File Server Offline Access

Do you have field technicians who need to work from trailers where Wi-Fi is sporadic?
Do you have employees who need to go to customer facilities without Internet access?
And do they need to access documents on the company file server at the same time?

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Story 1 - Field Engineers Access Company File Server

Many companies have field employees who work in different cities and at different workstations. To access the company's file servers, they typically resort to either VPN or RDP. However, both VPN and RDP require stable active VPN connections. If worksites do not have good Internet connectivity, on-site employees may not be able to access files and folders over a VPN. In this case, employees will ask their colleagues at headquarters to somehow send them a copy of the file.

field engineer accessing company files

The ad hoc method of sending files to field workers is likely to be to email attachments to field workers working from workstation attachments. From the CIOs' perspective, this is neither efficient nor productive.

A better way is to store an "offline favorites" folder on employees' remote desktops or laptops. The offline folder can retrieve all changed files in advance, then store all changed files locally on the remote device and synchronize the files back to the company's file servers when the Internet connection is good.

Story 2 - Accessing Company File Servers from the customer's location.

You may have employees who need to go to the customer's premises, buildings and work locations to get their work done. There is no guest internet connection at the client's premises for security or other compliance reasons. Often, employees would have to sync files and folders (e.g., building drawings) the night before at the hotel before going to the client's premises the next day. This process is inefficient and could be disrupted if the hotel does not allow VPN tunnels over the hotel's Wi-Fi system.

Other solutions such as Dropbox, OneDrive or even Windows Offline Folder can help, but each has its problems. Solutions like Dropbox and OneDrive require removing files and folders from the company's file servers. This creates duplicate data silos: some data is on the file server, some is in the online services. Windows Offline Folder also has its problems, as it is almost obsolete and has to give way to OneDrive and SharePoint.

You need to keep data on file servers and provide an offline folder for external employees.

Requirement - You have to keep data on file servers

The need to store data on current file servers can be due to several reasons. It could be application compatibility, so you have some specific applications that need to run on file servers. It could be data protection and control requirements, or it's simply cheaper to run file servers in an on-premises virtualized environment than in the cloud. So the offline folder features that are introduced need to work directly with the file servers without transferring data to other online storage services.

  • Unified Data Management - Your file servers are still the best shared playground for your business applications. You have an independent workload that uses different cloud storage solutions, resulting in data being stored in separate silos. It's time to consolidate data onto a single platform.
  • Eliminate reliance on VPN and RDP - VPN and RDP are traditional methods for accessing file server data. However, they also require constant and active connections back to the corporate firewall for the access method to work. One of the requirements is to be able to remove these dependencies. Offline folders provide the ability to access network shares from file servers via a web protocol (e.g., HTTPS) without requiring concurrent active connections to a corporate firewall.
  • Centralized Mobility - Employees demand mobility when working from home or remote locations. At first glance, cloud-based solutions for synchronizing and sharing files look promising. However, over time, some business applications have been left behind on the company's file servers. The company faces the situation that mobility means different tools for different workloads. It is better to consolidate mobility into a centralized data platform.

Triofox Solution

With the Gladinet Triofox solution, the cloud file access solution is interoperable with existing file server network shares and provides offline folder capabilities. It has integration with Active Directory, cloud drive mapping, global file locking and NTFS permission control. These native integrations make the file sharing solution an extension of the current file server rather than another data silo that takes away data.

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Mapped Drive

A mapped drive over the HTTPS channel to the corporate file server is an important feature. Employees are familiar with a mapped drive and no additional training is required.

Active Directory

Enterprise users already have enterprise identities in Active Directory and the associated Active Directory federated service and SAML single sign-on. They do not need additional credentials to access a file sharing solution.

File Locking

Most file sharing solutions provide manual file locking in the form of "check in" and "check out". Triofox provides automatic file locking by detecting requests to open files. When Microsoft Word opens a file, file locking is automatically initiated and automatically terminated when file processing is complete.

File Permissions

Finally, integration with Active Directory and NTFS permissions makes it easier for system administrators to set up permission control. The permissions features set Gladinet's solution apart from the competition.

Usability

Easy Deployment
Triofox is easy to install on a clean Windows Server. You can enable remote file server access without VPN in an hour without data migration.

Familiar User Experience
SharePoint is challenging as a file server migration destination. Triofox provides a mapped drive over HTTPS for simplified access from anywhere.

No Additional Training Required
Triofox's drive-based access requires no training. Right-click to share or request file transfers.

Simplify Management
Triofox is much simpler to manage with auditing, reporting and policy-based administration.

Security

Data Privacy
Businesses can address data privacy concerns by providing access to internal file servers. Triofox offers the unique option of cloud-enabling existing file servers to replace cloud file sharing.

Data Security
Files are secured at rest and in transit with military grade encryption and secure connections. Save setup time and money by automatically using existing users and permissions.

Maintain Compliance
Centrally manage users, access controls, and storage for each tenant. Admins can perform audits of GDPR and HIPAA compliance or keep track of any changes that have been made to individual files.

Data Remains of your Local File Servers
Unlike SharePoint, which require you to upload your confidential data, Triofox leaves all shared files on your file servers intact. Triofox keeps data in one place for both file server shares and cloud file sharing instead of allowing data to scatter.

Control

Remote and Mobile Access
Simplify remote access to file shares with familiar instances on any computer or device. Windows and Mac desktops display natively mapped drives in Explorer and Finder. The same experience is presented on iOS and Android devices, as well as popular web browsers.

Simplified Management
Centrally manage users, access, controls, and storage for each tenant. Admins can perform audits of GDPR and HIPAA compliance or keep track of any changes that have been made to individual files.

Folder Permissions Management
For complete control and visibility, permissions can be managed from the source file server or natively with Triofox.

Hybrid Deployments
With Triofox, data saved to file shares is replicated to the cloud and vice versa, to ensure business continuity with hybrid deployments.

Efficiency

Simplified Collaboration
Work with business partners by providing them with access to a limited set of internal files or folders. Share files with non Active Directory users while maintaining administrative controls. Simplify multi-site collaboration with automatic version controls and file locking.

Increase Productivity
Provide a mapped drive that works anywhere on any device and allows mobile users to easily access internal file shares or cloud file servers.

On-Demand Synchronization
Mapped drives display directory structure but delay downloads until a file is used to reduce bandwidth usage and endpoint storage consumption.

Change Notification
With Triofox, you can receive automatic alerts that help keep track of all changes in the system.

Reduce Cost

Reduce Costs with a simple VPN Alternative
Eliminate the overhead and support tickets commonly associated with VPN file sharing, Always On VPN or Direct Access. Automatically use existing users and permissions to save setup time and money.

White Labeled File Sharing Solution
Triofox provides a white labeled platform that makes it easy for MSP partners to build a private cloud file server solution based on infrastructure from Amazon, or Microsoft Azure.

On-Premises Alternative to Dropbox and SharePoint
Triofox has the flexibility to provide an on-premises alternative to Dropbox and SharePoint using existing file servers.

Cloud Power + Web Simplicity + File Server Security.

Triofox is a web server that accepts file requests from client agents over the HTTPS/SSL protocol. These requests are then translated into Active Directory and File Server network share access protected by NTFS permissions. When all permission checks have passed, the file is sent back via HTTPS/SSL to the client agents. Triofox uses this approach to combine the power of a mapped drive with the simplicity of web browsing and the security of a VPN!

1. Triofox Web Server

Triofox creates a web server front end accepting client agent requests from remote Windows, Mac, web browser, iOS and Android devices. Client agents provide drive mapping functionality.

2. Agents Send File Requests

Client agents send HTTPS/SSL requests to the Triofox server. Triofox server can log the requests for auditing purposes and also coordinate the file access and sharing demands.

3. Active Directory Integration

Active Directory and NTFS permissions are used to check whether the file requests are allowed. After that, file requests are satisfied and returned via HTTPS/SSL to client agents.

BENEFITS

Mobile File Share Access

Easily collaborate with business partners by providing them with mobile access to a limited set of internal files or folders. Share files with non-AD users while maintaining administrative controls. Simplify multi-site collaboration by consolidating multiple file shares for mobile access.

Mobile Access to File Servers

Simplify mobile access to file shares with familiar interfaces on any computer or device. Windows and Mac desktops display natively mapped drives in Explorer and Finder. That same experience is presented on iOS and Android devices like iPads, iPhones and Pixels or can be viewed from popular web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

Reduce Costs with a simple VPN Alternative

Eliminate the overhead and support tickets commonly associated with VPN file sharing, Always On VPN or Direct Access. Automatically use existing users and permissions to save setup time and money.

Enhance Data Security

Files are secured at rest and in transit with military-grade encryption, secure connections and more. Automatically use existing users and permissions to save setup time and money.

Centrally Manage Granular Folder Permissions

For complete control and visibility, permissions can be managed from the file server that was their source or natively redefined from scratch.

On-Demand Synchronization

Remotely mapped drives display directory structure but delayed downloads until a file is used to reduce bandwidth usage and endpoint storage consumption.

Guarantee Data Privacy

Businesses can address data privacy concerns by using Gladinet to provide access to internal file servers. It’s common to talk about replacing existing file servers with cloud solutions to reduce costs and administrative overhead, and Gladinet can facilitate that in any private cloud, but Gladinet offers the unique option of using existing file servers to service mobile file sharing!

Centralized Mobility

Companies don't have to use a different cloud file sharing solution while at the same time keeping the corporate file servers. The current file server infrastructure becomes the mobile file access and file sharing platform.

Increase Productivity

Provide an always-on mapped drive that works anywhere on any device and allows mobile users to easily access internal file shares or cloud file servers and share files and folders over the Internet.

On-Premises Alternative to Dropbox and SharePoint

Triofox has the flexibility to provide an on-premises alternative to Dropbox and SharePoint using existing file servers.

Simplify Management

Centrally manage users, access controls, and storage for each employee. Easily keep track of where the data is, who has access and how it’s being shared.

Maintain Compliance

Centrally manage users, access controls, and storage for each tenant. Admins can perform audits of GDPR and HIPAA compliance or keep track of any changes that have been made to individual files.

Increase the productivity of your mobile workforce!

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