VPN-less Access to Amazon S3 File Gateway

When employees work from home and remote locations, it is pretty cumbersome to use a VPN to connect to the corporate network. They may not have a choice when the Amazon S3 File Gateway is sitting inside the corporate network. However, Amazon S3 itself is out there in the Cloud. If a solution can connect to the same Amazon S3 bucket as the File Gateway and provide a SharePoint-like or a OneDrive-like interface, employees outside of the corporate firewall can access directly without a VPN.

A Story - Businesses using S3 File Gateway 

A private investment firm has on-premise file servers and was running out of space on the file servers. They deployed AWS S3 File Gateway as an on-premise virtual appliance and moved files off the file servers and into the File Gateway appliance. Right now, they have moved 2TB into the AWS out of the total 8TB data set. The primary user group in the company is the marketing department. Since pandemics, most of them work from home and use client VPN to connect back to the corporate network to access the S3 File Gateway appliance. They also need to share and receive files from external business partners and clients. The S3 File Gateway hosts a mix of office documents, Adobe Photoshop files, pictures, and videos.

A few pain points and requirements were identified.

  • No Easy Way to Access the S3 File Gateway - When they are outside of the office, they don't have an easy way unless they use a VPN to connect to the office network and then mount a drive letter from the S3 File Gateway. Amazon S3 is already out there in the Cloud, and they still have to tunnel back to the office for access.
  • No Easy Way to Share with External Parties - Marketing departments need to share with external vendors, partners, and clients. However, a standard workflow to share files is still using a VPN to tunnel back to the office network and then email attachments to email files out.
There are many S3 access tools, including Cloudberrylab S3 Explorer, ExpanDrive, TntDrive, and CyberDuck. However, these S3 direct-access tools didn't meet the company requirement for two reasons. First is the ability to integrate with Company's Active Directory infrastructure and the SAML single-sign-on. Second is the ability to do cloud file sharing with auditing and history. The company is looking for a "File Server" solution instead of a USB drive tool as an analogy.  

They were looking for a SharePoint-like solution for Amazon S3

GIVE ME A REMOTE S3 DRIVE OUTSIDE THE OFFICE TOO!

Want to add these to S3 File Gateway?

Cloud Mapped Drive

Amazon S3 has a web interface in aws.amazon.com that can facilitate the easy upload and download of files. However, having a local s3 drive letter with s3 bucket contents mapped to Windows explorer will make using files inside S3.

Web Link Sharing 

The solution is adding Active Directory users to share files and folders within Amazon S3 by turning folders into online shared folders.

Mobile Applications

Make files and folders sitting inside Amazon S3 following you and always be available at your fingertips from iOS and Android devices.

MOBILE FILE SHARING FEATURES ADDED TO AWS S3 FILE GATEWAY

Co-Editing

Triofox integrates with Office 365 for web-based co-editing and co-authoring for files inside the shared folder.

Large Folder

Use Outlook integration to share large folders or files as web links via email.

Link Sharing

Convert shared files and shared folders into web links for direct access over web browsers.

Link Receiving

Request files from partners, clients and external parties using web links.

SECURE FILE SHARING FEATURES ADDED TO AWS S3

Folder Permissions

Define different permissions for folders at different levels of the directory structure or inherit from NTFS permissions directly.

Secure Data Room

Web-based secure data room allows view-only access to shared folders with download disabled.

User Rights

You can define user rights for folder sharing from internal Active Directory users to external clients and partners.

Version Control

Shared folders are under version control, and notifications are available for users subscribed to the folders.

Share files with co-workers, customers, and partners

Sending emails with several attachments was a norm over the years when sending files to co-workers or business partners. However, share a folder was never easy with email attachments. Sharing large files was impossible and blocked by email services. When S3 File Gateway was an on-premise solution without file sharing capability, the native Amazon S3 behind the S3 File Gateway is much easier to share files and folders over the Internet since every file and folder has a default "web link" representation. AWS S3 has the building blocks for file sharing, and the S3 storage by default is enterprise-ready. All we need is a solution into a friendly, easy-to-use, and yet a secure file-sharing solution.

check out the incredible Triofox solution

Turn S3 File Gateway into a SharePoint-like Service

When users are outside the office, they will not need to use a VPN to tunnel back to the office network again. They can use the S3 bucket directly via Triofox and Triofox turned the S3 bucket underneath into a SharePoint-like Service. When users are back at the office, they can continue to use the S3 File Gateway, so any Windows workload on-premise stays the same as before!

Remote Access

Combines on-premise file servers and Amazon S3 for secure remote access without the need to use a VPN.

Mobile Application

It leverages Amazon S3 as a central cloud file repository with version control, file change history, audit tracing, and mobile applications on iOS and Android.

Web Sharing

It uses Amazon S3 storage in the Cloud for secure mobile file sharing from a web browser or mobile applications.

VPN-less Access

Since Amazon S3 is already in the cloud, accessing the same content as the S3 file gateway doesn't have to go through a VPN to loop back to the corporate network.

TRIOFOX AS YOUR OUT OF OFFICE CLOUD FILE SERVER , WHILE S3 FILE GATEWAY FOR YOUR ON-PREMISE WINDOWS WORKLOAD

Benefits 

Amazon S3 is the most supported cloud storage service with many technology partners providing S3-integrated solutions for primary storage, backup and restore, archive, and disaster recovery. With industry-leading performance, scalability, availability, and durability, it is widely used for businesses.

Triofox provides a unique cloud file server solution that integrates Active Directory, NTFS permissions, remote mapped drive, and file locking features into Amazon S3 cloud storage services. The result is a single solution that inherits both security features from existing IT infrastructure and mobility and durability from the Cloud (Amazon S3).

Simplify remote access to file servers from mobile devices, PCs, Macs and browsers with a mapped drive and without a VPN
MOBILE ACCESS
Reduce server replacement costs. Eliminate management costs of servers and VPNs. Create business continuity solution with S3
REDUCE COSTS
Avoid the headaches of data sets split between internal file servers and cloud solutions like Dropbox or Box.
DATA UNIFICATION
Avoid the cost of manual files and folders replication or recreation of NTFS permissions. Inherits Active Directory and permissions.
PERMISSION CONTROL
Avoid the management headaches of cross site replication and simplify collaboration with remote offices. Unify multi-office data with S3.
MULTIPLE OFFICES
Eliminate threats from de-centralized security and personal Dropbox and other 3rd party accounts. Consolidate file structures into S3.
ENHANCED SECURITY

Ready to boost mobile productivity and enable the workforce to better work from home today?