Likewise Open: CIFS File Server and Identity Service

21 Reasons to OEM Likewise CIFS File Server

Why You Should Embed L-CIFS in Your Network Appliance

1. Total Interoperability
Likewise CIFS File Server lets Microsoft Windows clients access folders and files on Linux, Unix, and Mac computers and vice versa. It is available on more than 100 Linux, Unix, and Mac platforms, making it perfect for OEMs, ISVs, VARs that run on multiple operating systems and hardware platforms. In addition, Likewise CIFS File Server can be quickly adopted to additional versions of Linux or Unix.

2. World Class File Server Technology
Show your technology savvy and impress your customers by embedding a fast CIFS file server in your software. Likewise CIFS provides industrial-strength, high-performance file access for enterprise environments.

3. High Performance
Likewise CIFS File Server is designed with both pure performance and price-performance in mind.

4. Based on Standards
Likewise CIFS supports SMB1 and SMB2 standards and includes drivers for an SMB redirector, a named pipe file system, a POSIX virtual files system, and SMB1/SMB2 server head. In addition, the open source architecture lets third-party ISVs design and implement their own custom device drivers.

5. Open Source
With free access to the source code, you can modify the CIFS file server to meet your needs. Developers and integrators get all the advantages of an open source ecosystem.

6. Trusted, Secure, Reliable
As an open source application that is free to download, Likewise CIFS reaps the advantages of testing and feedback from a wide base of Unix and Active Directory system administrators as well as Linux developers.

7. Stay Focused on Your Objectives
Deploy your scarce engineering resources with parsimony by keeping them focused on building your core product rather than building and maintaining a proprietary file system.

8. Block Vendor Lock
By selecting open source products and open standards, ISVs insulate themselves from vendor lock-in, which can lead to unexpected financial burdens, support issues, and other problems. In the process, ISVs benefit from a huge open source ecosystem.

9. 24x7 Support
Receive technical support directly from the programmers who develop Likewise CIFS File Server. They are on hand to solve your toughest integration and interoperability challenges on Unix, Linux, Mac, and Windows.

10. No Administration
ISVs can deploy a product that does not require a dedicated system administrator, making Likewise CIFS File Server a perfect match for embedding in network attached storage (NAS) software and network appliances.

11. Small Size
Likewise CIFS File Server integrates easily with deeply embedded applications because it is smaller than 5 MB. Likewise CIFS File Server runs silently -- your customers won't know that a CIFS file server is embedded in your application, server, or appliance.

12. Ease of Use
Likewise CIFS File Server has gotten the nod from users for its superlative ease of use: You can get L-CIFS up and running in minutes. Because it's easy to configure, you can implement interoperability among disparate file systems much faster than with other file servers.

13. Flexible Architecture and Accessible APIs
Likewise CIFS File Server's pluggable API architecture gives ISVs the flexibility to integrate it with a variety of systems, including custom storage engines, read-intensive applications, high-availability clustered servers, and more.

14. Remove Extraneous Demands on Your Release Schedule
Speed up your time to market by embedding a proven file server rather than building your own. Likewise CIFS is a full-featured, high-performance file server that does not compromise performance for functionality.

15. Gain Market Share
Beat out the competition with a scalable, full-featured product by embedding a file server with superior performance, reliability, and ease of access from any operating system, including Windows, most major Linux and Unix platforms, and Mac OS X.

16. Ship a "File Server Included" Product
By embedding Likewise CIFS File Server you can include a cross-platform file server in your storage product with no additional requirements for users to buy licenses.

17. End Your Configuration Nightmares
Other cross-platform file servers can take hours to configure. With Likewise CIFS File Server, you can liberate your sys admins from repeatedly and doggedly having to configure file server access across operating system boundaries.

18. Improve Your End-User's Experience
Your customers have a better user experience with a "file server included" product. A pre-configured, pre-tuned, and pre-optimized file server helps eliminate manageability issues.

19. Reduce the Costs of Doing It Yourself
Likewise CIFS File Server is a cost-effective solution with licensing terms that can be tailored to meet the unique requirements of OEMs, ISVs and VARs who want to bundle or embed a file server.

20. Forge New Markets
Expand your target customer base by delivering performant high-volume cross-platform data warehousing.

21. Extend Your Product Line
Likewise CIFS File Server can expand your SKUs to include a file server to access data across all the operating systems in your customers' mixed network. Meantime, you can embed the Likewise Identity Service in your product to implement a highly secure method of cross-platform user authentication with Kerberos and access control with Active Directory.