What cloud storage should I use?

Hey guys,

I currently have a 50Gb free dropbox account which is almost full.

Who do you guys use and why?

I also use a external harddrive for storage but I am trying to keep a decent amount of copies.

 

Yeah, I'm also interested in the subject. I also use dropbox (just 9GB though) to back up my projects.
Is it possible to use code repositories to actually store assets such as textures/models and which repositories would you recommend in this case?

 

Try Copy.com. They give you 15GB when you sign up, and 5GB for every person you get them to sign up. I have heard people got 1.5 TB from them after getting hundreds of people signing up. They are still at beta phase so the offer might not last.

One bad thing about Copy is they don't support OSX older than Lion. But since Apple now offering upgrade to Maverick for free, unless you are like me still stuck in a project and can't upgrade mid-stream, then it shouldn't be a problem.

 

I handle mine a bit differently. I have a desktop at home with:

1 x 500 GB Drive (OS Drive)
2 x 1.5 TB Drives (dev drives)
1 x 3 TB Drive (local backup)

I have an Ultimate MSDN subscription so I run TFS 2013 on my desktop with a self-signed cert.
I do my development from several different machines using Visual Studio 2013 and pushing to TFS

Now, I use CrashPlan as my backup. I have the $13.99 / month plan as it allows me to backup up to 10 PCs so it does every PC / Laptop in my house. I chose CrashPlan because it performed the best out of the trials I did AND it supports backing up SQL Server databases without requiring you to sign up for the business plan. And storage is unlimited.

So... my D: and F: (the 1.5 TB drives) are live backups. It monitors them for live changes every couple of minutes and pushes the backups to CrashPlan. It also retains deleted items and versions my files so I can go back and get previous versions (another reason I love CrashPlan). And the versioning and deleted file history are all configurable.

Now, my TFS and other SQL Databases live on my X: (3 TB) drive. The reason for this is because some of the SQL databases are fairly large... and since they are binary files they would upload to Crash Plan every time there was a change (so every time I did a checkin for TFS for example). So, I set CrashPlan NOT to monitor my entire X: drive.

Instead, I created a folder on my X drive for DB Backups and CrashPlan monitors that folder. I have a backup job on my SQL server that does a daily incremental backup into that folder and CrashPlan then uploads the incremental (diff) backups. I have another job that does a FULL database backup once per week and CrashPlan also uploads that.

 

For serious business i use this bad boy https://cloud.google.com/products/cloud-storage/

Sure you pay a tiny bit but then youre all plugged into the rest of google's goodies which might prove useful if i try their compute over amazon's efforts

 

MEGA gives you 50GB (free)

https://mega.co.nz/

 

The best advice is to use multiple cloud storage sites in pairs, almost like two hardrives in raid 1, with this the chance of losing your data is almost an impossibility.

Group 1: Google Drive; Microsoft Skydrive

Group 2: Amazon Cloud Drive; Box

So basically download the sync clients from the aforementioned services, then create two new folders, set the first folder to sync with Group 1, and the second folder to Group 2. This setup is for the select items that would tear your world apart should you use them, such as the unity project months in the making.

Next up for general large storage I recommend mega, 50gb! Of space for free is amazing.

 

i love the raid analogy there!

50bg is very nice, and its an exceptionally well designed site, like, very clean and designed for purpose, i dont know if i class it as 'cloud storage' exactly though!

If I use storage on the web it would be either my hosting, which is 50gb or something like that anyways, but is ridiculously small if you really want to do something like archive large amounts of information where you can get at it from anywhere.

The whole cloud concept is being screwed up by windows mentality where your machine is a single discrete impregnable fortress of your stuff, whereas if you have been a regular user of unix for a few years on a large network, youre already used to the idea that your datas somewhere youre just not exactly sure where

I'm trying to, even though my internet speed isnt up to it perfectly, get into a 'cloud' mentality as fast as possible, its a larger network, use its facilities to store data you need to keep but dont need to use right now, it can be trusted, generally try and think about getting a little more integrated in a very forward thinking idea that at some point in the future your computer wont be a terminal but not everything youre doing will be local, storage will be distributed, so will computing, and so on, so to wrap up the ramble - while i like dinky lil online storage sites, unless i can see them wrapping into a larger whole i prefer the term 'dinky lil storage sites' to 'cloud storage'. I suppose for an absolute basic thing for a serious place to hold my data i want an api to it and a way of accessing it anywhere free of any particular client, so its as storagey as storage gets and not storage with a product monickered bow on it you cant take off

 

Yes, you can store anything. I backup my entire game projects which include a documents folder, a source assets folder and then the Unity project folder all on Github. I use SmartGit for my git client and of course have a paid GitHub account which as far as I know has no storage limit.

And of course, having a repository is by far the most efficient way of keeping your project files and source backed up, you SHOULD NOT be relying on full folder copies for your regular/working backups. I do make a full rar backup every 2nd week or so and keep it on SkyDrive just in case.

 

Thats some good advice there that i'm going to take next time im at my desktop

 

Thanks! I'll be looking into repositories then.
Any insight on why folder copying is not reliable?

 

If anyone is interested in Copy and wants an extra 5gb from a referral, here's a link for you: Copy Referral Link

Only works if you first join Copy via that link. If you already have a Copy account you cannot get the extra 5gb this way.

 

It's still on ostensibly magnetic media on your computer, if your hd breaks its lost, repositories hold multiple versions of your files over countless updates very generously online, even if your computer explodes in a firey rage, you can restore your hard work from the repository onto your new computer. Ive to learn github now as a pal who wants me to do something decided we'd use that but ive found tortoisesvn and google code pretty good before

 

Mega gives you 50gb free at registration.

 

Can you get at it through any other way than mega though? Is it only good for storing an arbitrary 50gb of archival information when that constitutes 1/20th if my current local storage space? What do you put there and how do you access it

 

For $2.49 a month, GoDaddy offers 100GB of cloud storage. You prepurchase for the entire year but that's still an awesome deal. It supports PC, Mac, Mobile, and auto/manual backups.

Link:
http://www.godaddy.com/email/online-storage.aspx?isc=gppt02k212&ci=55860


You could always buy a good router with a VPN and through an external USB 3.0 drive on it. Local high-speed storage with remote access. It's just not as simple to use a free cloud service.

 

Here's what I use:

Just Cloud


Product
Unlimited Plan (UNLIMITED)

Date Range
Sep/13/2013 - Sep/13/2015

Quantity
1

Amount
$166.85

There are other options I paid for like these, forgot how much, probably a total of about $300, including the two year unlimited package:

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[TR="class: midtext"]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH="colspan: 2"]Upgrade[/TH]
[TH="class: center, align: center"]Start Date[/TH]
[TH="class: center, align: center"]Renewal Date[/TH]
[TH="class: center, align: center"]Balance[/TH]
[TH="class: center, align: center"]Device[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: midtext"]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: nlb"]Hourly Backup[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]13 / 09 / 2013[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]13 / 09 / 2014[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]$0.00[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]-[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: midtext"]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: nlb"]Supercharged Backups[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]13 / 09 / 2013[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]13 / 09 / 2014[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]$0.00[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]-[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: midtext"]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: nlb"]5GB Max File Size[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]15 / 09 / 2013[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]15 / 09 / 2014[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]$0.00[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]-[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: midtext"]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: nlb"]Automatic Video Backup[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]16 / 09 / 2013[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]16 / 09 / 2014[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]$0.00[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]-[/TD]
[/TR]
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[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: nlb"]Priority Support[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]16 / 09 / 2013[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]16 / 09 / 2014[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]$0.00[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]-[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: midtext"]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: nlb"]Control Panel Restore[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]16 / 09 / 2013[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]16 / 09 / 2014[/TD]
[TD="class: center, align: center"]$0.00
[/TD]
[/TR]
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my hostings with godaddy but from what ive heard they are, actually, evil, so im not [utting much confidence in them. id trust goodgle to keep my stuff safe into eternity

 

Thanks everyone, going to sort this all out today.

On a side note I just noticed that one.com is giving away 1 years free web hosting plus free domain including proper TLD's.

 

Was very tempted by this, even though from memory GoDaddy never really had the best reputation around, the price just sounded too good and of course they are established business so you have some assurances they wont just up and disappear. However after reading through the few pages of customer reviews, half of which score it very badly and list many problems, from slow uploads, to trouble accessing files, i'm not so sure. I guess there is a reason their product is almost 10 times cheaper than everyone else.

Perhaps its improved over the last few months, but I think i'll check out to see if there are any proper reviews of their service first before trying it. Its a shame as for me the big thing is being assured that whomever I use is going to be around and not disappear. I simply don't have the upload bandwidth to waste uploading GB of data for it all to be lost.

 

My experience with godaddy is not exactly traumatic but not very enthusing too. When half the buttons on their admin thing take you to somewhere that tries to sell you something that i personally would consider either intangible or absurd from a budget show like godaddy, i do tend to think they're a great big gang of hacks. Their support documentation is chaotic too

Still, i use their hosting, had no real downtime problems, theyre cheap as hell, so as long as i never need to actually rely on them, they'll do, but im not going to tell anyone to rely on any 'cloud storage' option theyre giving

I'm getting a bit confused as to what the consensus think cloud storage actually is, it seems to mean 'web hosting with less features' now, when i thought it was a nice buzzword for massive scale networking. Well, each to their own, everyone can agree it means 'something on the internet' which works for now

 

Cloud storage means whatever you want it to mean these day. Pretty soon someone will use it to store clouds for a rainy day, its all very zen

 

I agree it is definitely a buzzword now.

I also use GoDaddy for web hosting. They have a new promotion for their hosting plans where if I sign up for a new hosting account, I can get unlimited bandwidth and storage for $2 less per month than what I pay now for 150GB of storage. I think I may make the switch. My personal portfolio website is only a month old so it's not hard to switch. My blog is a much more complex SQL site so that will take a bit longer.

Regardless, their cloud product is new. When GoDaddy first launched other products, they weren't so hot either. Their instant page system was horrible. Needless to say their other products have come a long way since the beginning, and they haven't increased any prices (except domain registration). I'm sure their cloud service will eventually improve but I agree it's probably limited right now.

 

now these days i am using CloudBacko for the backup services for my computer system
or cell or other digitial data. so i find that this backup system is very good as compare to the others.
and it have 100TB free storage... try it one time.....
http://free.cloudbacko.com?r=1d

 

Got 1TB on dropbox