ARX Cloud Extender

Seamlessly extend your file storage infrastructure to the cloud

Cloud storage offers the potential to reduce the capital and operational costs of managing storage, but deploying it can present you with a new set of concerns. What’s the best way to identify and move the appropriate data to the cloud? How will unpredictable network latency affect data access performance? How will the additional bandwidth costs affect your budget?

F5 ARX Cloud Extender can help your organization maximize the benefits of cloud storage while minimizing costs and addressing the challenges of data access. ARX Cloud Extender is a software solution that works in concert with the automated storage tiering capabilities of F5 ARX file virtualization devices to seamlessly extend the file storage infrastructure from the data center to the cloud.

Easily integrates cloud storage into your existing environment

ARX Cloud Extender is designed to be deployed in conjunction with F5 ARX solutions to seamlessly integrate cloud storage offerings into existing environments. ARX devices virtualize the file storage infrastructure, aggregating the total available capacity into a single virtual pool. With ARX Cloud Extender, that virtual pool includes capacity from both private cloud storage solutions and public cloud storage providers.

Automatically tiers appropriate files to the cloud

ARX Cloud Extender provides you with the ability to automatically and non-disruptively tier appropriate files to the cloud without affecting user or application access to data. Using ARX automated storage tiering policies, individual files can be migrated between different types of storage based on attributes such as file age, type, size, and so forth. This ensures that only appropriate files are moved to the cloud.

Simplifies file access to data in the cloud

Many cloud storage providers deliver storage capacity through application programming interfaces (APIs), making it difficult for enterprises that are used to accessing file data through standard file sharing protocols to use cloud-based storage capacity. ARX Cloud Extender translates file access from CIFS to the relevant API so users and applications can easily access data stored in the cloud in the same manner to which they are accustomed.

Maximizes the cost savings from cloud storage

Cloud storage can offer enterprises significant savings in both capital and operational costs. ARX solutions help maximize those benefits by ensuring that only appropriate files are tiered to the cloud. This often represents the majority of an organization’s storage footprint, which will enable you to reclaim valuable Tier 1 capacity and experience significant reductions in capital expenditures. In addition, ARX automated storage tiering policies reduce the IT overhead and minimize costly business disruptions.