the cloud

[afoto]

is anyone out there using the cloud to store their photos?

i'm tired of my ever growing stack of terabyte hard drives and heard that if you store information there they also back it up for you.

anyone have any information or opinions or experiance?

thanks!

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

The concept is intriguing. The cost and company stability risk is off-putting, to me.

Also, a lot of these "cloud storage" places start up and shut down very quickly. How would you like an e-mail in your inbox saying "you've got 2 weeks to get your stuff off our hard drives or it's gone, we're going out of business"?

If you can find a company with a proven track-record that has no signs of slowing down, and don't mind the cost, then why not?

Also, check with your ISP regarding the cap on data transfers in a month period. Comcast caps home residential users at 250GB a month. If you have terabytes of data to upload, you'll need to spread it out.

 

[PlanetStarbucks]

Amazon Glacier

Been using glacier for a while and it's my dedicated backup for everything on my computers. You can store a terabyte for about $10 a month. Fully redundant storage, etc...you can read all about it there. As long as you use it as backup and not active storage, it's really quite cheap.

 

[rlemert]

I have two concerns that have prevented me from using the cloud for anything personal. One is the stability that others have alluded to already. The other is the fact that you are turning over control of your files to another entity. (This is why I pay for max income tax software every year rather than using their on-line service.)

That said, I use an internal company cloud every day at work. It's the company's data, after all, and if they develop stability problems my access to what's essentially their data anyway won't be the most pressing issue on my mind.

 

[.SimO.]

is anyone out there using the cloud to store their photos?
i'm tired of my ever growing stack of terabyte hard drives and heard that if you store information there they also back it up for you.
anyone have any information or opinions or experiance?
thanks!

If it is in your control, you should always keep it that way. If having a company store the files for you is convenient enough and you can justify the monthly/yearly premiums, then go for it. But definitely take in and weigh the pro's/cons. Rotanimod has some great points.

The concept is intriguing. The cost and company stability risk is off-putting, to me. Also, a lot of these "cloud storage" places start up and shut down very quickly. How would you like an e-mail in your inbox saying "you've got 2 weeks to get your stuff off our hard drives or it's gone, we're going out of business"? If you can find a company with a proven track-record that has no signs of slowing down, and don't mind the cost, then why not?
Also, check with your ISP regarding the cap on data transfers in a month period. Comcast caps home residential users at 250GB a month. If you have terabytes of data to upload, you'll need to spread it out.

Damn Comcast. The rumor mill is stating that in the very near future, Economy up to whatever is under blast will be bumped to 300GB and 50GB increments from there. Not really sure how many "levels" they have though, lol. Bastards will probably change my monthly plan automatically anyways to adjust costs for everyone else.

I have two concerns that have prevented me from using the cloud for anything personal. One is the stability that others have alluded to already. The other is the fact that you are turning over control of your files to another entity. (This is why I pay for max income tax software every year rather than using their on-line service.)
That said, I use an internal company cloud every day at work. It's the company's data, after all, and if they develop stability problems my access to what's essentially their data anyway won't be the most pressing issue on my mind.

Paranoid about online tax software? I'd be more worried about your every day online purchases over that. Also, i'm not sure what an internal company cloud actually is. That kind of negates itself unless you are speaking of DMZ's... which are still external. If a company is really utilizing virtual servers externally and paying a company to pay another company to store them... I don't see any positive aspect in that business or security approach at all. Only cost savings.


I am definitely a fan of virtualizing servers for remote administration and convenience but in regards to virtual storage out of my network, and from a security aspect, I would never store anything out of my control. Maybe security controls will be worked on and become policy for alot of these sites and I may become somewhat of a believer but that seems to be of little concern right now. Just my thoughts.

 

[rlemert]

Also, i'm not sure what an internal company cloud actually is.

To clarify: My company produces high-end software used for semi-conductor design that runs on large Unix systems. We used to each have our own inidividual Unix work stations. Now, we have a whole lot of central servers, which we access through our laptops. Our data (and our software) are kept in a central location that we can access from anywhere, which is what I understand is the essential description of "the cloud". The servers are, however, operated by the company and kept on company property, which is what makes it an "internal" cloud.

 

[.SimO.]

Also, i'm not sure what an internal company cloud actually is.

To clarify: My company produces high-end software used for semi-conductor design that runs on large Unix systems. We used to each have our own inidividual Unix work stations. Now, we have a whole lot of central servers, which we access through our laptops. Our data (and our software) are kept in a central location that we can access from anywhere, which is what I understand is the essential description of "the cloud". The servers are, however, operated by the company and kept on company property, which is what makes it an "internal" cloud.

Oh okay, I was just curious on a clarification. I'd definitely scope that as part of a cloud computing environment and definitely a converged one since you have remote administration to everything back on your centralized network. That's good in my book long as it is secured. Lol, like my opinion really matters. Thanks for the clear up.

 

[JDFlood]

I use clouds to have my music available to all my devices anywhere ( iPads, iPhone, laptops, PCs), and for Microsoft Onenote files (20GB) and Evernote data, and a thousand or so photos to show folks. But I would not trust having a single copy on a cloud of all my photos. I have managed IT for over 30 years and the most unreliable hardware / software there is, seems to be backup software and like some other folks pointed out, some clouds come and go... I would not trust a single cloud yet. So for me,it is a convenience for data I want to access anywhere not a replacement for the 22 TB I have at home ( and the 3tb backup I keep in my desk at work in case my house burns down. JD