New private cloud option for endpoint back up and protection

I talked with Jaspreet Singh, Co-founder and CEO of Druva, about their release last week of a new private cloud deployment offering for inSync, their unified endpoint data management platform that controls and protects data on devices used by mobile workforces.  
Their new offering is designed specifically for large enterprises, which Jaspreet defined as organizations with 5,000 to 10,000 devices. Druva Private Cloud extends inSync’s endpoint protection capabilities, providing “elasticity, multi-tenancy and flexibility”  -- which customers have come to equate with cloud offerings, with the security, compliance and cost advantages of hosting infrastructure behind the company firewall. So, it can be managed by in-house IT staff or delivered as a managed service by Druva.
The BOYD (bring your own device) movement brings with it the risk of the inadvertent leaking of corporate information, and the use of public file sharing from less-than-secure devices. inSync provides a data management strategy that protects corporate information assets  while providing secure remote file access; as well as an audit trail of all file sharing activity.
According to Singh, the inSync platform integrates:

• Automated backup of laptops, smartphones and tablets
• Secure file sharing  with enterprise-grade security and policy enforcement
• Data loss prevention with data encryption, device geo-tracking and remote data delete
• Full reporting and global search with centralized visibility of all content and file exchange

In Druva’s new private cloud architecture employs a single cloud master which  connects with a number of storage nodes deployed globally. The cloud master acts like a domain controller to authenticate and manage all of the devices across the enterprise. It also directs the client to the appropriate storage node for backup.

The cloud master can be configured as a cluster and has the ability to talk to multiple storage nodes, backing up data redundantly to two storage nodes – with each storage node managing a different key space. Each storage node is configured to store backed-up data on the enterprise’s DAS or SAN for protection.
Druva Private Cloud has been tested successfully by organizations with up to 20,000 endpoints and is now in general release.
“Larger enterprises with thousands of devices and users have been asking for a private cloud alternative that is as scalable, secure, manageable and elastic as Druva’s public cloud solution,” said Singh. “Now they can leverage the power of the cloud in an on-premise, centrally managed environment that scales with their needs while avoiding the complications of deploying separate instances in different departments and geographies.”
Druva started with backup, and is now going deeper and deeper into data management and protection. With a strong foundation around de-duplication, they have been able to dramatically reduce data transfer rates.
Consistency issues forced them to build their own NoSQL solution after encountering, ACID (specifically, consistency) issues with Cassandra. Singh  said that the NoSQL based de-duplication index is what really helped them to scale their offering.
Singh believes that Mobile Device Management (MDM) is an approach to endpoint device protection, but it is not really a solution. If the data could be controlled and secured -- who can view the data, on what device, and when -- that would really be a game changer.
Let's start a conversation. Let me know what you think.