Signiant Launches SkyDrop Hybrid SaaS Solution to Accelerate Movement of Large Data Sets Into and Out of Cloud Storage

SOURCE: Signiant

BURLINGTON, MA – April 3, 2014 – Signiant, the market leader in intelligent file movement, today announced a significant extension of the company’s cloud portfolio with the introduction of Signiant SkyDrop – the first and only commercially available hybrid SaaS solution that accelerates the movement of big data and professional media files into and out of Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure cloud storage. Unlike other acceleration offerings, Signiant SkyDrop is a genuine cloud-formed solution that leverages managed cloud infrastructure, in contrast to software that customers must deploy and manage.

Signiant SkyDrop offers high transfer speed, low operational overhead and scalability that enterprises need to move even the largest data sets – 100 gigabytes and beyond – into and out of cloud storage.  Workflows that require fast exchange of files to and from cloud storage, including active archiving, media processing and big data analysis, can now be implemented much more easily and cost-effectively.

Utilizing the same hybrid SaaS platform as the company’s award-winning Media Shuttle product, Signiant SkyDrop customers benefit from a cloud-connected architecture that provides rapid access to innovation and minimizes the burden of software management tasks associated with deployment, ongoing monitoring and upgrades.  Signiant SkyDrop takes the Company’s commitment to cloud-formed solutions one step further.  The cloud virtual machine resources (compute) and software required for a highly-available, high-speed storage connection are operated by Signiant as a fully managed service, only requiring customers to simply install light-weight local client software and connect to their cloud storage tenancy.  The offering will be available for both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Windows Azure.

“The cloud is transforming how companies in media & entertainment and a wide variety of other industries are doing business – and now they need an easier, faster and more reliable way to move bit data into and out of cloud environments,” said Rick Clarkson, VP of Product Management at Signiant. “They need immediate access to data and often don’t have the resources or expertise to configure and manage a cloud infrastructure. Signiant SkyDrop helps solves these problems, ensuring enterprises have the scalability, flexibility, security and control they need.”

Signiant SkyDrop offers a variety of business benefits:

– Speed – Signiant’s patented technology provides transfer speeds that are up to 200 times faster than standard HTTP-based access, enabling time-critical workflows and reducing on-premises storage requirements while the content waits for upload to the cloud.

– Low operating cost  – As a hybrid SaaS solution with managed cloud infrastructure, Signiant SkyDrop minimizes both technical support resource requirements and direct cloud compute costs.

– Scalability and reliability – SkyDrop autoscales during high-volume transfer cycles to maintain performance, and is fully redundant and load balanced for reliability.

– Seamless integration – Signiant SkyDrop provides developers with a choice of tools to make integration easy.

Signiant’s solutions are used by most of the world’s top broadcasters, studios, media service providers, sports networks and game developers to facilitate the secure movement of large media files – from pre-production content and mobile news to finished-format movies, trailers and TV episodics – between users, applications and systems.  The company’s leadership in the cloud era has enabled new use cases and innovative new delivery methods; all built on a foundation of advanced technology that has long been trusted in mission-critical applications.

About Signiant

Signiant’s intelligent file movement software helps the world’s top content creators and distributors ensure fast, secure delivery of large files over public and private networks.  Built on Signiant’s patented technology, the company’s on-premises software and SaaS solutions move petabytes of high-value data every day between users, applications and systems with proven ease.  www.signiant.com