Moving to cloud storage solutions

[RolnCode3]

As time goes on, I see less and less need to keep local files that can only be accessed at my house. The need to carry a USB drive seems to be diminishing as well.

I'm curious about what solutions exist out there to move more files to online storage but easy access for local computers. For example, have Outlook installed on a local PC, but the data files in a cloud. Itunes installed locally, but all of the music in the cloud.

I know I could use a commercial Exchange host, but I use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts and that part seems to be working out pretty well. I have a free Dropbox account (2GB), a WebDAV drive at school(2GB), Mozy Personal(2GB), a 1.5TB USB drive, and a 16GB USB thumb drive.

It's far too easy to wind up with multiple copies of the same file and I'm trying to move away from that, and create more centralized storage that is available to me anywhere I have internet access. I would like to be able to use a computer that I do not own and have some access (FTP or Dropbox type would be fine). Should I upgrade to the 50GB Dropbox and pay the $10/month? I really don't want to build a server at home for security and backup reasons. I've looked at the NAS devices for turning USB drives into storage, but most reviews show significant downsides.

I think 50GB would be enough for the majority of my needs but 100GB would be a lot better, and I would just keep archival stuff I am OK with losing on the 1.5TB drive, and then encrypt it.

Anybody else moving in this direction? Advice?

 

[poltergeisty]

Samba

You can get a thin client and do something with Network-attached storage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or... Amazon.com: Netgear ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay 1 TB (1 x 1 TB) Desktop Network Attached Storage RND2110: Electronics

As always, read reviews.

 

[brandon]

You might look at Amazon S3 along with JungleDisk (client software).

 

[RolnCode3]

You might look at Amazon S3 along with JungleDisk (client software).

Interesting. Hadn't seen that (although I did know about Amazon because of RR.com's hosting). Thanks.

 

[mfr301]

Virtual Terminal

I'm actually rolling out a company in the not so distant future which will be complete virtual computing. Imagine this:

Imagine having your actual computer on your iPad, iPhone, Droid, laptop, any internet explorer, or just using a kiosk at hour house or office (Keyboard, monitor mouse)?

Imagine wherever you go, any software you want is accessible. If you want Photoshop, just ask for it and it's turned on for you all with your own mapped drives to your own storage.

Imagine wherever you go, any office document can be opened, worked on, emailed, whatever.

Imagine having your own exchange server for use with outlook, owa, blackberry, whatever.

All of your own data just sitting there and waiting for you as if it was in your own house.

We're building out not just a cloud environment but an entire virtual computer network.that can be used by just 1 person or an entire office.

No more buying a PC. No more need for blown out laptops (unless you need some wild on the go requirements). The future if virtualization.

If you're interested, drop me a PM and I'll fill you in more. My site is up, but the virtualization part isn't released yet.

Mike

 

[poltergeisty]

Ultra VNC : Remote Support Software, Remote Support tool, Remote Desktop Control, Remote Access Software, PC Remote Control

Instead of the encryption plugin, I'll just pipe through my router which has an embedded SSH server. :lol:

VNC into VMware is a nice touch.

 

[ausscan]

Dropbox. I use it to sync all my scanner files, and work files across the desktop and my laptop, accessible through HTTP and even have a sub folder where users in my group can drop files in for the group to review. Currently have 2.75GB of free storage, which can be expandable on a paid account. Easy way is to set your "my documents" folder as the dropbox folder, then no matter what pc you are on so long as its in there its synced. Alternatively, I have a folder on a seperate HDD that is synced.

 

[poltergeisty]

Always wanted to try this: Synergy - Welcome - Synergy

Maybe I'll give it a whirl with my thincliet... Soon as I get her up and running, I hope. **crosses fingers**.

If Synergy runs in TCP, I'll SSH that too.

 

[WayneH]

I have a free Dropbox account (2GB),

I used to drag around the USB key and moved to Dropbox. With it on everything I own regardless of the OS (Linux, Android, etc) it's worked out well. It's nice having a local folder on your computer that acts the same as any other yet when you change a file within it it magically gets propagated to every other folder you have synced to Dropbox. The current beta of the software allows you to ignore specific folders within the share if you don't want them all appearing everywhere. That works well if you want to publicly share a large file but only for the purposes of serving it up to a non-Dropbox person. With Dropbox members you can invite another to a shared folder and have it instantly linked between the two of you (or more). Check out the site and their tutorials. It's really the better of the cloud based storage solutions (versus Microsoft, Box.net, etc).

Forget running servers, logging in to stuff. Just use the cloud and call it done. If you're worried about security then create a Truecrypt volume on Dropbox. I personally don't care as it just complicates things.

 

[iMONITOR]

Another option:

Windows Live Mesh 2011

 

[RolnCode3]

I do like Dropbox. The 2GB limitation is the only reason I'm looking for other options. I keep the data I need to actively be using synced there, and have an external 2TB USB drive at home. When I don't need to actively access the data I'll move it from Dropbox to that. I just really hate having piecemeal data storage. But it is very convenient. With dropbox I haven't been using Truecrypt anymore. Only files on USB drives are still encrypted.

I used to drag around the USB key and moved to Dropbox. With it on everything I own regardless of the OS (Linux, Android, etc) it's worked out well. It's nice having a local folder on your computer that acts the same as any other yet when you change a file within it it magically gets propagated to every other folder you have synced to Dropbox. The current beta of the software allows you to ignore specific folders within the share if you don't want them all appearing everywhere. That works well if you want to publicly share a large file but only for the purposes of serving it up to a non-Dropbox person. With Dropbox members you can invite another to a shared folder and have it instantly linked between the two of you (or more). Check out the site and their tutorials. It's really the better of the cloud based storage solutions (versus Microsoft, Box.net, etc).

Forget running servers, logging in to stuff. Just use the cloud and call it done. If you're worried about security then create a Truecrypt volume on Dropbox. I personally don't care as it just complicates things.

 

[RolnCode3]

Here's where I'm at for right now, despite my original post:

Using Dropbox free solution. I keep the stuff I am actively using all the time in there.

Running an SFTP server using CoreFTP mini-SFTP server on a laptop I had lying around, and a 1.5TB external hard drive attached to it. The external drive is on a 3 day expedition to become an encrypted drive via TrueCrypt (in retrospect, I should have just created a new container on the drive (too late!)). As I need to just store things rather than access them, I will move them to the SFTP server.

TeamViewer is doing the remote desktop duties to the server (love it BTW!)

For now, the only problem I've run into is the need to access large amounts of GIS data for my thesis project. I've resorted to a 16GB USB drive with just that data, but it's not my first choice. I tried NetDrive, WebDrive, and ExpanDrive to mount the SFTP server as a network drive, but they are all fairly unstable and crash easily. Too risky with important data.

Thinking of doing the $5/month Mozy plan to backup the external drive online. Not sure of how else to back it up securely and reasonably. Have about 150GB of data on the drive.

 

[ts548]

I'm actually rolling out a company in the not so distant future which will be complete virtual computing. Imagine this:

Imagine having your actual computer on your iPad, iPhone, Droid, laptop, any internet explorer, or just using a kiosk at hour house or office (Keyboard, monitor mouse)?

Imagine wherever you go, any software you want is accessible. If you want Photoshop, just ask for it and it's turned on for you all with your own mapped drives to your own storage.

Imagine wherever you go, any office document can be opened, worked on, emailed, whatever.

Imagine having your own exchange server for use with outlook, owa, blackberry, whatever.

All of your own data just sitting there and waiting for you as if it was in your own house.

We're building out not just a cloud environment but an entire virtual computer network.that can be used by just 1 person or an entire office.

No more buying a PC. No more need for blown out laptops (unless you need some wild on the go requirements). The future if virtualization.

If you're interested, drop me a PM and I'll fill you in more. My site is up, but the virtualization part isn't released yet.

Mike

This sounds interesting on a whole. It sounds like your doing the samething Citrix is capable of doing using a CAG server.

 

[pickles37]

I would highly recommend going with Dropbox. I have the 50GB plan and it has revolutionized how I use computers. All my important documents, files, etc are now on Dropbox, and very little is tied to a particular computer. I can even access the files on an iPhone. The beauty is that each computer has a copy of everything, so even if Dropbox went out of business you wouldn't lose anything, and you have multiple redundant backups. The only thing to watch: the Dropbox cache can get quite large and use up too much disk space on older machines with small hard drives, so you have to remember to clear it once in a while.

 

[Tim-in-TX]

Maybe I am just being paranoid, but I am not sure that I trust "The Cloud" to be unhackable. I'm not putting anything important out there just yet. I use Dropbox, but there is nothing important in it, just PDFs of scanner files, maps and some reference material.

 

[ausscan]

I'm with you Tim, (must be the good name) I only have scanner files and some work that I am working on for a diploma, nothing else. I have read of people using truecrypt within dropbox for added security.