GreyBeards had an amazing discussion with Peter Thompson (@Lucid_Link), CEO & co-founder and George Dochev (@GDochev), CTO & co-founder of LucidLink. Both Peter and George were very knowledgeable and easy to talk with.
LucidLink’s Cloud NAS creates a NAS storage system out of cloud (any S3 compatible AND Azure Blob) object storage. LucidLink is made up of client software, LucidLink SaaS (metadata service) and data on object storage. Their client software runs on any Linux, MacOS, or Windows desktop/laptop. LucidLink provides streaming, collaborative access to remote users for (file) data on object storage.
Just when 90% of the workforce was sent home for the pandemic, LucidLink emerged to provide all those users secure file access to any and all corporate data in the cloud. Peter mentioned one M&E customer who had just sent 300 video editors home with laptops and a disk drive which would last them all of 2 weeks. But they needed an ongoing solution for after that. The customer started with 300 users and ~100TB of file storage on LucidLink and a few months later, they had 1000 users with a PB+ of LucidLink data and was getting rid of all their NAS boxes. Listen to the podcast to learn more.
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They are finding a lot of success in M&E, engineering design, Oil&Gas exploration, geo-spatial design firms and just about anywhere user collaboration on file data is required outside al data center.
LucidLink constructs a FileSpace for customer file (object) data, which represents a drive letter or mount point that remote users can use to access files from the cloud. LucidLink supports a POSIX compliant file service for that data.
LucidLink data and user generated metadata is encrypted, using client owned/stored keys. So, data-at-rest (and -in-flight) can always be secure. They also support LDAP security and other standard SSO solutions to secure user access to data.
The LucidLink SaaS (metadata) service runs in a hyperscaler and links clients to file data on object storage. It also supports user distributed, byte range locking of file data.
One interesting nuance is that when a client locks a file, the system changes from an eventual to strongly consistent POSIX compliant file system. This ensures that the object storage is always the single source of truth.
The key that differentiates LucidLink from cloud gateways or file synch & share systems is that they 1) are not intended to operate in a data center, (yes, object storage can be located on prem but users are remote) and 2) don’t copy files from one user/access point to another.
George said latency is enemy number one. LucidLink’s secret is prefetching. Each client uses a customer configured local persistent cache which can range from 5GB to a TB or more. LucidLink maintains a data and (in the next version) metadata working set for the user in their local cache.
Customer file data is split across multiple objects, that way LucidLink can stream data from all of them, in parallel, if needed. And doing so can supply extreme throughput when needed.
As for GDPR and data compliance, the customer controls who has access to the LucidLink SaaS as well as encryption keys.
LucidLink considers their solution “fault tolerant” or DR ready, because customers can load client software on any device and access any LucidLink file data. They also consider themselves “highly available” because their metadata/LucidLink SaaS service runs in a hyper scaler and object backing storage can be configured as highly available.
As mentioned earlier, LucidLink customers can use any S3 compatible or Azure Blob object storage, on prem or in the cloud. But when using cloud object storage, one pays egress charges. LucidLink’s local caching can minimize but cannot eliminate egress charges.
LucidLink offers two licensing models: 1) a BYO (bring your own) object storage and LucidLink provides the software to support your Cloud NAS or 2) LucidLink supplies both the object storage as well as the LucidLink service that glues it all together. The later is a combination of IBM COS and LucidLink that offers less expensive egress charges.
The LucidLink service is billed on capacity under management and user count basis. Capacity is billed on a GB/day, summed over a month. Their minimum solution is 5TB/5 users but they have customers with 1000s of users and PB+ of data. They offer a free 2-week trial period where customers can try LucidLink out.
Peter Thompson, CEO and Co-founder
Peter Thompson, co-founder, and CEO of LucidLink is a passionate and experienced leader and business builder. Thompson has over 30 years of experience in driving business expansion, key programs, and partnerships across regions such as APAC and the Americas mostly in the storage and file system market.
With over 14 years at DataCore Software, most recently as VP of Emerging and Developing Markets, Thompson drove DataCore’s expansion into China working with key industry partners, technology alliances and global teams to develop programs and business focused on emerging markets. Thompson also held the role of Managing Director, APAC responsible for the bottom-line of all Asia operations. He also was President and Representative Director of DataCore Japan, acquiring the majority of ownership and running it as a standalone entity as a beachhead of marquis customers in Japan.
Thompson studied Japanese, history, and economics at Kansai Gaidai and has a BA in International Management, Psychology, Japanese, from Gustavus Adolphus College, is a graduate of Stanford University Business School’s MSx program, with a focus on entrepreneurial finance, design thinking, and the soft skills required to build and lead world-class, high performing teams.
George Dochev, CTO and Co-Founder
George Dochev, co-founder and CTO of LucidLink, is a storage and file system expert with extensive experience in bringing emerging technologies to market. Dochev has over 20 years of success leading the development of complex virtualization products for the storage industry. He specializes in research and development in the fields of high-performance distributed systems, storage infrastructure software, and cloud technologies.
Dochev was co-founder and principal member of the engineering team at DataCore Software for nearly 17 years. While at Datacore, Dochev helped transform that company from a start-up into a global leader in software-defined storage. Underscoring Dochev’s impact as an entrepreneur is the fact that DataCore Software now powers the data centers of 10,000+ large enterprises around the world.
Dochev holds a degree in Mathematics from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski in Bulgaria, and an MS in Computer Science from the University of National and World Economy, in Sofia, Bulgaria.