FAQ¶
Frequently Asked Question about CentreStack
General¶
What is CentreStack?¶
CentreStack is Gladinet’s enterprise product. It was called Gladinet Cloud Enterprise in the past. With more and more enterprise companies using the product and shift the company focus into the enterprise solutions, the name CentreStack was chosen to represent the product instead of extending the name from Gladinet.
“CentreStack” packages all of the file sync and share access infrastructure into a package that an Enterprise/MSP can install on-premise, or inside a DMZ to have full control and security protection, with optional native Active Directory integration. You can set any storage (or your own file servers) as the default cloud storage and provide it to your customers.
What can I do with CentreStack?¶
CentreStack Server can be installed on-premise, close to where your storage is. It provide web browser, mobile app, desktop client and different device access methods. There are many ways you will find CentreStack useful. For example, if you have file server storage or SAN storage and want to provide modern cloud-storage-like file sync & share and collaboration interface around it, you can do so.
What problem does CentreStack solve?¶
The biggest problem that CentreStack solve is the data leakage problem the business customers are facing. CIO wants data protection and maintain regulation compliancy while the end users love the simplicity of dropbox and other online service. The solution is to give a dropbox-like solution to the hands of CIO so he can use his own storage services. On one hand, data is stored in a storage service that is secure and meet regulatory compliance. On the other hand, the employees as end users continue to enjoy the convenience the cloud storage solution provides.
How can I get started?¶
CentreStack is a free download with 90-day trial built in. You can click on the free trial link on the CentreStack page to get started. You can also contact enterprise@gladinet.com to get started.
Technical¶
What is the best way to try CentreStack features?¶
The easiest way is to sign up the 14-day Team Edition from www.gladinet.com. Gladinet is hosting the same CentreStack on gladinet.com so you can see the all the end user facing features. The sign up process is 3-5 minutes so it is very quick.
The best way is still to leverage the 90-day free trial for the CentreStack itself directly. Just find a clean Windows 2012 R2 machine and download the 7MB installer and in about 20 minutes, the CentreStack will be up and running.
Usually we recommend you try both. After you are familiar with the features, you can download the CentreStack package and install it yourself. You can compare the self-hosted CentreStack side by side with the Gladinet Cloud (on gladinet.com) and see how it works in your own self-hosted environment.
Can I brand CentreStack into my (company) name?¶
Yes. CentreStack comes with White Labeled web portal and desktop client so it covers most of the branding options. If you need further branding of the iOS app and Android app, full branding option is also available too with the help from Gladinet consulting to customize it for Apple App Store and Google Play store.
What Server OS can be used to install CentreStack?¶
We recommend Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 2012 R2. Any Edition from Web Edition to Data Center Edition will work. If you have both 2008 and 2012 servers, we recommend server 2012 R2 to start with.
Where can I deploy CentreStack?¶
Wherever you can install a Windows Server 2008/2012 R2, you can install CentreStack Server on it. We recommend you install it in a Virtual Machine environment, which makes upgrade and scale out to multiple node easy. Most of the CentreStack customer install the solution inside their own data center and inside VMware environment.
How scalable is CentreStack?¶
CentreStack can be a farm of server nodes, each supporting up to 1000 concurrent users (or 5000 named users) when the server configuration is equivalent to an Amazon EC2 medium instance. If you need to support 10,000 users, you can have 10 CentreStack nodes in your farm. You can use CentreStack’s built-in load balance or you can use a load balancer in the front.
Can I use my own storage with CentreStack?¶
Yes. You can use your own File Server storage, SAN storage, private cloud storage or even public storage.
Can I use Active Directory with CentreStack?¶
Yes. You can connect your Active Directory to CentreStack.
What is the difference between the two package options?¶
CentreStack comes with two package options you can decide at installation time, one for single tenant and one for service provider. The single tenant package is best fit for a single company that has one single Active Directory forest. The service provider package is best for a service provider that needs to serve different companies.
Licensing¶
How is CentreStack Licensed?¶
CentreStack is licensed by the number of users. It has two licensing model. One is monthly recurring and the other is one time perpetual. Contact enterprise@gladinet.com for more details.
Security¶
Could you explain the security aspects of CentreStack?¶
First, it is securing the data infrastructure. CentreStack allows you to self-install and self-deploy the solution. You can fully control where the solution is hosted and where the data is hosted. You control the physical safety and security of your data and the hosting infrastructure.
Second, it is secure during data transition. You will enable SSL and HTTPS and that will be the only data passage data flows from point A to point B.
Third, it is data-at-rest encryption you can enable and turn on by each team/tenant. Each team/tenant can hold a key to a AES256 encryption algorithm, securing your data on a file-by-file basis.