65 VIEWPOINT How to optimise storage costs As on-premises storage arrays age out, enterprises are moving workloads to Azure – but the file services those arrays provide still need a home. CTERA bridges the gap Enterprise leaders often ask the same question: “How much longer can we keep buying storage arrays that just sit in a data centre depreciating, while Azure is where my workloads need to go?” For most, the answer is not much longer. But the Windows-compatible file services those arrays provide cannot simply disappear. CTERA’s enterprise data fabric can help. CTERA provides a global file system teams can use wherever they work, with an Azure Blob back-end for affordable, in-cloud storage. CTERA keeps the familiar server message block (SMB) and network file system (NFS) access experience that users and applications already rely on, wherever data resides and wherever they work. Behind these familiar interfaces, CTERA Content Services classify, index, govern and protect your data estate, making data not just accessible, but usable, trusted and resilient. Customers consolidating network attached storage onto CTERA and Azure typically see storage costs drop by up to 80 per cent versus prior on-premises infrastructure – hugely relevant given today’s hardware shortages and price increases. CTERA addresses near-term file storage capacity pains with Azure, while giving you a roadmap for further consolidation and activating your data for AI and analytics. For resiliency, Azure Blob’s durability is real, but ransomware does not care how durable data is if the file layer above it gets encrypted first. CTERA adds immutable, write once, read many snapshots and AIdriven ransomware detection, plus nearinstant recovery if something does go wrong. For AI, Microsoft Copilot and the agents built on Microsoft’s stack are only as good as the data they can reach and understand. The CTERA Intelligent Data Platform connects to Copilot and indexes, enriches and governs file content across edge, data centres and Azure. This makes data discoverable, usable and permission-aware inside the file system itself. CTERA Fusion Direct extends this further: Azure customers can use native tools like Microsoft Fabric to access data directly in the Azure Blob backend of the CTERA Intelligent Data Platform. None of this requires changing how your teams work or how you buy: CTERA is available through the Azure Marketplace and counts against your existing Azure Consumption Commitment. Saimon Michelson is vice president of product and alliances at CTERA
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