Google Drive launches, but why not run internet storage yourself?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 24th Apr 2012 17:39 UTC
Google Well, this has been a very, very long time in the making. Google has finally unveiled its big Dropbox competitor: Google Drive. You start with 5GB for free, and you can go all the way to 1TB for $50 per month. This is a big deal for many (if you were to use rumouring as a gauge), but all I can think of is this: why on earth would you entrust your files to a company - any company - whose sole interest is extracting money from you, and who, to boot, is subject to crazy American laws?
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Yeah, I don't get it either.
by bryanv on Tue 24th Apr 2012 18:50 UTC
bryanv
Member since:
2005-08-26

I have a QNAP NAS box. I can get to it anywhere. I don't even need a static IP to do it.

http://www.mycloudnas.com/

I own the box. I own the drives. The content is mine.

My total investment in this thing is ~$500, and I have 2TB of storage. At $50/month/TB, it's paid for itself in 5 months. Silly.

As for off-site storage, I have a safe deposit box for that.

Reply Score: 5

RE: Yeah, I don't get it either.
by Radio on Tue 24th Apr 2012 18:52 in reply to "Yeah, I don't get it either."
Radio Member since:
2009-06-20

The main problem to host your own files, I think, is that most of us have DSL connections: correct download speeds, but really crappy upload speed. I think a fiber connection is necessary to get an equivalent comfort to Google/Dropbox/iCloud/etc.

Reply Parent Score: 2

jebb Member since:
2006-07-06

It really depends on your usage case then. I have no interest in accessing my files from outside (can't from the company LAN, and don't have a smartphone), I really see the benefit of such services as a data safety system for these files I wouldn't bear to lose, with professional-grade redundancy and back-up strategy.

At the moment I store everything locally on a Qnap as well, and because I'm dreading the eventual demise of the hard drive I mirror it once a week on the machine I used to use as a server (which itself has a RAID-1). But it's not really a satisfying solution either, if only because of the fact that both computers sit in the same room '^^

I guess an alternative to a payed-for service in my case would be a backup buddy that I know I can trust, with a similar NAS, and setup a cron/rsync/ssh job to mirror my data on his box every night (and his data on my NAS reciprocally). Possibly with a version-control layer somewhere to avoid data loss due to "operator error".

Reply Parent Score: 1

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