![]() ![]() Joab Jackson, IDG News Service\New York Bureau Many managers see cloud computing as risky business Wuala is not something I would ever be interested in! I’m uncomfortable enough as it is with putting my data somewhere out in the “cloud”, let alone making my PC storage part of the cloud for storage by others. “Question Authority” still has it’s place in the age of 24/7/365 anywhere / anytime connectivity – with Google as well as the Government. There’s too little known and too much “just trust us” in the whole Just as I’m not willing to trust government on say so alone, neitherĪm I willing to hand over the keys to the kingdom to the “cloud” no matter how much the hype, how well guarded the secrets. Inviting the casual user into their research and development Toyota, GM, Ford, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others aren’t I’m guessing it’s for much the same reasons Do we really know what the impact is,Įnvironmental, societal, cultural of such a massive shift of dataĪway from the “local” PC? I haven’t seen any deep discussions Promises are being made (think Iron Mountain on steroids) of integrity and stability. Heavy duty technical geeks working overtime to ensure data Yahoo, Microsoft or (name the most notable “cloud” computingĮntity you can think of) and somewhere there is a very real significantĬhunk of real estate with some heavy duty hardware and some Investment in architecture and manpower to ensure ongoing maintenance and thereby continuity of data. In reality is a significant chunk of real estate with a significant Worldly location at which data is stored or accessed. To the usage and discussions of the “cloud” is that it is this other The biggest problem I have with the “cloud” is that it is no moreĮthereal than a server or a hard drive. ![]() Oh, did I mention Wuala keeps old file versions and lets you share uploaded files, create public groups or set up folders on your computer to be synced online regularly? With my 0.5TB HDD half-empty, I'm aiming for about 100GB of online space in the future. I, for instance, have been online for about 35% of the time (and rising) since signing up a few days ago, thus earning a total of 8GB online so far for the 20GBs shared with the world. Simple math tells us a realistic rate to expect would be somewhere between 170MB and 700MB for 1GB of your hard disk space, which is not bad, provided you have some spare gigabytes to pass around. Therefore, the calculation determining the amount of online space you receive in exchange for your local space takes into account two factors: amount of shared space and your online presence. Clearly, your disk space is of little use if it cannot be accessed at least now and then. If your on-line presence drops, you won't be allowed to upload more until you match up again but you will NOT lose your data. What if you fail to meet the last criteria later on? Don't worry. Who is eligible to participate in this storage-trading network you ask? Well, all you need is some spare space on your HDD, reliable internet connection and the ability to meet a requirement of staying on-line in the long term for at least 17% of the time. It boosts its overall accessibility, speed and reliability ahead of the competition using deliberate redundancy - by spreading encrypted chunks of received files over a vast network of peers who decided to become "pro" members merely by giving up an unused portion of their hard drive in exchange for secure online storage accessible from anywhere and due to the very nature of the system expandable to sizes never seen before with free accounts. Wuala doesn't stop at simply storing user data in encrypted form on their back-bone servers. That is, unless you buy additional storage at competitive rates or, even better, begin trading your local diskspace for remote space. Obviously, if you are serious about full-scale online backup of the majority of your data or just need to store/share large files in a long-term fashion, 2 gigs just won't cut it and Wuala's 1GB won't even cut through half. ![]() What? 1GB, are you kidding? Behold, this is merely the beginning. ![]() After registering for a free account, you immediately get 1 free gigabyte of online storage managed through a convenient cross-platform client (JRE required). Wuala takes a unique approach to secure online storage. Update: Wuala announced in August 2015 that it will shut down the service on November 15, 2015. ![]()
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