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Author Topic: Cloud Storage  (Read 3697 times)

bellimages

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Cloud Storage
« on: August 01, 2012, 11:17:39 am »

I feel that it's time to move to cloud storage. I have redundant hard drives inside my MacPro. They do a daily backup of any new files that I have created. Additionally, I take a hard drive to my lockbox on a monthly basis. But that is a pain in the rear ... and I only do it on a monthly basis.

How many of you are using cloud-based storage? Are you happy with the company you use? Please recommend them if you feel that their service is exemplary.
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Jan Bell, Owner/Photographer, Bell Image

Texas308

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2012, 03:44:03 pm »

I have been using HiDrive for about 90 days and so far so good...hitting the 100GB + now so it looks like I need to bump it up to the next level offering of 500GB.
One can also connect via mobile device to your cloud shares which is good for showing/sharing photos when not at home.

My Synology NAS has the HiDrive agent running on it so everything is scheduled auto/auto to the cloud...may not be the cheapest out there but it has been flawless so far...

Hope this helps...
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2012, 04:38:31 pm »

I feel that it's time to move to cloud storage. I have redundant hard drives inside my MacPro. They do a daily backup of any new files that I have created. Additionally, I take a hard drive to my lockbox on a monthly basis. But that is a pain in the rear ... and I only do it on a monthly basis.

How many of you are using cloud-based storage? Are you happy with the company you use? Please recommend them if you feel that their service is exemplary.

What sort of broadband connection do you have? Even a very high-speed domestic connection (I have 20Mb/sec down and 1Mb/sec up, which isn't bad for the UK but a hell of a lot faster than my brother in LA gets; my mother has 50 down and 5 up, which is exceptional) will take forever to upload or download a significant number of photos.

An important part of backup is the ability to restore - that's trite but often forgotten. Work out how long it will take you to download your library from your cloud-based server if the worst happens. Some will send you a hard drive, which might be worth it (I think Mozy does, or at least did).

The cloud is a great idea but I'm far from convinced that it's ready for the kind of use you are contemplating. I use Dropbox to back up all my work and sync it between my Macs: it's fantastic, but the work is text, not photographs.

Just a thought. 

Jeremy
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Farmer

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2012, 09:39:54 pm »

Crashplan is good in that they will send a hard drive (and receive one) - up to 1TB.  Although they don't advertise doing it outside of the US, if you have a US address courtesy of a friend who is prepared to onship to you, then they'll let you do that (and give you a couple of extra weeks for the additional shipment).  I've found them to be very good.
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Phil Brown

David S

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2012, 03:25:26 pm »

I have been using BackblazeBackup and while it works, it takes forever due to my Sympatico HS upload rate. Further, if I did not have a grandfathered account, the cost would be huge.

How do folk speed things up and how do they get around the monthly usage amounts.

Dave S
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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2012, 07:24:42 pm »

Crashplan - $140- for 4 years, unlimited data.

https://www.crashplan.com/consumer/store.vtl#single-plan

And for $125- one off, you can use a hard drive to throw 1TB into the mix to start things off.

I don't consider the price an issue.  $5.52 a month for 4 years if you include doing a hard drive upload and $2.92 if you don't do the HDD upload.

If you have 3 or more computers, the "family" plan becomes very cheap.

I don't work for them or anything, just a customer.
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Phil Brown

Rhossydd

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2012, 01:53:52 am »

Cloud storage for serious photographic collections doesn't seem a practical proposition.

It takes too long(many months) to upload any significant amount of work from most domestic and SoHo  lines. Storage subscription costs soon start to get unreasonable once you get beyond the terrabyte point.
Plus there's the concern that any chosen service might cease trading and your archive has disappeared, or they change their rates and become uncompetitive.

Probably worthwhile for business documentation though.
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Farmer

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2012, 08:07:31 am »

Not really.  See above.  You can start off with 1TB via an HDD and then it's unlimited.  Sure, it takes time, but even domestic users can do things like linking two ADSL2+ connections with some ISPs and for a business, the cost isn't bad at all.

Then it's a matter of constantly uploading - which is not so hard since it's automatic whenever you're connected.
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Phil Brown

martinreed22

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2012, 08:45:14 am »

"Me too" for Crashplan. I would never advocate cloud storage as the only mechanism, but as an addition to existing local/near-local backup it makes sense to me.

Yes, the first backup can take a while, but every image/file uploaded is one more that has that extra level of protection for the extreme case of losing all local backup.

Given the value of the data, I consider the cost to be negligible, with Crashplan offering one of the better stories.

FWIW, I have a smaller set of files also backed up to Carbonite. Overall I prefer Crashplan. Ditched Mozy and Spideroak for various reasons that don't invalidate their service per se (such as price).

I'm aware that some very large companies also use Crashplan software, which I take as a vote to the company's underlying stability.

Regards, Martin
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bellimages

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2012, 06:40:20 pm »

My concern is that if I subscribe to one of these cloud storage companies they may not be in business a year or so later.

And, of you should need to retrieve a file that you've lost, are you able to browse folders/files off their server? Or is there some archaic way of finding a file?
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Jan Bell, Owner/Photographer, Bell Image

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Re: Cloud Storage
« Reply #10 on: August 05, 2012, 04:33:51 am »

If they disappear, they disappear.  You can't really help that except to choose a company that's been around for a little while and appears to have some decent corporate customers.

With Crashplan, and I suspect most of them, you can browse.  In fact, I can browse my backups from any website, or my iPhone etc and grab any file I like - I don't have to "restore" it, I can just access or download it.
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Phil Brown
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