[bladesmith]

With the new Personal Cloud Storage options available, is there a benefit to getting a one ?

Should I get a External Hard Drive or a External Personal Cloud ?

Is there really a difference ?

Thanks..

[Big Red Machine]

Who do you trust with your data, yourself or someone else? Dual physical hard drive back-ups for me. I want to control my own destiny.

[bladesmith]

I'm a bit confused about it. You can purchase a Cloud to hook up to your computer in your own home and own your own Cloud. I can't seem to understand everything about them, But from what I have read, you can turn your standard computer into a Server.

But, it's all new to me. And not all have the apps already installed, to convert your standard computer into a server.

This particular one has the Apple Time Machine capability to make your computer a Server.http://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Digital-My-Cloud-EX2-2-Bay-Personal-Cloud-Storage-Server-Diskless-/391312981420?hash=item5b1c123dac:g:QcwAAOSw7ThUpDnx

[Phil A]

Who do you trust with your data, yourself or someone else? Dual physical hard drive back-ups for me. I want to control my own destiny.

I agree - I have not as yet gone to NAS but I have music servers in a couple of systems and the hard drive storage is a back-up (and I have another set of hard drives with the data too). 

[bladesmith]

When I say "server", I mean a real computer server, not an audiophile "music storage drive". Some Mac's are actually 'servers'.

A 'server' is a drive that automatically updates what you have on your regular drive. But, is a different drive all together.
And a "personal" cloud is a unit you have in your home/office that is actually in your home/office. Not in another place or another state.

sorry bout the confusion.

[ctviggen]

I'm a bit confused about it. You can purchase a Cloud to hook up to your computer in your own home and own your own Cloud. I can't seem to understand everything about them, But from what I have read, you can turn your standard computer into a Server.

But, it's all new to me. And not all have the apps already installed, to convert your standard computer into a server.

This particular one has the Apple Time Machine capability to make your computer a Server.http://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Digital-My-Cloud-EX2-2-Bay-Personal-Cloud-Storage-Server-Diskless-/391312981420?hash=item5b1c123dac:g:QcwAAOSw7ThUpDnx

That thing is really a NAS (network attached storage).  It does have some nice features.  I use a NAS I built myself and back this up periodically to a drive I keep at home and another I keep at work. 

[GentleBender]

With the new Personal Cloud Storage options available, is there a benefit to getting a one ?

Should I get a External Hard Drive or a External Personal Cloud ?

Is there really a difference ?

Thanks..

The difference is that the "Cloud" versions have hardware/software that will allow access to the files inside and outside of your home through apps or other means such as web browsers on a phone or computer. You will have to open or forward ports on your router to allow the access. The issue I have with the cheap HDD with built-in "Cloud" hardware is the security can be the weakest link. I would skip the "Cloud" versions if you do not plan to access files outside of your home. This will improve your security by reducing the surface area of attack by hackers or other nefarious people/programs.

Also remember that if you have an external drive connected for continuous backups, make sure you back that up as well. If a virus or encryption program like Cryptolocker hits, your backup is encrypted too. 

Server- A server is a computer that provides data to other computers. It may serve data to systems on a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) over the Internet.

Many types of servers exist, including web servers, mail servers, and file servers. Each type runs software specific to the purpose of the server. For example, a Web server may run Apache HTTP Server or Microsoft IIS, which both provide access to websites over the Internet. A mail server may run a program like Exim or iMail, which provides SMTP services for sending and receiving email. A file server might use Samba or the operating system's built-in file sharing services to share files over a network.

[WGH]

Cloud storage is great when catastrophic events happen, a fire, hurricane, flood can wipe out all your backups if they are stored on site. On site backups are ideally kept in a fireproof safe.

But will the cloud be there when you need it? Century Link (Quest) recently got rid of their free cloud storage, all my data went bye bye (hopefully) or they sold it to China or Russia. Sensitive data should be encrypted before uploading to the cloud - but don't loose your 20 character long key (think catastrophic event again) or it will be just like you never had a backup.

And who owns your data once you upload it? I never read the ULA's.

Fred Langa has written an excellent 2 part article about the pros and cons of 5 different types of backup procedures.

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/sorting-out-the-revolution-in-pc-backups-part-1/

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/sorting-out-the-revolution-in-pc-backups-part-2/

Wayne

[bladesmith]

Cloud storage is great when catastrophic events happen, a fire, hurricane, flood can wipe out all your backups if they are stored on site. On site backups are ideally kept in a fireproof safe.

But will the cloud be there when you need it? Century Link (Quest) recently got rid of their free cloud storage, all my data went bye bye (hopefully) or they sold it to China or Russia. Sensitive data should be encrypted before uploading to the cloud - but don't loose your 20 character long key (think catastrophic event again) or it will be just like you never had a backup.

And who owns your data once you upload it? I never read the ULA's.

Fred Langa has written an excellent 2 part article about the pros and cons of 5 different types of backup procedures.

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/sorting-out-the-revolution-in-pc-backups-part-1/

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/sorting-out-the-revolution-in-pc-backups-part-2/

Wayne

That's what I'm thinking,  you can buy clouds, that are actually like external hard drives that we purchase for backing up data on our personal computers.  They are no more fatal/dangerous/unsecure than the external HD's we have NOW. In our homes.

But, they act like the extra drives that Apple provides in there Mac Servers, that are available at the Apple Store, you just have an external unit plugged into your main computer at your home. And the Apple Time Machine controls the Cloud,  it's not off campus, or out of your home, out of your physical reach. Backups are automatically done, about every other hour, very reliable,  never needing manual attention.

Just a thought. Instead of using a standard external HD.

Good day.

[jonbee]

I migrated everything to a  2 disc Synology NAS. It has a RAID 1 for disc redundancy. Synology in particular is a good choice for non-techies because the management software is very good. Setup is very easy, and the price is reasonable.
I back it up to an external HD. I can access my music and movies from every networked device in the house.
Cloud access is very dependent on the reliability of the internet (and the vendor), which is not good enough for me. And yes, ownership of content is a real issue.