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We know what’s next for the data and storage industry. And no, we didn’t ask some two-bit carnival fortune teller with a crystal ball and a vivid imagination. We know what’s next because we’re helping write the future in the clouds. Literally.

What once made sense for enterprise users at the largest scale now works for any user at any scale. Cloud storage has turned the data management concerns that used to keep entire IT departments running ragged into the nightmares of everyday entrepreneurs and small business owners. Compliance. Scalability. Accessibility. They matter at every level. But that doesn’t mean every small business owner is up to speed. The local florist knows flowers. She doesn’t know how to properly implement cloud architecture for her little corner flower shop. Nor should she.

Navigating the plethora of options in the growing cloud infrastructure isn’t going to get simpler.

The compliance and security landscape isn’t getting any easier to navigate, either.

Criminals didn’t suddenly stop coming up with new ways to torture users or exploit our data management strategies. Governments aren’t going to wake up tomorrow and agree on a universal baseline for compliance.

Understanding where your data lives, how you access it, what secures it from loss or harm, and what it’s costing you are fundamental principles that any business owner should be able to understand.

That’s why Panzura decided to bring the future of cloud data management into the present and solve those problems for our users today. These immediate challenges are becoming non-negotiables in future cloud migrations, and they serve as the focus of our efforts to drive innovation.

Non-negotiable #1: Critical workload implementation

Everyone wants to migrate their critical workloads into the cloud without changing applications or workflows. They want the benefits of cloud computing without the hassle of disrupting their existing day-to-day functionality. Regardless of geography, they want seamless movement between on-premises storage and their cloud nodes. Panzura provides just that via our CloudFS file system.

Likewise, scalability and flexibility have become expected. That’s the price of admission today, your ticket to ride. Cloud platforms, by nature, scale resources based on demand, which is why everyone with the slightest variation in their workloads sees the light and wants on the cloud. Why pay for more infrastructure than you need?

Panzura’s CloudFS platform natively integrates with every major cloud provider on the market today. In fact, if you already have AWS S3 object storage, you can add Panzura directly from Amazon’s integrated marketplace. We’re tight like that.

And, whether you’re looking at S3 Standard levels of storage access or you’re more of a Deep Glacier kind of customer, we’re designed to maximize your storage efficiency and availability.

Beyond the inherent cost and resource savings of cloud architecture, many small-to-medium businesses are also seeing the incredible ecosystem of services and applications that can be integrated into their existing systems and starting to realize the immense power of cloud computing.

Of course, AI-powered analytics are likely the most influential driver of cloud adoption. Business intelligence is the new black, and sexy as can be. Panzura’s CloudFS makes real insights effortless despite the flood of ever-growing data being stored each day.

You can search in real-time across nodes with near-instant results. You can leverage adaptive dashboards that show the specific information you need to understand latency, identify abnormal workflows, and pinpoint problems before they erupt.

Non-negotiable #2: Security & compliance you can trust

Cybercriminals are smooth, no doubt. If only they’d use all that intellect for good instead of evil … but alas, ransomware is a widespread plague in today’s business landscape. Can you afford to go three weeks without your data while paying a ransom on top of it? Not likely.

Instead of piling on the OpEx bill with a dedicated ransomware defense suite, Panzura simply makes your data immune to ransomware. It’s immutable data. Game over, ransomware.

If your data is subject to attack, we help you identify it faster (due to our next-level analytics capabilities) and restore everything affected in an instant. Using object storage allows us to snapshot every piece of data as 1s and 0s instead of discrete file types. This means when you discover a block of files suddenly locked under a password, you don’t have to freak out. You simply restore to the most recent snapshot that isn’t mysteriously password-protected and move on with your life. Meanwhile, your IT team can jump in behind the scenes, sanitize the affected node, and restore any additional data they find has been compromised. It’s like it never happened.

If you’re in a multi-cloud environment, it doesn’t matter. It still works. Because of our cloud mirroring capabilities, we can write from the CloudFS edge to both clouds and still provide the same data reliability and availability.

The Future is Immutable

Ultimately, the future of cloud storage and data management is immutable data.

Object storage creates immutable data by design. Once the data is written, it’s never deleted or modified. It’s safe from cybercriminals and careless employees alike. Panzura CloudFS natively manages your read-write access across global nodes with latency speeds that look like local performance — mere milliseconds. Plus, our audit trails and AI analytics are better (and faster) than anyone’s expectations today.

Panzura is already living in the future because we’re creating it.

Of course, it also helps that our encryption is military-grade. If you’re in a highly sensitive industry like government, military, or healthcare, we’ve got your compliance standards covered. If you’re doing business in especially strenuous global markets with high expectations for audits and accountability, we’re already ahead of you.