Google Drive and other cloud services

Ingenious

Ingenious

Well-known member
I'm a cloud newbie/numpty so please excuse me being a few years behind!

I saw Google's Drive on the news today and it looked interesting. I have a laptop and two desktops and sharing files can be a bit of a pain. I have never used cloud services though for storage as I assumed the internet part would make file transfer slow.

And I've never bothered with a shared network drive, partly because I could never get my PC and Mac to like each other and partly as it won't help me when not at home.

So I wondered if anyone uses cloud services for file storage and sharing and how you get on with it? Is it really practical to dump photos onto the cloud and you access them anywhere, or save Photoshop files to the cloud, stuff like that?

I know you can share files with anyone, but can you set it so they can view/download only and not modify or delete?

Are there any major disadvantages to using the cloud for storage?
 
Privacy is a big issue when using a cloud service. Even for those who have privacy settings. Some clouds allow you to restrict content to just you and others are a complete free for all.
 
i pers. never trust outside services so i use own cloud services on own servers only.

for you i would recommend a NAS like QNAP wich will fit for all your needs. with a propper setup you eaven can
reach your files from everywhere. it works for me with linux-pc´s, ms-pc´s, mac´s and all the mobile devices.
 
I wouldn't trust any cloud service for sensitive documents. if you live outside US I wouldn't recommend using an American company, as then your documents suddenly are under American legislation.

If you want something simple, use Dropbox, it works on PC, Mac and most smart phones.
 
Did you see the bottom of that Google article you linked to above?

Updated at 8 p.m. to clarify that the first sentence of the Google terms states: "You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours."
Click to expand...

I never thought of the idea of using my own system and accessing that over the net. I'm guessing the advantages at home are very quick sharing of files and much, much bigger storage (5G on Google sounds a lot, but video files from my work projects are often 1-2GB each!), plus RAID backup of the data? The disadvantage when away from home being the lack of automatic synching of the files (ie. if I edit someone on the laptop away from home, I'll need to download the file off the home NAS, edit it, then put it back?).

Does anyone have any newbie links to network NAS systems, how to use them, what they're good/bad for?
 
MagnusB said:
I wouldn't trust any cloud service for sensitive documents. if you live outside US I wouldn't recommend using an American company, as then your documents suddenly are under American legislation.

If you want something simple, use Dropbox, it works on PC, Mac and most smart phones.
Click to expand...
(y)
 
Ingenious said:
Did you see the bottom of that Google article you linked to above?



I never thought of the idea of using my own system and accessing that over the net. I'm guessing the advantages at home are very quick sharing of files and much, much bigger storage (5G on Google sounds a lot, but video files from my work projects are often 1-2GB each!), plus RAID backup of the data? The disadvantage when away from home being the lack of automatic synching of the files (ie. if I edit someone on the laptop away from home, I'll need to download the file off the home NAS, edit it, then put it back?).

Does anyone have any newbie links to network NAS systems, how to use them, what they're good/bad for?
Click to expand...

Sure, update the article between reading and posting it. gosh. lol Well, GLAD to hear.
 
Looks like I'm going down the route now of a home NAS (thanks Cool for the QNAP suggestion). I hadn't realised they had developed so much (or got so cheap). So using the home NAS I get say 1TB of shared storage, quick and continuous back-up of all my machines, RAID1 protection of that, and can access the files over the net. Best of all, it's my own system and private. The QNAPs even allow me to run my own home web server with PHP and MySQL - not sure what use that is.

Floris said:
Sure, update the article between reading and posting it. gosh. lol Well, GLAD to hear.
Click to expand...

I don't know about you Floris, but even with that update, it doesn't really put my mind at rest. As people are pointing out, you could end up giving Google all sorts of personal info and now your files too!
 
Ingenious said:
I don't know about you Floris, but even with that update, it doesn't really put my mind at rest. As people are pointing out, you could end up giving Google all sorts of personal info and now your files too!
Click to expand...
Just wait until you buy an autonomous car by any car dealer that has a license to use of patents by Google in return or all your daily routes, etc. Which also gives them insight into possible level of insurance, how you are outside the computer or mobile gadget. hehe
 
Ingenious said:
Looks like I'm going down the route now of a home NAS (thanks Cool for the QNAP suggestion). I hadn't realised they had developed so much (or got so cheap). So using the home NAS I get say 1TB of shared storage, quick and continuous back-up of all my machines, RAID1 protection of that, and can access the files over the net. Best of all, it's my own system and private. The QNAPs even allow me to run my own home web server with PHP and MySQL - not sure what use that is.



I don't know about you Floris, but even with that update, it doesn't really put my mind at rest. As people are pointing out, you could end up giving Google all sorts of personal info and now your files too!
Click to expand...
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/25/2973849/google-drive-terms-privacy-data-skydrive-dropbox-icloud

I'd suggest reading that, as pretty much any cloud storage service has the same terms. Google states within their privacy policy that they have to ask for your consent if they want to use your information outside of the set limits of the privacy policy. As far as your personal information goes, Google is one of the few services that is pretty transparent as to what they do with your information, and lets you download your information through their dashboard.

Most of the arguments I have heard are pretty much just the general FUD you always hear regarding Google, and looks as if people turn a blind eye to Microsoft and Facebook, both of which do the same things as Google, and generally have more of a history of privacy fubars.
 
Having all Apple products, using iCloud is just really convenient, though they also don't have the issues that Google present, being to further use your data to deliver you targeted ads. Apple don't mine through your data targeting you for crap when you surf the web, it is purely just cloud storage for having their products.

Like Floris touched on dropbox. It is very handy for large file transfers between devices and locations without having to do anything other than turn on your device. I like iCloud for this reason, being all my data is synced between my macs, iPad and iPhone, without me having to do a thing. I can add a contact on my phone and its on my computer next time I turn it on, as are documents on my phone or iPad when I turn them on... needing them on the go.

IMHO, cloud have a lot of good uses, though also they have lots of privacy issues for sensitive data... depending on how much you trust the company to do the right thing. I trust Apple more than Google with my data, as Google are renowned for mining through your data to automatically give you better ad demographics... Apple are not.
 
Anthony, I've created an alias of the iCloud folder on my system and put it in the desktop. If I need a file in iCloud it now shows up on all devices. Maybe not handy to put a 25 gb file on a 16 gb iPhone, but it's damn handy. It turns iCloud a little bit into DropBox.

TrueCrypt <3
 
If you already have a web hosting service, why would you want a cloud service for storage of offline data????? I have a file storage area on my web hosting server and have been using that for many years.
 
masterchief said:
If you already have a web hosting service, why would you want a cloud service for storage of offline data????? I have a file storage area on my web hosting server and have been using that for many years.
Click to expand...
Most forums are hosted on Shared hosting.
You also do not own a VPS or Dedicated server.
Most vps/dedi solutions aren't set up to sync data or share them with others, etc. Such as dropbox does.
When your server goes down. So does your data.
When Dropbox's server goes down, they have a handful of clusters that still has your data.
 
I used KineticID for my thesis work due to their continuous backups and reverts. I still have the account, but don't use it, but it was pretty good and reasonably priced.
 

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