Cloud storage: The consumer's best friend?

Storing files on your hard drive alone is risky since hardware failures can result in losing of all your data. The best way to back up your information is to store it in the cloud--or at least somewhere other than your local system. And there are plenty of options to choose from if you go the cloud route--online storage is hardly an underserved area.

Livedrive cloud storage

(Credit: Livedrive)

I was recently briefed by U.K.-based start-up Livedrive, which is targeting consumers and small businesses and boasts more than half a million customers.

Even though it's not marketed as a replacement for the vast and sundry applications we rely on daily, Livedrive is effectively turning the browser into an operating system. Customers can share their files between all of their computers and securely access them online from anywhere, including mobile devices like the iPhone.

This is a fairly crowded market with companies like Mozy and Box.net offering various services, but Livedrive's offering looks a lot more what we expect to see from the mythical GDrive--Google's supposed online storage system

Users can easily share and collaborate on docs, watch videos, and stream music--all within the Web browser. Livedrive also has Facebook, Flickr, and SmugMug integration for all you social butterflies. It's obviously appealing to have your music, movies, docs, and other files stored in the cloud--especially when you only need a Web browser to access all of them.

"Livedrive can be used by anyone, and we're constantly seeing new and innovative ways that people use our service to make their lives easier," CEO Andrew Michael said.

With services like this cheap and readily available there is no reason consumers can't backup and manage their own data. After all, you can't always trust the "experts."

[cvaldes1831]

Dave,

When did you write this article? Two weeks ago?

A million SideKick users have lost their data forever. Gone from the cloud. I would say that the cloud is the consumers' worst friend right now.

You really don't want to store your mission-critical data with someone with little care, consideration, or interest. Keep your backups offline, and a few offsite, but don't trust the cloud to do this.

Ask a million SideKick users.

[DBAdmin1]

I think you'll find he says "The best way to back up your information is to store it in the cloud--or at least somewhere other than your local system". He's not saying to keep the data soley in the cloud, like SideKick. He's recommending you keep multiple copies in physically separate locations.

[livedrive]

Although you can store data with Livedrive only online, most of our customers use us to sync their files between their PCs and remotely backup their files. This means that the files are in at least two places - your computer and our server - so you're never relying on one source. We have lots of confidence in our infrastructure and we've put a lot of investment into robust architecture and multi-level redundancy, but our local/remote structure gives our users extra confidence and means they can use and access their files even if they can't get on the net.

[cvaldes1831]

Just avoid the cloud. In addition to reliability, performance, and data loss are extreme serious privacy and security issues.

I have no problems uploading images to Flickr or videos to YouTube. I simply don't view those as storage services and I realize there are serious privacy and security risks associated with those operations.

I know every cloud operator will boast of their technology, infrastructure, security, reliability, blah blah blah, but various outages in recent memory simply have destroyed cloud computing's reputation as a promising solution for enterprise-caliber IT needs. And as a consumer, I wouldn't pay one dime for this sort of poor performance.

[daverosenberg]

A million Sidekick users could have easily backed up their own data.

[cvaldes1831]

Sweden's DNS failure, ongoing outages for 150,000 Facebook users, the well-fed Twitter fail whale, Google's Postini outage.

The cloud sucks.

Feel free to try to write about the cloud in ten years, but don't waste our time with this B.S. right now.

Shoemakers are running cloud services.

[gerrrg]

How do you back up 1TB online? It'll take forever and a day.

[livedrive]

You're right - there are challenges, which will improve as broadband speeds improve. Many users currently have 1Mb/s upload speeds: uploading 1TB of data would take 12 days, with the computer on all of the time. However most users don't have this much data.

Cloud storage providers like Livedrive have thought about this carefully - everything happens silently in the background, so you don't have to wait for the upload to happen. If you shut down your computer and start it up again, the upload will resume at the last file it uploaded. Once you've got through that initial upload, everything then happens almost instantly - even if you've got 1TB of data, its unlikely you'll be creating 1TB on a regular basis.

[Techno Guy]

Consumer caution regarding cloud storage is appropriate, and the onus is on cloud providers to reassure both current and potential customers of the reliability and security of the data held in trust with those companies. The market will punish any provider that cannot do that. But the completely sour views of some are unfounded.

I for one was mistrustful of cloud data storage when I first investigated it for my personal use about a year ago. Now, after using a provider for several months, I am a fan. The ability to cheaply and easily store multiple versions of critical data in encrypted offsite storage that is readily accessible wherever I go is invaluable. Since I don't offload my data to the cloud, as Sidekick users did, but simply use it as a backup medium, even if my provider disappeared from the face of the earth, I still have my data. And on the other hand, if my local data were to disappear in a natural disaster, I have the ability to rapidly restore it from my cloud provider. Likely most PC users do not regularly back up their data, no matter how many times they have been told they should. And those who do, using local media such as an external hard drive or optical media, are still typically storing their backup data in close proximity to their source data, and will likely lose both in a natural disaster or in the event of theft.

So is cloud backup storage the perfect solution? No, at least not yet. But it is far, far better than what many people now have - nothing - and even better, in my opinion, than the typical local storage that many others use. I currently use the services of a Livewire competitor, but when my annual renewal comes due, I will probably give them another look. Their services are compelling, and their pricing very reasonable, in my opinion.

[TopJimmy68]

I highly recommend verifying that communications between the client and the cloud servers are indeed secure. Has anyone independently tested that the Livedrive client talks securly to their servers?

[coincidentaleuropean]

As there appears to a conscientious Livedrive employee monitoring this thread....

Greetings. I was very tempted by Livedrive... until I read this:

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

6.4 Livedrive reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend the provision of Livedrive Services to you and/or terminate your Membership at any time, without warning.

If ever there were a *** moment.

Care to explain?