Cloud storage

[Mcthecat]

Hi all, yesterday i joined the digital age being persuaded by my better half that she needed an ipad. Not an old one, the latest one. I listened to the salesmans blurb and decided on the lesser of two evils, buy it and have matrimonial harmony or face a world of sad faces and annoyance. Was this in the script when i got married?

Anyway, one of the salesmans points was a valid one, storage of files. Now at this point i must explain, i really do not get involved in technology and computer geekness unless its a camera. I do not own a mac but have a pretty high spec pc. What he pointed out was that if we all get ipads and the like, instead of hauling around large amounts of memory cards, laptops or hardrives, we can take our shots and upload them in RAW to my new cloud account. Store them there then download to my pc or mac for processing. They can be placed on my web site or uploaded to the cloud (silly name) and can be viewed by people i meet.

I have a few questions and remember, i dont even have a mobile phone.

If i take shots and upload them RAW to the cloud storage, being an ipad, can i download to a pc for post processing?
Parts of my web site wont display on the ipad for whatever reason. Something to do with displaying the photos already there.
Can you upload images from a pc to the cloud through the ipad considering the operating systems of both.
Ever encountered other problems such as poor wifi connections when out in a desert?
Your views on cloud storage itself, is it the future?

Must admit the old school hard drive is what ive always used, reliable and never let me down but i guess im just a little to old for all this new stuff.

Thanks for any advice.

Mick

[Ken Bennett]

Get a DropBox account, and install the app on your PC and the iPad. You'll be able to synchronize folders full of files with this account. Easy.

Uploading raw files to the cloud can take a really long time, depending on your connection speed. You can do this, but I suspect you'll be unhappy with the time it takes.

If your web site uses Flash, an iPad will not display it at all.

A wi-fi connection works anywhere there is a wi-fi router nearby. Perhaps you are asking about a cellular connection? If so, then it depends on the location of the tower. (And btw that's even slower to upload raw files.)

I think the "cloud" is great for small things, like delivering photos to clients or keeping a portfolio or some files handy. I use Dropbox every day. But it's not my primary means of storage and likely never will be.

An iPad is a fun device, but I found it easier to deal with if I did NOT treat it like a tiny computer. It's not -- it's more like a giant phone, or a souped-up e-reader. I can show my portfolio (using the Portfolio for iPad app, and syncing the folders with Dropbox, natch), check email, browse the web, watch movies, play games, etc. With Filterstorm Pro, I can download photos to my iPad, tweak them, caption them, and then transmit them to an editor using email or Dropbox or FTP. But it's nowhere near as easy to do this as with a small laptop.

Have fun figuring out what you can do with it.

[Mcthecat]

Thanks for that. I had a feeling the ipad was like a large phone, great for skype when im away, e-mail, watching movies etc. Therefore i think i will stay with what i know. That said i know this is a differant question, i have always used a pc, my friend uses a mac. My wife has given our laptop to our daughter in law as the grandson managed to kill hers. Im going to purchase a new lap top, must be able to travel and store files when im away. Any sugestions? Im open to either a pc or mac but my friend suggests i go for the mac but i never have any issues with my desktop.

[Farmer]

Unless you feel the need to change and learn the new OS, you will probably find it easier to stay with a PC device.  Choices?  Toshiba is always my recommendation - they've served me well as indestructible work horses over the years.  Other brands are probably fine, but I can only recommend Toshibas as that's all I've used.

Dropbox is an excellent option and you can trial it for free (and if you gets friends to sign up - for free - you can get extra free space).

[Ken Bennett]

Plenty of inexpensive PC laptops out there. Since it's not your main machine, it doesn't need to be screaming fast. I'm a Mac user, so I don't know where to begin to recommend any specific model, but a lot of my business colleagues at work swear by their Thinkpads.

[Mcthecat]

Thanks again guys. I know macs are great but since i upgraded my pc and run windows 7 its never broken down in over 5 months. Ill have a look at pc/mac's today.

Again sorry to be a pain by when you guys are away, do you store you pictures on the lap top then download to your main computer when back home or take an external hard drive. My hard drive is like my pc getting a little full and its been through a lot of travelling. Any recommendations for external drives? Again must be tough. I used a Seagate and its been fine.

You can tell that other than cameras im yet to join the digital age.

Mick

[Tony Jay]

Mick, in general it is much better to travel with a pair of external drives and to use them as mirrors of one another.
In Lr you can delegate where to upload your images and also delegate an automatic backup.
When you are not actually using your drives store them in different locations to prevent both getting damaged, stolen, or whatever in the same event.

I don't have an internet reference to give you but there are lots of options depending on how hard you need to work and punish the drives.

Regards

Tony Jay

[Justan]

I’d like to take advantage of this thread to ask if others have any reservations about storing data on the cloud?

I advise my corporate customers to be wary unless they are hosting their own cloud resources. The problem with 3rd party (cloud) storage includes the potential for loss and access to your content by people unknown to you. And then there is the problem related to the amount of data and access speeds. If you have multiple gigabytes of data it can take days or > to recover this, if there is a need.

WRT Dropbox, reportedly the chief complaint is that the security related to this vendor’s service is very ineffective.

As to notebook computers, I recommend the Dell brand. They are well supported; my experience has been that they are very reliable, and cost competitive. I have purchased probably a couple thousand of their computers on behalf of my clients and it is rare that most of the computers I’ve bought have problems throughout their service life.

A recommendation when shopping Dell. It might work for other vendors as well. Go to their web site and select the model you are interested in. Get a print summary and make a PDF of it. Then contact dell sales directly. Tell them more or less the following:

“I found xxxxx” on your site and want to know if you can beat the cost for this on the web site. If you give me your email address I’ll send you a print summary of what I’m interested in.”

For me they have always reduced the price. On more expensive items, it can be a pretty significant savings, compared what is offered on their web site. For inexpensive computers, not much of a discount but no surprise.

For anyone that wonders, I’m only a satisfied customer of dell. I have no personal interest in the company, and receive nothing but generally good products and support, and own none of their stock (which is not a good investment as there are too many shares outstanding, IMO).

[Jeremy Roussak]

I don't worry terribly about security: I use a reasonably long, fairly randomised password, change it from time to time and reassure myself with the thought that there are millions of people using cloud storage of one sort or another and the chance of a malefactor of sufficient ingenuity to break the encryption wasting his time with me is pretty small.

Cloud backup is no substitute for (preferably multiple) backups; as things stand, it's far, far too slow, even with fast ADSL / cable connections. I am blessed with a 20Mbps connection, but that's just for download: upload is a miserable 1 to 1.5Mbps, which means it takes an awfully long time to back up even just a few raw files.

Rotating backups, ideally stored off-site or at least in a reasonably fireproof safe, combine practicability with speed.

Jeremy

[Farmer]

Jeremy is exactly right.  Cloud is just another piece of the puzzle, not a replacement.

[Mcthecat]

I have been advised by another guy on this set up.

Lap top plus two hard drives. Lightroom. Solar charger. Souds more like what im used to. Look ok to you guys.

Thanks again

Mick

[Jeremy Roussak]

I have been advised by another guy on this set up.

Lap top plus two hard drives. Lightroom. Solar charger. Souds more like what im used to. Look ok to you guys.

Well, as with so many things in life, the equipment you have is less important than the way in which you use it.

You have what you need. If you use it properly (to make mirrored backups, which are then kept separate, so far as possible, while you are out), it sounds fine. If you keep both external drives in the laptop case, you're asking for trouble!

Jeremy

[wolfnowl]

Apple has the iCloud... if you're a PC user you might want to look into Google Drive instead.  Or Dropbox, or one of the other sites, but check what they offer first. 

Mike.

[Steve House]

In addition to concerns such as the time involved with large file transfers, etc, I have serious reservations about "the Cloud" as a primary storage method.  As it happens, in my "day job" I'm constantly delivering presentations at client sites.  It's no  unusual for the conference room where I'm presenting to bo in a building location that has marginal connectivity to the cellular/wireless system and the client's network has no provision of guest access to the internet.  If my presentation materials lived on a web site, I'd be screwed.  Suppose the ISP providing your connectivity went down, just at the moment you needed to access those files?  Or you forgot to pay your bill this month or it got lost in the mail and your files were purged from their servers?  Using the Cloud to provide redundant off-site backup and as a file transfer service, sure.  But as one's primary storage method and data archive location, fugeddaboutit.

[Tony Jay]

 But as one's primary storage method and data archive location, fugeddaboutit...

There are no truly robust storage solutions out there.
If the criteria are: cheap, robust, reliable, accessible, and user friendly, then no current option fits the bill.
There are those that approach these criteria but fall badly on price.

Actually this whole area is a rapidly growing problem especially when combined with the risk of RAW formats becoming orphaned (as many have already). So, even if one can securely store one's image files what is the guarantee that in years to come one could open them?
I agree that all is not lost since excellent solutions will need to be developed because the demand will become ferocious (think how many digital images are shot every day).

Cost and complexity are the major current befuddlers. Not everyone can easily afford multiple redundant pairs of internal and external hard drives as well as pairs of offsite archive drives. Keeping all the backups up to date and the archives current does take a lot of work but this is the current "price of doing business" as it were. The number of levels where this sort of system could fail are mind-boggling - hence the level of human attention required.

I absolutely agree that the "cloud" is currently NOT a robust solution despite its purported advantages.

We will need to keep our ears to the ground.

Regards

Tony Jay