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Tag: cloud-storage

  • SurDoc Gives Android Users 100GB Free Cloud Storage, Android Support, and SSL Encryption

    Android users in need of additional cloud storage need to find out SurDoc’s plans of providing free storage up to 100GB alongside SSL security encryption and Android support. You can find lots of popular cloud backup services in the industry but SurDoc offers interesting plans. Although this company has been around for some time, most Android users may not be acquainted with it.

    Currently, SurDoc has three plans for its users ranging from the 100GB to the unlimited storage plan, depending on your budget. Although the free plan comes with 100GB of storage, it has a few shortcomings such as allowing you to view or annotate just 30 docs a month.

    However, the 100GB plan of $2.5 a month eliminates some of these limitations, moving your document support to 300 docs a month. Lastly, a plan of $8.33 a month accords you unlimited storage in addition to removing other restrictions.

    Surprisingly, SurDoc suggests your cloud data is under the protection of prying eyes and than no one can access it, not even SurDoc’s staff.

    To access the SurDoc application on your Android, you should visit the Google Play Store and download it free. However, you need 4.7MB of storage and Android version of 2.2 and above. Besides, the company has Mac and PC apps that allow users to backup and manage their documents. The web interface allows users to access their own accounts using other devices.

  • My Cloud from Western Digital

    Nowadays, it is almost impossible to create a digital baggage. You need to start by backing up your PC’s data. Your devices also need more storage space for backups, offloading photos to storing secondary media libraries. If you think like me, then you definitely need cloud based storage services.

    With the help of a 2TB external NAS Western Digital’s WD My Cloud, you can create your personal cloud at home and consolidate your data within easy reach.  Any Wi-Fi-enabled mobile device can read and write to the drive because the external hard drive connects through Ethernet cable to your wireless router instead of the traditional USB to your PC, Android or iOS devices.

    The WD My Cloud hardware sets up instantly by plugging in the AC adapter and snapping the Ethernet cable into your wireless router. There are downloadable and administrative apps for PCs and Macs and also apps for Android and iOS mobile devices. You can also type in a URL in any browser to connect to the drive’s onboard management tools, much like you would do to gain access to your browser based dashboard on the router.

    After login in to the WD portal and creating a My Cloud password account, all your mobile devices connected can read and write to the drive whenever they are connected to Wi-Fi.

    You can move content into folders called ‘shares’ that can be either private or public. It is possible to set up permissions for users of any of the shares. You will start off with some preset shares that include a private share with your name, a public folder SmartWare folder for backups and a “TimeMachineBackup” folder for Mac users.

  • Seagate Disrupts Cloud Economics with Storage That Can Cut Infrastructure Costs by 50%

    The internet cloud storage stage is set to change following the launch of a new platform. The product is the brainchild of Seagate, a firm situated in Cupertino, California. Among the benefits of the new platform include reduced infrastructural cost, improved scalability and performance. It also makes data management simple.
    Among the salient features of this platform is that it eliminates the need for data centers. Users do not have to procure large storage devices. Organizations are able to maximize on savings owing to the reduction in the amount of hardware required as well as power costs.

    Rocky Pimentel, an executive official from Seagate said that their teams designed a unique platform that would minimize expenditure on unnecessary software and hardware. He added that IT personnel would make use of a cost effective technology that would save their organizations a lot of money.

    Yahoo is one of the clients giving the new technology a trial. Yahoo’s Kevin Graham said the company was continuously searching for ways of becoming more efficient while simplifying its infrastructure. Graham added that Yahoo had been consulting Seagate on ways through which the Kinetic Open Storage platform can yield an efficient and reliable way of storing Yahoo’s user data.

    An interface intended to enable connection from client to hard drives owned by Seagate will soon be launched. Seagate has acknowledged the help it has received from other companies. These include SwiftStack, Supermicro, Newisys, Rackspace, Huawei, EVault, Basho Technologies and Dell among others.

    Seagate’s core business has all along been the provision of virtual storage space. The new ambitious project, Kinetic Open Storage platform may soon change the way data centers should be formulated. Laura Dubois an authority within the industry reckons that the new technology has the potential to bring changes in the way storage is done.

  • RightScale to Control Virtual Networks after Expansion Drive


    RightScale is a gateway tool that allows users to use a single console to spin up storage and computing resources from multiple providers. The company has announced that it is planning to integrate an advanced networking control feature.

    Carl Brooks of the 451 Research Group indicated that the network manager is a natural advancement of the company’s product strategy. It can also be termed as a significant advancement in easing the process of creating cloud computing features. He indicated that network configuration needs an automation since it has been a largely hand driven process.

    Brooks indicated that networking is extremely hard compared to virtual machines that can be scaled up or down, stopped or paused. Many providers give public or private IPs to customers and a VPN tunnel. However, the process of deployment and management varies from one provider to the other. Some providers make use of APIs while others need a manual setup. Brooks indicated that a system that can sit between this complexity and the customers is very much welcomed.

    RightScale says that the network manager will provide an abstraction of network constructs across the clouds. It will provide a common user interface to access the different resources for Amazon, Google, Microsoft and CloudStack.

    RightScale has indicated that the initial release will be for Amazon web servers, which has the largest market share in cloud provision. The company is hoping to add the network manager in other providers.

  • Cloud Storage Vendors Aggressively Slash Prices Again

    Since November, the three leading cloud storage vendors have slashed prices for data storage per month, offering massive discounts for the first terabyte. Amazon Web Services reduced prices by up to 28% to 9.5 cents, extending reductions to its nine regional centers. Google Cloud Storage dropped data rates by 30% to 8.5 cents. Microsoft Windows Azure slashed its prices by 12% to 8.5 cents.

    Vendors are cutting prices to attract as many early cloud adopters as possible, with the knowledge that switching service provider later might prove to be difficult for customers.

    "It's definitely a race, but it's a land grab," said Terri McClure, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). "The race is to the bottom to get more data into the cloud. They are trying to accelerate adoption because the service is very sticky. Once data is in the cloud, it's hard to switch providers."

    Steve Zivanic, vice president of marketing at Nirvanix, a San Diego based cloud storage provider, said the three dormant cloud providers keep competing on price because their services are similar.

    "If you have no technology differentiation between clouds, then it's the same as disk-drive vendors waging a war for the lowest price per raw drive," said Steve Zivanic, "The key is to wrap advanced storage services around the physical drive and sell business value of that overall service. The price cuts between Amazon, Google and Azure are basically battles for cheap, raw online disk."

    An analyst for IT infrastructure and cloud at 451 Research Cloud, Carl Brooks said that while storage prices have come down, the costs of bandwidth, replication, security, compliance and maintenance, make the price of cloud storage high compared to on-premises storage.

    "Cloud providers are well over the cost of actually provisioning on-premises storage," said Carl Brooks. "Hard drives are almost a commodity at this point. We have not seen that in the cloud market. The trend behind the price cuts are more about cloud providers trying to get ahead of the trend. They don't want to be undercut by other vendors."

    "Amazon, Azure and Google cut prices to continue to be relevant," Brooks said further. "You are going to see price competition for a couple of years, and you will see cloud service providers go out of business.

  • Cloud Storage Supports Genealogists

    The benefits of Cloud Storage have been brought to bear in many different industries, from finance to real estate and certainly personal computing. But genealogists have been taking advantage of the off-site storage with more and more frequency, due to the safety and security it offers.

    Genealogists spend years researching their findings, and the specter of losing all of that effort can be terrifying. Cloud Storage completely removes those fears. If a genealogist experiences a malfunctioning hard drive, it could cost them dearly. With all of their data stored in the cloud, no type of physical storage issue, no matter how extreme, can cause the irrevocable loss of work.

    Another useful benefit of Cloud Storage is the fact that data can be accessed from several different devices, in a variety of locations. That means a genealogist can access the same file and continue his work, whether on a personal computer, an office workstation, or a mobile device in transit between the two.

    File-sharing is also made much easier thanks to Cloud Storage technology. Many genealogists must share their findings regularly with associates, and also want to deliver summations to clients and family. Many Cloud Storage services come with file-sharing built in. If both parties have a Dropbox, SkyDrive or Box account, they can access and download files from any of their devices, making the sharing of even the most complicated or lengthy genealogy report an instant endeavor.

    Cloud Storage probably won’t completely take the place of physical storage, at least not until several more years of consistent, worry-free service are accrued. But at some point, the physical hard drive might end up a relic of the past, much like the names genealogists pour over during their studies.

  • Sony Reader Adds Cloud Storage Capability

    Every major technology company has worked their way into the mobile marketplace, as Sony has found their foothold with the popular ebook Reader device. Now they’re taking that to the next level, with the addition of Cloud Storage capabilities.

    Their new device, the Sony Reader PRS-T2, is now being released a year after the PRS-T1. While that device did gain popularity, it hasn’t been able to push aside Amazon’s Kindle. But these new upgrades may force ebook fans to sit up and take notice.

    The largest change is the incorporation of Evernote in the new device. That’s Sony’s aggregation service, built off of cloud storage, giving users the ability to mark their favorite sections or quotes from an ebook and store them in the cloud. They can then reference each highlighted section at their leisure.

    Evernote also gives users the ability to store video content or articles on the cloud, and then download them on demand to their Reader. That way users can read something on their home computer, and then pick up where they left off later on their mobile device. And a solid Wi-Fi connection is the only requirement.

    The Sony Reader PRS-T2 also comes with much improved battery life, and a promise of two months of continual usage between charges as long as the Wi-Fi feature is disabled. That’s roughly twice the battery life of the PRS-T1, a huge improvement for avid readers.

    Fans of the old device interested in checking out the new model can purchase it with a free download of the first Harry Potter book included. Future ebooks can either be borrowed from your local library or purchased for permanent download.

  • Cloud Storage Service Carbonite Chastised for "Misleading" Advertising

    Now that there are a ton of affordable cloud storage options on the market, younger companies must find ways to break through the noise made by their much bigger counterparts. Carbonite, a relatively small American cloud storage company, declared on their UK website that users would enjoy unlimited online backup storage. Apparently, the Advertising Standards Authority has cried foul, and Carbonite is scrambling to explain the details.

    An anonymous third party made the ASA aware of the website’s claim, and declared that the wording of Carbonite’s promise was misleading. Apparently it violated several sections of the Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, which weighs in on internet promotions. The ASA’s claim goes even further, declaring that Carbonite refused to help ASA investigate the situation.

    The problem is apparently in the details. The ASA found that unlimited data could be uploaded, but once a user exceeded 200GB of data, Carbonite would make less bandwith available. The slower backup process was not specified, leading to the rule breach.

    Carbonite was told to remove the statement from their site, but they instead released word saying they respectfully disagree with the ruling. Their statement suggested Carbonite was not made aware of the decision nor allowed to participate in the review process, so they will be contacting the ASA to look into the issue.

    Although Carbonite may not agree with the ruling, turning their back to it may bring dire consequences. The ASA has the power to submit an open case to the Office of Fair Trading, and they can have a company shut down. Possible civil claims by affected users are also always a possibility.

  • Box Raises $125 Million in Additional Capital

    There are many quality cloud storage companies out there, but Box has managed to distinguish itself by leaving private consumers alone and instead zeroing in on the business community. That small difference has led to a large amount of funding, but Box isn’t resting on its laurels. In order to take their business where they want it to go, Box is still looking for cash, and has been very successful in their search. Box recently announced a $125 million additional funding raise, bringing the total company valuation up to $1.33 billion.

    Several companies were involved in this latest fundraise, including Social+Capital Partnership, but it was General Atlantic that led the way. According to available data, this latest round of capital means Box has just about doubled in value, all during the last nine months. Back in the fall of 2011, Box was valued at $650 million.

    PrivCo, the research firm that released Box’s financial data, praised this latest move. Their CEO, Sam Hamadeh declared it proves that companies that have a strong model for revenue are still able to raise private capital at this scale, even during our economic recession.

    The Box board of directors will shift a bit now. Gary Reiner, one of General Atlantic’s investment partners and the former CIO of GE will join the board. And with their coffers full, Box will focus on building for the future. That means new technology, expansion into more regions of the world, and the capability to manage even larger corporate partners.

    According to Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie, the company is at the forefront of a software revolution. He envisions a time when every company in the world has balanced access to mobile technology, social media and cloud computing in order to keep pace with the direction of business.

  • Dropbox Spam Attack Underlines Possible Security Issues with Cloud Storage

    Dropbox is currently one of the industry leaders in cloud storage, alongside products like RapidShare, Google Drive and MediaFire. But when Dropbox became the target of a fairly major spam attack, even those that promote cloud computing had to admit that cloud storage poses a real security issue for IT professionals.

    The spam attack that Dropbox users experienced was traced back to the source, specifically one particular user who didn’t follow the basic rules of password security. A hacker snagged several users’ log-in information off a wide range of site, including the info of a current Dropbox employee, and discovered that employee used the same password and login for his Dropbox account as he did on the other sites. He accessed the employee Dropbox account and discovered a document filed with email addresses for other users. The result was tons of spam messages pushing Dropbox users to gambling sites.

    Although this problem was fairly minor in the grand scheme of things, it underlines the larger problem. Something much more sinister could have been introduced to the system, or the hacker could have figured out how to access some of the data stored on the Dropbox cloud. It starts with the individual’s misuse of passwords, but it also suggests that cloud storage employees may not be taking their responsibilities as seriously as they should.

    This time it was a list of emails, and that list was included without an additional password or any sort of encryption. Next time it could be government paperwork, or banking and medical records. Dropbox responded strongly to the issue, declaring they will instantly be incorporating security changes.

    Those changes will include an additional piece of identity proof during the sign-in authentication process, automated checks through the system searching out suspicious actions, a way for users to review their log-in history, and frequent requests to change passwords.

    It’s never going to be foolproof, but it is a solid step in the right direction. IT administrators will need to take a lesson from the Dropbox fiasco, and remind their coworkers about the need for heightened security. With billions of files now stored on the cloud, there’s simply too much data at risk to stand idly by.