Solving the problem of distance and latency

LucidLink solves the problem of distance and latency in cloud environments by reducing the traffic between applications and remote storage. By dramatically boosting responsiveness we enable file data to be delivered efficiently and streamed on-demand. Performance is further optimized by sophisticated data prefetching based on a proprietary, adaptive algorithm; parallel TCP streams; local write-back caching; and in-line compression.

Additionally, we offer advanced file capabilities like direct read/write access from the cloud, automatic snapshots, user access control, and global file locking.

Filespaces Architecture

Global File System

• LucidLink ClientMount S3 as drive, encrypts and streams files on demand
• Object Storage Any S3 compliant or Azure storage, bring your own or LucidLink provisioned
• LucidLink Service Manages metadata coordination, snapshots, locking and garbage collection

Architectural Overview.pdf

How do we compare to existing technologies?

File Sync & Share

File synchronization is another term for automatic file copying, which was a clever way to overcome the past’s unreliable and intermittent connections. These technologies replicate and synchronize files to present what looks like a distributed file system, one that requires complete replicas on all participating nodes. Due to this constant replication, file synchronization puts significant demands on network and storage resources. File synchronization has thus limited its applicability to smaller data sets typically in the GB to low TB range.

LucidLink – No synchronization, streams on-demand

LucidLink does away with synchronization and streams data on-demand directly from the cloud as needed by the application. The single source of truth is kept in the cloud. Frequently accessed data is cached locally to deliver the best of both worlds in terms of performance and flexibility when accessing TB to PB range volumes.

Cloud Storage Gateways

LucidLink – No gateways required, streams to the object-store

LucidLink eliminates the need for gateways, as it streams data directly from and to the underlying object-store. It untethers computing devices from their location and allows the same uniform experience, whether in or outside the office, on-premise or in the cloud.

LucidLink’s SaaS, cloud-first approach significantly expands the use cases for cloud file systems, provides much better integration with the host operating system, and eliminates CAPEX.

A Modern Approach to Global File System Design

LucidLink has reimagined the file system built for the cloud to provide a truly innovative alternative to today’s prevailing architectures. Engineered for enterprises seeking a scalable, reliable file service with best-in-class security and zero operational overhead, LucidLink revolutionizes the use of object storage for modern cloud-computing environments by transforming the cloud into a local storage tier.

Key Features

Direct read/write access

from the cloud

Desktop and server applications can read or write portions of large files without the need to download or upload them in their entirety from the object-store.

Data streamed on-demand

Data bits are streamed on-demand to and from the cloud. Using NLE tools like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve workflows can remain the same since data in the cloud is accessed no differently than on a local disk.

Automatic Snapshots

Zero overhead

LucidLink is based on an advanced log-structured design, which allows the entire Filespace to be instantly preserved at any point in time without incurring any performance overhead.

Restore prior versions

These snapshots allow users to restore prior versions of either individual files or revert the entire Filespace to an earlier point. In addition, snapshots do not require a complete copy of all the data, but only what’s changed between two snapshots, resulting in very efficient space utilization.

Scheduling

Snapshot scheduling can be done in increments of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and/or years with retention for each tier individually configured.

Ransomware protection

Since the snapshots are read-only, they become one’s last line of defense against ransomware-type attacks. Even if companies have implemented seemingly rock-solid backup and DR plans, the ransomware encryption of all backup data has placed many organizations in the situation of having to pay a significant ransom to get their data back.

User access control

Easily shared

Filespaces can be easily shared across a large number of connected devices or users. Multiple users can concurrently access the same Filespace with each user having specific read-only, read-write, or no access at all to individual folders.

Fully encrypted

All data is encrypted at AES 256 inflight and at rest. Each Filespace entry has its own encryption key. Users have guaranteed access only to folders shared with them and cannot decrypt other parts of the Filespace. User access control is truly agnostic to the OS in where the same user permissions are equivalent across Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Global file locking

LucidLink’s global file locking gives applications the native support required for serializing access across multiple users. Teams can concurrently collaborate on shared projects, in the cloud from any location. Architects collaborating on a shared Autodesk Revit model can now work seamlessly as if they are collocated, without sacrificing performance.

Persistent caching and prefetching

LucidLink utilizes the local storage on each device to cache the most frequently accessed data and employs sophisticated prefetching techniques to dramatically improve the overall performance when accessing data remotely. Not to be confused with similar technologies that download entire files into a cache area, LucidLink only uses the cache for frequently accessed bits of data, not entire files.