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The news section of Maximum PC is bombarded constantly with updates on new up and coming cloud services. Cloud computing figureheads such as Google make a compelling case to start moving our lives online, but what about bulk storage? Plenty of competing companies offer a variety of services to share your pictures, music, and documents, but they tend to be stand alone offerings. Many users in search of good old fashioned bulk online storage have settled on services such as Microsoft Skydrive, or Amazon S3 with Jungle Disk. Others have even gone so far as to hack Gmail accounts into temporary storage, but many have wondered when Google would offer something like this natively.
The answer to this question may be fast approaching with a service they are rumored to be calling “GDrive”. According to a description snipped from Google Pack’s code, enterprising blogger Brian Ussery has uncovered the following description. “GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device - be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone”. If this description holds true, it will defiantly give competing services something to worry about. The ability to upload any file securely online, and access it from any platform is truly a compelling idea. The questions that still remain are when, and how much?
What is your favorite way to archive files online?
Comments are closed on this article
Tekzel
February 02, 2009 at 7:52am
After reading this article, just to see how it works. I am not yet sure how I feel about these online file storage schemes. You can lose a flash drive, so from that perspective the online thing seems to be a bit more secure. Sure, you can use something like TrueCrypt to encrypt a volume on the flash drive, but that seems like a big old pain in the ass. Especially when you want to access those files on someone elses computer. I guess I am going to have to think a bit more about it, but ultimately, the only way I am going to use an online file storage solution is if it is from a company that I feel pretty confident they won't close down over night, like Google or Microsoft.
Keith E. Whisman
February 02, 2009 at 10:57am
You know what I do when I want to share files on multiple computers? I burn the data to cheap DVD-/+R disks. They are as low as .05Cents each for crying out loud. I have a 2gig thumb drive that I don't even use as a rapid boost drive any more. DVD's hold 4.5gigs of data and every computer worth it's salt can read a dvd. And it's a helluva lot quicker to burn data to and copy data from a DVD than it is to upload gigs of data to a website and then download those gigs from that same website. I've got a 10mb cable connection and it still takes forever to download a 1gb file from a website. And that's when everything is working great.
Perhaps there is a market for this but it's not for people that know how to burn a DVD. Perhaps it would be ok for a company with hundreds of employees online you could make a piece of software available to download and email the link to all your employees but you can already do that with normal internet technology already available without resorting to uploading to a third party. Most companies have their own websites with their own web servers.
AndyYankee17
February 02, 2009 at 1:59pm
idk, I might want to use online storage for like monthly backups or something like that. also the only thing on my computer I would mind losing is my music other than taht it can all just go
KaylaKaze
February 02, 2009 at 4:02am
My Gmail currently states "You are currently using 128 MB (0%) of your 15360 MB".
A couple of days ago, I signed up with the free 2GB from Mozy.com. Unfortunately, my upload speed is roughly 4% my download speed, so just backing up 1 GB took all day.
Filip
February 02, 2009 at 3:40am
Hi Justin. Just to let you know, I work for www.nomadesk.com. We offer easy and secure file sharing, wherever you are. Being online is not required. I read your post on Google's GDrive with great interest and just wanted to add NomaDesk to the mix in this discussion.NomaDesk has already been on the market for some time, and we offer similar features geared specifically towards the need of the "digital nomad". We are convinced that the more data gets synchronized, the more likely it gets compromised. Therefore, NomaDesk includes an encrypted virtual drive that keeps your files securely available off-line and remote file shredding and IP-tracking with TheftGuard. Of course, we impose no limits on storage and bandwidth. A Mac version is on its way. So,
I would appreciate your review.
F.
Keith E. Whisman
February 02, 2009 at 12:35am
Good question, I have no favorite way to archive files online. I don't trust third parties.
Nothing beats a blaster at your side kid when time get tough and that is the truth. I back everything up onto a USB external HDD that I can turn on and off. I have an IDE hdd inside my computer that I plug in to back things up and then when I'm done backing up or restoring items I disconnect the molex power connecter and the IDE cable and I make CD or DVD copies of everything as well. DVD's are cheap. So lets say I download an album or a movie. What I do is the first thing burn it to disk. If I really want to keep it it goes onto both backup HDD's. In this way I always have triple backups of all the stuff I like in life. Why should I trust a third party to safeguard my stuff when I can do a better job of it?
soccer1105
February 01, 2009 at 8:58pm
Drop Box is my favorite way to sync my folders online. everything is seamless and super easy.
AndyYankee17
February 01, 2009 at 3:17pm
knowing google, probably free, man I'd love to be their hard disk broker, how much space does gmail allow 2 GB?
