I am working on Citrix ShareFile NetApp Insight presentation. NetApp Insight will be in  Las Vegas from Oct 7 to 9. If you have a chance to attend, please come to my sessions: XenDesktop 7 best practice and design, and Citrix ShareFile for Enterprise mobility or find me at virtualization ask expert booth.

Citrix ShareFile Enterprise is a follow-me data solution that meets the mobility and collaboration needs of all users while allowing IT to manage and store data wherever they want.

The ShareFile product architecture consists of two key components: The  ShareFile.com Control Plane, and Citrix-managed or customer-managed StorageZones. The client device can request access to the follow-me data service.

The Control Plane performs functions such as user authentication, access control,
reporting and all other brokering functions. The Control Plane is hosted in Citrix
datacenters and managed by Citrix as a service. Customers can choose between
the US Control Plane or the European Control Plane to address performance and
compliance requirements.

Citrix ShareFile StorageZones allows customers to manage their data on the premises or in the cloud. Previously, with a similar architecture, Citrix ShareFile supported only Citrix-managed StorageZones, providing a pure cloud offering hosted on Amazon EC2 or Microsoft Windows Azure. These cloud offerings can also be combined with customer-managed StorageZones to provide a hybrid architecture.

This hybrid model illustrated in Figure below provides customers with the flexibility to leverage cloud or on-premises deployments depending on their compliance and performance requirements.

ShareFile storagezone has two options: Native ShareFile Data and existing storage repository.  The existing storage repository needs ShareFile StorageZone connectors. StorageZones Connectors are available for ShareFile Enterprise. StorageZones Connectors are also provided with the XenMobile Enterprise, MDM, and App Editions.

StorageZones Connectors allow ShareFile remote users to securely access documents and folders stored in SharePoint document libraries and on network file shares. A StorageZones Connector is embedded on a StorageZones Controller and integrates with the on-premises StorageZones.

Next blog, I will talk about ShareFile solution architecture including proof of concept and production design.