Nasuni designed the Filer so that we can be completely removed from the data path. Our customers’ encrypted files move directly to and from the cloud, without passing through our servers, which translates to better security and performance.
Yet the Filer does call home to Nasuni.com on a regular basis. We will talk about this more in upcoming posts, but one of the primary reasons for this communication is our alert system. Basically, the Filer calls Nasuni.com when something goes wrong.
If an error occurs, the Filer proactively sends a message through our API that includes some basic information. Once it arrives at Nasuni.com, our system analyzes the information and sends emails to the relevant team—support, quality assurance, developers—depending on the nature of the error message. Naturally, we never include any customer data or metadata in the alerts. The security of customer data is paramount. But even this very basic information can be enough for us to debug the problem. Otherwise, we will reach out to our customers to find out more.
These alerts are automated, so that Nasuni can respond quickly, but customers can initiate the process themselves. In the Filer’s user interface, customers can click a button that alerts Nasuni. When the customer initiates the message, the Filer sends more information than we would receive automatically. Even in this case we do not receive customer data, but we do receive logs that might contain file names.
The public beta version of the Filer has been in the field for nearly a month, and has performed very well, but of course there are always minor issues. In fact, the system has already allowed us to address one. In this case, it was a problem we were already working on. An alert came in through Nasuni.com and our support team promptly called the relevant customer and informed them that we have a patch coming out shortly that will fix the issue.
The Nasuni alert system allows us to solve problems in their infancy, improving the Filer in the field. But it also helps us deliver the best possible customer experience.