The high-level architecture of ShareFile consists of three components: the client used to access the ShareFile service; the control plane; and the StorageZone, which can include customer-managed StorageZones, Citrix-managed StorageZones, or both. Clients communicate with both the control plane and the storage plane, and the control plane and the storage plane communicate with each other, but customer files never travel from the storage plane to the control plane.

The ShareFile Clients

Users access the ShareFile follow-me data service through a mobile app, native desktop client, virtual desktop, Citrix Receiver, a web or mobile browser, or directly through the ShareFile API. These clients communicate with both the control plane and the StorageZone.

The ShareFile Control Plane

Hosted in Citrix datacenters and managed by Citrix as a service, the ShareFile control plane performs tasks such as web application management, pushing updates and reporting. Customers can choose between the US control plane or the European control plane to address performance and compliance requirements.The control plane does not store user files, user data or corporate data. All traffic from a client device, the web interface or a native tool connects to the control plane using 256-bit SSL encryption.

The StorageZones

StorageZones are where actual customer files are hosted.

Citrix-managed StorageZones are hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS) datacenters around the world. The actual storage servers run on Amazon EC2, while the backend storage resides in Amazon S3. Files are stored with AES 256-bit encryption at rest.

With on-premises, customer-managed StorageZones, IT can place data in the organization’s own datacenter to help meet unique data sovereignty and compliance requirements while optimizing performance by storing data in close proximity to the user. Designed to support any CIFS-based network share, customer-managed StorageZones can be easily integrated with your existing infrastructure. Client connectivity and communication are the same as with Citrix-managed StorageZones; no customer files travel through the control plane.

You can also choose a mix-and-match option where some files reside in your own datacenter and others are hosted in a Citrix-managed StorageZone.