CTERA

CTERA provides an enterprise file services platform — a distributed global file system spanning edge locations, remote offices, and the cloud — with cyber resilience built directly into the storage layer rather than bolted on as separate backup software. Its Ransom Protect capability uses activity sensors integrated into the file system, combined with machine learning trained on ransomware attack behavior, to flag anomalous encryption or exfiltration patterns and trigger automatic lockout within seconds, paired with air-gapped, immutable cloud snapshots for near-instant recovery of a prior clean version.

Founded in 2008 in Petah Tikva, Israel by Liran Eshel and Zohar Kaufman, CTERA has raised roughly $171 million across multiple funding rounds from investors including Cisco Systems, Benchmark Capital, Venrock, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Vintage Investment Partners — a notably strategic investor base given Cisco’s direct participation. The company serves enterprise, financial services, and government customers that need distributed file storage combined with compliance and ransomware resilience in one platform.

CTERA’s pitch — file services and ransomware detection/recovery as one product rather than a storage system paired with a separate backup and anomaly-detection tool — is a real architectural differentiator, but it competes against established enterprise file and storage vendors including NetApp, Nasuni, and Panzura, several of which have added similar ransomware-resilience features of their own.