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Dion's Speaking Calendar:
I've written several times in the past (most particularly here) about online storage and its importance to the next generation of the Web. The developments in this space over the last year have been fascinating indeed. For true Web 2.0 software (which I'll define here simply as networked applications that explicitly leverage network effects) or plain old Software as a Service (SaaS), key platform services are still not available on the Web as they would be in a traditional computing system. In this particular case I'm referring to the fact that unlike regular software that runs on your PC, most online software today will not use the storage location of your choice. Instead, these applications tend to prefer storing things in a location of the online software provider's choice, usually on their servers. This can be far from desirable.
Now, while there certainly are some online applications that don't require you to store your data on the software provider's servers (Basecamp comes to mind), it brings up a related set of crucial issues that haven't been addressed very well by the SaaS and Web 2.0 community yet. Specifically, these are the ability to 1) choose an own online storage provider in conjunction with an online software provider, 2) support for portable information formats, and the 3) resulting freedom to provider switch including controlling the hosting domain/URL. Here's a quick run-down of what these possibilities would (and should) provide to end users:
I beat the drum of maturing open, 3rd party online storage every few months, even though the market isn't quite ready to tackle these issues yet. And though the online storage market is still barely burgeoning, I do this because not being in a posture to address them when the market is ready will impede the adoption of online software for so-called "serious" uses (enterprise use, critical private uses, etc.) until they are addressed.
In any case, the state of online information is rapidly changing with the likes of Google's forthcoming GDrive, Microsoft's rumoured Live Drive, and Amazon's already available online storage service, S3. Never mind the almost infinite selection of smaller providers that already exist today, many of which can even integrate with your local operating system desktop and look exactly like a hard drive attached to the your computer.
A Brief Survey of Online Storage Services
It was actually pretty hard to find a good list of online storage services, particular pure services that don't specialize in a particular type of data. Some services like Ofoto and Flickr prefer a limited set of choices related to a particular media type. What I'm referring to here is general purpose online storage that can be used for storage of data of arbitrary types and in any volume (from 1 byte to multi-gigabyte.) While S3 is one of the few big players already shipping, here's a rundown of what's available today.
Of course, the premise of all this is that more and more of our information will continue to flow online along with the software that we use. Our personal data, work documents, images, audio, video, and everything else is more useful to us and others if we move it online, making it accessible anywhere, taking advantage of professional data center backup, and getting off of the hard drive upgrade treadmill. Particularly as our personal archives of digital content become large and highly valuable as we aggregate them over the years, they become irreplaceable assets that require better care than we might be able to give them without professional help.
As always, please add any online storage sites that I missed in the comments below. I'll add them to the list if they have any general purpose utility.
Great blog. Another online storage site is Mozy.com which offers 2gb free
with a referral program that increases both yours and your friends storage
size. More storage can be purchased as well. Check it out.
Hi Don, really love your blog and your view on web 2.0. Also love your
'visualisations', the diagrams that you make. Sorry for the off-topic
question, but what software or tool do you use for that? Or are you just a
graphic artist who can do this in any kind of software?
I am happy to find <a href='http://www.ibackup.com'>IBackup</a>
in your list, because I am a big fan of their service. From my experience
with them, I don’t have to think twice to categorically state that IBackup
is one of the best and the most flexible online storage and backup
solutions available today.
You should also check out Data Deposit Box for <a
href="http://www.datadepositbox.com">online data backup</a>. It's
inexpensive and very easy to use. It takes about 2 minutes to install the
<a href="http://www.datadepositbox.com">online backup</a>
agent. Once installed it's fully automatic with nothing to remember and no
procedures to follow. You can access your <a
href="http://www.datadepositbox.com/factsheet.asp">online data
storage</a> easily with a web browser.
There is another one at www.carbonite.com . Seems cheap looking at most of
the options. Just USD 5 per month for umlimited storage. The best part is
that the backups are automatic and continuous which means you are updated
in realtime.
Interesting. We have launched a service based on the software by Remote
Backup Systems, Inc. http://remote-backup.com
I tried most of the services on your list and like a few of them. But I
just tried Diino and must say it is a bit different. Diino gives 2GB free
online storage, email, personal blog, automatic back up, 2048bit
encryption. The easy client makes it must faster than most web based
solutions. try it. www.diino.com
Don, a very nice roll up of some of the emerging services out there and the
additional comments added more as well. There is one data point that
should be considered and discussed and that's the availability of a wide
pipe into users homes to be able to send and receive all of this
information. Based upon broadband penetration in the US specifically,
there's not a lot of hope of truly developing a fully hosted storage model
in the "cloud" for some time to come, exluding the ability to trickle out
backups and keep deltas current as local information changes. There is
some hope with the deployment of FTTH like Verizon's FIOS coming to a
neighborhood near you, if you're lucky enough, but the basic DSL or Cable
high speed links that are generally avaialble significantly limit the
amount of data that can be transferred in a reasonable timeframe, thus
presenting a natural limit on the scale and scope of services that can be
delivered, at least today.
Another great service is http://www.myotherdrive.com
Great post.
Backups are essential for all work. For important work, two or three backup
sets are advisable.
The free backup solutions offer the fundamental features -(apps like
BackupLite, NVBackup, Innerbackup...)
Best regard,
James c. Mizzo
Network consultant
http://www.all-internet-security.com/
I use diino and it works really well. it has a drag-and-drop feature and a
2048bit encryption, so my back-ups and e-mails are secure. it also has
streaming possibilities so I can listen to music on my cell phone now,
through my diino client.
check it out, www.diino.com
Well, clearly the author didn't test a lot of online storage services.
Reading the comments, many people list missing websites. I have been
following this industry for a long time and have tried many different
online storage services. Most services are geared for free users. But a few
of them do have very good features, reliable service and great client
software. Please read my reviews at:
http://backupreview.googlepages.com/default.html
