice to adopt IBM Cloud aligns well with their goal to build an intelligent data platform for their users.”
Steven Gluckstern, executive chairman of TeacherCraft LLC also noted, “We use the FileShadow file assurance service to manage multiple cloud storage accounts, supporting our academic research partners, curriculum writers, distributors and the service providers. With FileShadow, I can find the specific document, research paper, contract or studies I need in seconds, regardless of the cloud service, from my Mac, iPad or iPhone. It makes my job much easier, and gives me the assurance that our files will be available for a lifetime.”
Industry analysts are compelled by the FileShadow model as well:
Howard Marks, a long time storage commentator and Chief Scientist at DeepStorage, LLC remarked: “File services have long been at the heart of many SMB, and SME workflows. With this new offering, FileShadow has combined their understanding of large enterprise archiving with the emerging ‘big data’ requirements of ‘prosumers,’ SMBs and SMEs. As a result, users and small-to-medium businesses now have full and meaningful access to archiving and search from the IBM Cloud. FileShadow makes world-class archiving, hosting and object storage available to all.”
