Cloud Storage Devices: 6 Worth Your Money 2
Personal storage clouds are changing the way we store data from photographs to sensitive information. Here are six options for employees and workgroups.
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When most enterprise IT folks talk about cloud services, they have remote systems, huge data centers, and five-nines reliability in mind. For a growing number of companies with remote workers, though, "the cloud" must grow to include shoebox-size storage systems on employees' home networks.
At CES 2015 there were a number of companies showing desktop storage systems incorporating cloud-like remote access. For photographers, videographers, and other individuals creating huge files in great quantities, these storage systems are now part of the basic kit. Small businesses might likewise find that a desktop storage system with cloud capabilities can form the basis of a workable overall storage infrastructure. For larger businesses and enterprises, though, these "personal clouds" pose as many challenges as possibilities.
One is the danger of "horizontal infection" posed by employees working at home. Employees with personal clouds can inadvertantly allow an intrusion to succeed if they don't take full advantage of the security features offered by the personal cloud vendors. Once an intrusion has begun in one employee's system, it can then spread "horizontally" through the organization, hopping from employee to employee via the reduced security that tends to be in place for "trusted" internal zones.
[How important were personal clouds at CES 2015? Read CES 2015: 11 Peeks Into The Future.]
But security concerns are no reason to take drastic action against these personal cloud systems -- they're simply a reason to look at the capabilities of various systems now, so IT can make solid recommendations to employees. Security is a good reason to proactively develop policies and procedures for safely incorporating these systems in the enterprise infrastructure.
To get around some of the security concerns, several of the devices in this space use public cloud services as part of their remote file access capabilities. This strategy has several advantages, chief among them being a reliance on the public cloud's authentication and security systems for users, and removing the requirement for users to drill holes in their firewall rules to allow in-bound transactions.
The number of options in personal storage clouds is growing. We highlight six here. Click through our slideshow to get a much better idea of what's possible -- and what might be perfect for your organization.
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Western Digital's My Cloud provides up to 6 terabytes of storage with support for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. The companion iOS and Android apps allow mobile access to files through public cloud providers including Dropbox, Microsoft, and Google. A similar outgoing app on My Cloud minimizes the need for a customer to write custom firewall rules to allow inbound data requests.
Seagate's Personal Cloud Home Media Storage product provides up to 8 terabytes of storage in a system designed to allow customers to access photo, video, and audio files from devices located pretty much anywhere within the reach of the Internet. The system is designed with built-in mirroring to a second disk within the unit to enhance reliability. As with the Western Digital personal cloud, Internet access for remote devices and mobile users is provided through synchronizing with Dropbox, Box, Microsoft, or Google public cloud services.
Drobo provides a wide variety of sizes and configurations all based on Drobo's BeyondRAID system that uses front-panel displays and a series of apps to help customers figure out when the system is getting close to its storage limits. Drobo systems provide up to 36 terabytes of storage in systems that link with various cloud systems to provide off-site backup and file sharing for Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS X, and Linux devices. Drobo targets small businesses and graphic-intensive professions, with expandability, migration ease, and reliability its main selling points.
Synology is another company that offers products ranging from single-drive 3-terabyte units up to multiple-unit rack-mount systems with as much as 636 terabytes on board. The DiskStation BeyondCloud is aimed at home-based professionals and consumers; its main selling point is that it's plug and play -- no setup is required on the part of the user. Synology makes BeyondCloud available in several versions, with software aimed at those who want to share music, video, photos, music, or general files. Each automatically connects to public cloud services in the particular media area, with the general file version offering capabilities including FTP and torrent compatibility.
LaCie CloudBox is another plug-and-play system with minimal setup required. Unlike several of the other products here, the CloudBox doesn't require a public cloud service for remote file sharing. Instead, it makes use of the MyNAS application (and app) to directly connect users with the device, with outbound transactions initiated from the CloudBox to get around complex firewall rule requirements. CloudBox offers up to 4 terabytes of storage in a single-drive configuration.
QNAP offers lots of different devices for different types of customers. In the SOHO market alone it offers a couple of dozen products with capacities ranging from 3 terabytes in a single drive up to 48 terabytes in an eight-bay system. For cloud-based sharing with remote users and devices, QNAP takes a different approach than the other vendors here: It uses an external cloud service, but it's QNAP's own cloud service, myQNAP -- rather than one of the large public clouds. Any QNAP customer can use the myQNAP cloud service to connect their QNAP network-attached storage device to a larger cloud. Then, any user can connect a desktop or mobile device through the service.
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