As you’re evaluating global file systems in 2021, you may want to compare Panzura with CTERA.
As always, the features you need will affect the choices you make. In this comparison, we take a look at the ways in which Panzura differs from CTERA and how those differences affect the way your solution will perform in various situations.
| Feature |  |  | Why it Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60-second snapshot sync times for all locations with the cloud object store | Panzura transfers data to the cloud in the form of snapshots. 60-second sync time implies that the RPO is also 60 seconds. | ||
| All locations sync with the cloud object store simultaneously | Panzura’s simultaneous sync results in immediate global data consistency across all locations. CTERA syncs changes to central storage, which local filers check for any updates. | ||
| Honor locking protocol (no write collision) | In the event of simultaneous updates by multiple clients, CTERA automatically creates file versions. This means that if changes need to be reconciled between file versions, a user will need to do this manually. | ||
| Distributed locking | CTERA does not support file locking, which limits the ability of geographically distributed users to work collaboratively. | ||
| Ability to mirror the entire dataset to a secondary cloud object store and failover automatically | Panzura’s cloud mirroring provides uninterrupted access to your data in the cloud(s), with no single point of failure. Prevents accidental deletion of a cloud bucket, allowing for separate security policies. CTERA supports separate storage buckets per tenancy (multi-tenant). | ||
| Provides dedicated High Availability (HA) options on both physical and virtual machines | Dedicated resources to ensure that no single point of failure negatively impacts your environment in the form of file systems going read-only. Global Dedicated HA support may not be available with CTERA without additional software services running. | ||
| Single authoritative data set across your entire organization | Snapshots provide granular ability to restore files, folders or even the whole file system as they were at a given point in time | ||
| Block-level data immutability | Existing data blocks cannot be overwritten in any way, preventing corruption of data and making data impervious to ransomware. | ||
| Immutable architecture and read-only snapshots | CTERA uses Enterprise File Sync and Share tools to create snapshots. This decreases recovery point objectives when compared to traditional backup, but restoring from EFSS snapshots takes significantly longer than restoring from a local snapshot. | ||
| Full support for dark sites (no inbound or outbound connections to/from the domain) | |||
| Military grade (AES256) | Panzura’s military grade (AES256) encryption prevents third-party and malicious actors from accessing your data. CTERA is on the DISA approved product list and CTERA also offers multi-factor and SmartKey encryption. | ||
| FIPS-140-2 certified | |||
| Secure data erasure | Prevents unauthorized retrieval of deleted data. Secure erase with CTERA requires support team intervention. |
