Customer Success Story:
VMware developers use Thru to streamline file sharing

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. A pioneer in the use of virtualization and policy-driven automation technologies, VMware simplifies IT complexity across the entire data center to the virtual workplace, empowering customers with solutions in the software-defined data center to hybrid cloud computing and the mobile workspace.

Challenge

The software development process requires organized teamwork and a considerable amount of file exchange collaboration on various projects. For VMware, thousands of its internal and external third-party developers upload project files to online portals where they can collaborate and share best practices. The previous solution divided internal and external projects between two separate locations: Salesforce Communities for in-house developers and a proprietary portal that was built in-house for external partners.

Managing two separate portals for thousands of global users became burdensome to VMware because of slow uploads and downloads and occasional system failures which complicated workflows and introduced inefficiencies. Also, with so many users divided between two solutions, even routine administrative tasks like auditing and user management were extremely cumbersome. Recognizing the need to shift collaboration to a single application, VMware planned to migrate all developers to its existing Salesforce Communities workflow and began to search for a file transfer solution that could offload all file exchange to a single platform in the cloud.

Solution

VMware chose Thru to streamline developer collaboration based on Thru’s robust API and flexibility as an enterprise file sharing platform. Using the Thru API, VMware developed a customized solution that allows its developers to share content using the preferred Salesforce Communities workflow and leverage Thru’s integrated backend features including

• Ability to simultaneously upload multiple files of unlimited size.
• Fast and reliable upload and downloads via worldwide geo-location.
• Ability to support pause and restart/retry for file uploads.
• Metadata automatically populated to Salesforce.
• Granular user and group access controls for all files.

File transfer activities are now performed transparently by Thru in the background, with Salesforce as the single system of record. VMware developers seamlessly upload and download files from Salesforce Communities while Thru transfers and stores all attachments in the Thru Cloud. Thru populates Salesforce with all metadata so that administrators can maintain an audit trail of file activity without leaving Salesforce.

Results

Now that Thru is integrated into VMware’s workflow, developers share files more effectively on software projects, increasing efficiency to a level that was not possible with the previous solution. Thru has optimized VMware’s existing infrastructure and streamlined workflow resulting in the following benefits:

• Increased file transfer speeds decrease idle time for developers.
• Thru’s cloud-based solution offers savings on hardware and systems management.
• Data segregation and encryption provide enhanced security posture.
• Auditing and metadata population give visibility into every file and user.

Thru’s robust API and flexibility as an enterprise file sharing platform attracts companies such as VMware to integrate file transfer into its existing applications and workflows. With built-in functionality such as large file delivery and FTP replacement, Thru provides a comprehensive solution for the widest range of file transfer scenarios.