Put Your Files In The Cloud
US-Magazine BusinessWeek has a great article about the basics of Cloud Computing and how it can be used for everyday usage.
Jeffrey Rayport quotes Eric Schmidt from 15 years ago:
“When the network becomes as fast as the processor, the computer hollows out and spreads across the network.”
This is an absolute read-recommendation for any interested person in Cloud Computing and its use and future.
At an event yesterday about the launch of the first Swiss Microsoft Innovation Center in Rapperswil, Microsoft said that cloud computing will be the big winner in 2009 in the financial and economic crisis. They hope of course that Windows Azure will be the provider of choice and Microsoft is investing billions of dollars over the next year. The Microsoft infrastructure grows by 35′000 servers a month.
The way to this goal is with a strict integration of all Microsoft services like Live, SQL Server, “federated” identification and all the others. And this will not happen over night, but Microsoft is there and supports their partners.
And don’t worry about a business plan or earnings. Microsoft has neither of that right now for their cloud computing division.
DreamHost, one of the largest website hosters in the world, just announced that they allow each customer to host 50GB of their backups with an account. Those 50GB will not be accessible via a website, just with FTP or SFTP.
In the August 2008 newsletter, DreamHost describes it as like this:
You CAN use 50GB of your disk space for backups now! The only caveat is, it’s a separate ftp (or sftp) user on a separate server and it can’t serve any web pages. There are also NO BACKUPS kept of THESE backups (they should already BE your backups, not your only copy), and if you go over 50GB, extra space is only 10 cents a GB a month (a.k.a. cheap)!
If you are already a customer with DreamHost, you find that new option under “User” > “Backup User” or by clicking this link.
Dropbox is now open for everybody. On the blog the team around Drew Houston announced the public beta of Dropbox.
The same blogpost also mentions the availability of an option to buy storage:
Our most common request has been for more storage. Next week, you’ll be able to buy a 50GB Dropbox for $9.99/month, or $99.99/year. Don’t worry — the free 2GB accounts will always be free, and you can keep the amount of space you had in the beta. Stay tuned for more on this.
These prices are pretty much the same as Wuala offers (50GB is $95). But I have to say, personally I like the Dropbox method better. You just have a folder on your computer or Mac (Linux client comming soon) and can drag and drop your files with the Explorer/Finder. No need to start a huge, memory intense client.
So give Dropbox a try! Just download and install their client and you get 2GB of storage for free.
The Economist has published an article about the technical details on how Wuala is working.
The challenge is how to minimise the number of copies of the same file that have to be distributed. Copying costs participants both storage space and bandwidth. Yet there have to be enough copies to ensure that there is at least one available most of the time. If, for example, each computer is online 25% of the time, then a quick calculation shows that you would have to copy each file to 100 different computers to ensure that 999,999 times out of a million there is at least one copy available when a user looks.
But copying every file a hundred times is hugely inefficient. Instead, Mr Grolimund and Mr Meisser plan to break each file into chunks, which can be scattered liberally around the hard disks of participating computers, and then to use a mathematical trick to reconstruct the original file from those chunks.
This trick is called “Reed-Solomon error correction” and is actually used for CD/DVD/BluRay-Discs, DVB and DSL.
If you are interested in more details on how Wuala stores and distributes files, you should give the article a read.
Via [Slashdot]
Asus has launched a new service for owners of an EeePC: YoStore.net. Each registered user gets 20 GB of free storage for their music, documents, backups or photos. The introduction site describes some nice features of YoStore
If you own an Asus EeePC you simple have to activate your device on the website, download and install the client and you are ready to go. Make sure you read the FAQ/Help section for more details.
Box.net goes new ways in distributing their online storage solution. Starting now customers can buy at their local Fry electronic store 2GB and 5GB accounts.
This is a great way to distribute digital items and win new customers. If you know any other online storage company that is doing the same or another innovative way to sell their products, plese report to us.
The Wuala team informs today about the immediate launch of their services as public beta. Everybody can now try wuala and share her media over the distributed storage solution.
“After more than three years of development and ten months of testing in closed alpha, we are very proud to release Wuala to the public”, says Dominik Grolimund, CEO. “Our alpha users, who are storing and sharing millions of files, have given us tremendous feedback and use Wuala very actively and with great enthusiasm. We believe that Wuala is the right tool for millions of people to securely manage and share their files online.”
The beta offers a new way to share and manage your files: It is no longer required - but still possible - to install the Wuala client on your computer.
The closed alpha, which had been released in September 2007, has been very successful and generated a lot of buzz. Tens of thousands of people and thousands of communities around the world are actively sharing millions of files in Wuala. Now that Wuala is available for everyone, it’s ready to scale up to millions of people.
How to use Wuala
If you just want to take a quick look how Wuala works just click on the Start button on Wua.la. The web client will launch and you can browse all public files and download them. Once you have decided to install the desktop client, select “Setup Wuala on this computer”. After the installation you are asked to create a new account. This will allow you to upload your files and only share them with your friends, if you want that.
And if your need for space is greater than the 1 GB Wuala initially gives you, you can share your computer’s space or buy additional storage from Wuala.
More features can be found on the new designed web page.
TechCrunch is reporting that AOL will shut down its Internet Storage product XDrive. Kevin Conroy, AOL’s EVP, sent out an email to the employees explaining why XDrive and other products will be killed:
With two quarters behind us, it is fair to say that results across the AOL products team have been mixed. And while I expect 2008 to finish stronger than it started, the current situation is that some of our products are doing very well while some continue to struggle. Being responsible to our company and its financial goals means taking a very hard and honest look at each of our products and making the tough business decisions necessary to ensure the long term viability of AOL.
Mr. Conroy have evaluated and decided what has to go:
We have found that building media management applications within the context of a social experience is a more rapid and effective way to grow the business. For example, today the Bebo audience is uploading over three million photos per day. To effectively grow the XDrive online storage business we would need to focus on subscription revenues vs. monetizing through advertising revenue, and this business model is not in strategic alignment with our company’s goals. We are exploring plans to migrate our users assets to ensure the best possible transition experience.
I have not found any news yet on the Xdrive website or the AOL press room. This termination comes only three years after the acquisition of Xdrive Inc.
