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Daniel Brame The Best Cloud Storage and File Sharing Providers for Businesses for 2019 Businesses need reliable cloud storage and file-sharing services in order to effectively manage their files. Here we test and compare 10 such services that make it easy to manage files within or outside of your company. What Is Cloud Storage? There's limitless scalability and budget-easing affordability to be enjoyed with today's storage capacity and pricing options in the cloud. Your business can store its data at a fraction of the cost of other options these days. Users can easily share important documents across the company and externally, thanks to integrated services and strong cloud-based security. Files can be sent fully encrypted and IT can track them with complete oversight.
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That said, there are still many important features that cloud-based storage and file sharing platforms need to contain before they can be considered ready for businesses. For information to be useful in the business world, it needs to be accessible, traceable, and secure. Cloud services also should support the needs of workers accessing data in multiple locations, since roughly is set up for at least part-time remote work, according to. In addition, cloud services should support the workflow of your organization. Luckily, there are several cloud storage applications that can meet these challenges. But before you make a final buying decision and migrate your data to someone else's cloud, you should know some key details relating to storage and sharing, security, and integrations. Storage and Sharing In terms of storage capacity, raw storage space is becoming more and more affordable every year.
As multiple terabytes (TB) per user become commonplace, competition has shifted more to service features rather than overall bucket size. Today, 1 TB of space is typical as a starting place, with more storage readily available and very affordable.
What you're really looking at are the other features provided by the service. Some providers have their own data centers while others actually outsource their storage to another third-party cloud, often (AWS) or a similar (IaaS) player. That's an important point to consider: Are you signing a service-level agreement (SLA) with a cloud provider that's directly responsible for the infrastructure or is the provider beholden to another party? If it's a third party, make sure to investigate that firm and examine its track record. Then, look at the levels of service it offers. For example, while all of the major offerings have some level of uptime guarantee, it is worth noting that location is an important factor.
How many data centers does the third party have? And is your data distributed among them for better reliability or does that come at an additional cost?
In terms of sharing data, at a minimum, this should take the form of a sync client, meaning software that resides on each registered client and which takes care of making sure data in the cloud is synced with any local replicas. But it can also have other points of access.
For instance, Microsoft OneDrive for Business syncs with the Team sites that are part of the popular collaboration platform, while Box for Business offers a fully functional web client with drag-and-drop support. Shared data can be stored in folders originated by individuals or in team folders that are created by team leads or administrators (and are accessible to anyone on the team). Some version of team folders should be considered a necessary component of any business-grade cloud storage app. By creating central points of collaboration that don't originate from any one user, it becomes easier to grant and revoke access as well as pass on ownership when an individual leaves the organization or changes divisions. Several solutions go above and beyond the call of duty and incorporate tight integration with popular office products such as. Users can, in many cases, view and edit the same document at the same time.
While there isn't a perfect solution yet, situations where the last user always wins may go away in the near future. Keeping data safe is a bigger challenge today than it's ever been.
What were once considered 'advanced' data safety features, such as enterprise-grade, redundant storage layers, and encryption both at rest and in transit, are no longer optional. These are now basic requirements for you to even consider spending money on a service. Fortunately, cloud storage providers seem to agree, which is evidenced by commonly available features and the fact that most IT professionals trust cloud security as much or more than what's available on-premises (64 percent according to a 2015 survey by the ). The logic is fairly simple. Most IT professionals simply don't have the budget to research, deploy, and manage the advanced security capabilities that cloud service vendors can provide because it's key to their primary business.
That's upped security in the cloud significantly over the past couple of years, which has had the pleasant side effect of letting many cloud services successfully comply with standards such as the (HIPAA) and ISO 27001. Ensuring that information is auditable is paramount to meeting corporate obligations. Losing mission-critical files due to mistakes or misconduct can often cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in reparations or lost capital.
Document retention is often a requirement in legal matters as well. In heavily regulated industries, having the right information on hand can often mean the difference between being in or out of compliance with federal or industry-specific regulations. All of this means that, before you purchase any cloud service, you need to sit down with your IT staff and your compliance expert, and then map out exactly where data and apps need to be located in order to pass the compliance regulations that are important to your business.
Personal mobile devices, especially when used in (BYOD) scenarios, add new challenges to controlling the flow of sensitive documents and information. Capabilities such as remote wipe or digital rights management can go a long way in limiting how far information can spread outside of the organization, especially when these devices are lost or compromised. Some products offer these features out of the box, while others use third-party offerings to close this gap, such as. Controlling permissions varies from product to product.
Some solutions offer a highly granular hierarchy of permissions. In addition to the ability to define job roles and assign access based on that, multiple nested groups can be established. Adding or removing permissions is an easy affair once they're properly defined. Other products opt for a more simplified approach. It's a daunting task for a user to keep up with the litany of passwords required across all apps without reducing security in some way. (SSO) solves some of this by having one secure password, such as the one used for a or Google account.
Some solutions offer this capability as a first-class citizen while others have partnerships with third-party products. Either way, from a small business perspective, this is an important feature since password management is often given low priority when compared against getting business done.
Locking data away doesn't end with just, either. In addition to having something you know, it's better to pair it with something you have. Two-factor or even (MFA) is becoming a more commonplace option, and cloud storage companies are getting onboard. Mobile phones, or specially prepared USB fobs, are typically the default option as the secondary authentication source. But other forms of tokens exist, including and biometrics. Platforms Almost as important as keeping information safe is making information accessible across the diverse landscape of devices that users bring to the mix. The primary candidates are the typical: Microsoft Windows, Linux, and a variety of Android flavors, as well as Apple's iOS and OS X.
For any platform to be effective in today's business landscape, web access is a must. In some cases, an authorized device is not always available. Being able to grab a quick document for a meeting or push a business-critical document from a remote computer can be a lifesaver for an ever-increasing distributed workforce—a lifesaver that users expect to be available to them. Mobile compatibility has gained a place in the ecosystem of business. This especially applies to road warriors who frequently work in planes, cars, and subways. Space is often at a premium, and the ability to prepare for a meeting or analyze a spreadsheet on the go is a necessity. Having a cloud storage solution that can provide these capabilities to users via a software client optimized for their particular operating system (OS), be it Android, iOS, even Windows Phone, is a feature you should look for in a competitive service offering.
For example, Dropbox Business recently added some that let users see file activity and team feedback in file preview. Integration and APIs One of the primary benefits of having information in the cloud is that it can be part of a larger ecosystem of connected apps. This capability lets businesses create custom workflows and business processes, often without having to hire contract programmers. For example, it's not unusual or difficult to configure your employees' note-taking apps to automatically drive input to task-tracking apps. That way, decisions made in meetings are automatically reflected in your toolkit.
Those apps might, in turn, drive a need to store reference material. Integration-oriented (APIs) help reduce the barrier to making apps work together, especially when your IT staff has some development talent. While many the most popular cloud storage solutions, such as Dropbox Business and Box, offer a rich set of integration options, some others, such as Jungle Disk, opt to primarily focus on the storage aspect. So, before buying, consider exactly how you want these solutions to fit into your business and what it will take to make that happen.
Choosing a cloud storage product for your organization can seem like a daunting task when you first consider all of the variables involved. Striking a balance between usability, security, and customization ultimately needs to be driven by business requirements, but understanding exactly what those requirements are is a serious task that will require real work; it's not something you want to come to with a snap decision. Planning is the key. So sit down with business leads, IT managers, and even a rep from the cloud provider under consideration. Make sure that all parties are getting what they need. Only after going through that step should you pull the trigger on a provider and start the migration process. Pros: Provides client-controlled encryption keys.
Offers server backup capability. Its shared drive approach is intuitive. Nicely priced. Cons: No system-level imaging capabilities. Very lean set of backup options. Storage is somewhat limited. Storage volumes aren't controlled by Jungle Disk.
Bottom Line: Jungle Disk lacks some of the native business application backup features that other services have. But it maintains a high level of encryption, which helps keep it compliant with HIPAA and other regulations.
Pros: Built-in options for backing up Microsoft Hyper-V, Exchange, and SQL Server. Cost is based on storage space and not user count. Strong encryption is utilized. Cons: Lacks native support for VMWare products. No team collaboration features offered.
Multifactor authentication isn't supported. No options for backing up cloud-based services. Bottom Line: MozyPro for Business a solid, reasonably priced, no-fuss option for backing up your company's systems. It excels in personal storage, data retention, and security but lags a bit when it comes to backing up non-Microsoft virtualized environments and cloud services. Pros: Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Multiple methods of transfer (FTP, SFTP, and WebDAV) are available.
Continuous backup. Cons: No security certifications are published. Features seem geared toward the consumer. Price is high for the limited feature set and lack of data protection assurances.
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Bottom Line: Livedrive for Business shows promise and offers many of the features you'd come to expect from an entry-level cloud storage solution. However, the lack of assurances regarding data protection may steer more risk-averse business users elsewhere.
Media streaming capabilities for cloud storage services have come a long way. We’ve detailed some of the as well as the before, but in this article we’re going to be talking about a more convenient — and much cooler — approach you can take: invest in a personal cloud storage device Personal cloud storage devices are ideal for home media because they offer more scalability and much better speeds than storing your data in a remote server farm. Additionally, if you have certain — ahem — in your media collection, it might be wiser to keep those away from the prying eyes of Hollywood and its minions. Means you don’t need to worry about cloud storage services scanning your file metadata. Having such devices on hand also means never losing access to your film collection in the event of a zombie apocalypse, and we all know that’s coming.
Picking the right device, however, takes time. There are many to choose from and potentially quite a bit of money at stake. During this overview, we’ll try and spare you some of the trouble by listing our top picks for personal cloud storage devices that will help you create a kickass home media system or would be part of a comprehensive.
Before we move on, though, we do want to point out that this approach isn’t for everyone: if you’d rather subscribe to a service that does the work for you, make sure to check out our comparison chart. Model Amazon Price: 3TB NAS $136.99 4TB NAS $162.15 6TB NAS???? If that isn’t enough, you can use USB port connections to expand to additional external storage. Seagate’s device supports sync for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, all of which can be used to watch video, listen to music or access stored photos. It also lets you stream 4k video and music to your TV.
Support is available for Samsung and LG smart TVs, Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Apple TV and Android TV. Is also supported, which will help you organize and stream your media, plus record live TV. Bittorrent Sync, WordPress, Elephant Drive and OwnCloud are also supported.
Seagate claims it’s personal cloud storage devices are currently the only ones available that supports, which will let you set up automated processes in conjunction with other apps and IoT devices. We weren’t able to disprove that claim.
We do have some advice for Seagate: come up with a catchier nickname. QNAP TS-251 & TS-451 If you’re looking for a great home media storage device with removable storage — and don’t mind spending a little more — the QNAP and are both power user picks. The TS models aren’t exactly pretty, but front-loading bays make them easy to upgrade. Plus, you get a remote. With a max capacity of 48TB for the 451, you won’t have to get off your couch for the foreseeable future.
As you might have guessed, the TS-251A is a two-bay device while the TS-451 features four bays. Both models can be bought on Amazon with 1GB, 2GB or 4GB of RAM. You can upgrade the RAM later, too, all the way up to 8GB according to the specs. Some users have reported being able to add 16GB if you really want to get crazy. Model: Amazon Price: TS-251, 1GB RAM $249.00 TS-251, 2GB RAM $318.90 TS-251, 4GB RAM $350.35 TS-451, 1GB RAM $396.20 TS-451, 2GB RAM $445.21 TS-451, 4GB RAM $509.00 Keep in mind that those costs don’t include hard drives, which you’ll need to buy separately. The QNAP TS-251 and TS-451 both transcode 4K video and include an HDMI port to connect directly to your television.
Even online and with encryption enabled, however, QNAP reports download speeds of around 200Mbps. Packaged Ocean KTV software also lets you turn the either device into a karaoke center. Other software packages, including Plex Media Server, file sharing and sync apps, can be added via QNAP’s QTS operating system. Western Digital My Cloud Personal Network WD’s personal cloud storage devices are best sellers on Amazon, with thousands of customer reviews to attest to their capability. Like Seagate’s entry above, doesn’t let you swap out the hard drives to upgrade. However, more storage options, including an 8TB entry, are available.
WD also makes a My Cloud “Mirror” edition that utilizes two drives instead of one. The advantage is that two-drive setups are capable of, which provides data redundancy to safeguard against drive failure. Also, the disc drives can be removed and replaced if needed. Model Amazon Price: 2TB NAS $149.99 3TB NAS $159.99 4TB NAS $160.99 6TB NAS $229.08 8TB NAS $299.99 Both single and dual bay My Cloud devices also have USB 3.0 ports to expand your storage to external drives if needed. WD includes sync software for Windows, Mac and mobile devices so that you can access your media content from anywhere. Web access is available, too. Mobile apps also support automatic video and photo backup so you don’t have to worry about saving them to the cloud yourself. Synology DiskStation DS216play & DS416play There are several models of DiskStation (DS) available covering a wide range of price points, storage capacities and capabilities.
We’d recommend going with the or versus the standard (play-less) DS216 and DS416 models because they support video transcoding. That means you can watch 4K Ultra videos on devices that don’t support 4K Ultra. Of course, if you’re streaming to a device that supports the video in its native format, transcoding isn’t required. Model: Amazon Price: DS216play $249.99 DS416play $399.99 You’ll need to buy your hard drives separately.
The DS216 features two bays, for a max capacity of 16TB, while the DS416 features four bays, for a max capacity of 32TB. Both support RAID.
Both models support Samsung Smart TVs, Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV and any DLNA-certified device. Plex Media Server is also supported. Other features we like include easy file sharing, including sharing via QR code, file versioning, selective sync, offline editing and AES encryption.
Both models support RAID, too. You can even supplement your disk space by syncing to traditional cloud storage options like Dropbox and Google Drive. Final Thoughts Investing in the right personal cloud storage system means turning your home into a self-contained system capable of delivering music and movies to all of your Internet-capable devices. The advantages of speed, privacy and more consistent access are all great reasons to opt for such solutions over traditional cloud storage services, even those particularly geared towards media like pCloud. With browser-based access and mobile apps, you can even access your collection on the road so long as your system is online.
Subscribe That said, we’d caution you against relying entirely on such systems. Like home computers and mobile devices, NAS devices can be stolen or more easily damaged than servers stored in climate-controlled, (read up on in our handy guide).
While you might get away with ditching Dropbox, at least considering adding an online backup plan to your setup. If you’re looking for recommendations, we have a few that will help ensure your media collection isn’t lost in the event of a system failure or other mishap. We’d love to hear about your own personal cloud storage setup and welcome any questions you might have about approach. Feel free to let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading. One thought on “The Best Personal Cloud Storage Devices for Home Media”.