There are plenty of services popping up now where you can synchronise your files with a server on line, so that you can access the files from anywhere. It usually creates two advantages. If you have your files online, you can effectively consider this to be a backup. Secondly, you can access the files from anywhere there is internet access, which can be very handy for some people.
Until recently, I was using SugarSync (http://www.sugarsync.com), which is a great service for Small Business, or where there is no need to have different access rules from each computer that has access to your account. They even offer the first 2GB of data for Free!
Personally, I want to share some of my files with staff, and other files with the home PC. I don't want all the people in the office to have access to all the folders, particularly for confidential staff information. So with a little digging, I have found and signed up for a service from Rackspace. (http://www.rackspace.com)
The service is Jungle Disk (http://www.jungledisk.com). A deceptively simple little program that can even be installed on a USB drive, that will give you access to all your files, synchronise them with any other computer you want, and manage your online backups.
It does this at the same time as providing folder level permission management. What that means in English, is that I can choose to share my personal photos with only wife, Client files with only my sales and project staff, and my accounting files only with the accountant (and probably my wife too).
These files are magically stored on either Amazons "S3 online Disks" or a similar service called Rackspace Cloud Files. So at just US$4 per user per month, I get access to 10GB of disk space!
First impressions for me were that I thought it was more complicated that it actually ended up being. The sign up process could probably explain your setup choices much better than it does, but once I was up and running, I found it to be very simple. Luckily all the settings are easily changed after installation. The help video's and help system also seem to be designed for people who are already familiar with their system, leaving the outsider wondering which setting to choose next, and saying "could it really be that simple?"
My Suggestions
The services can be split out into a couple of different parts:
Files Sync/Sharing
Legacy Backup
Vault Backup
File Sync and Sharing is great. The files are easily accessible from multiple methods. You can view the files by installing the little bit of software and creating a 'network drive' just like you would in a normal office/server situation. This is ideal for any desktop that is permanently connected to the internet, but if the specific PC you're installing on will be doing lots of work, it will probably be faster, and save file transfers in the long run if you set these PC's to "sync" the data. This also allows for file searching from your favourite desktop search.
Using either a USB Device, or installing the software on a home PC lets you map the network drive, but you may choose to avoid the synchronisation for these computers as it may not been needed to have a copy of all your files on these computers. The USB option is especially useful if you jump from PC to PC regularly.
There is also a Web based interface, which is nice to use, but it is lacking a file search feature, which I think should be essential, but I have not seen this option in any of the other services either...
You can even set the system to keep old versions of files each time you make changes - offering some level of backup.
Legacy backup was probably the only backup that was once offered by jungle disk, (guessing from the name). The problem with it is that it is not an efficient user of disk space, so I have switched this one off to rely on Vault Backup.
Vault Backup is a true, online backup service. You select the folders you want to backup, and (after the first backup) the system takes care of the monitoring of changes so that only changed data is uploaded. It can even handle open files (if you are using a newer computer that has something called 'NTFS' - ask your nearest geek to explain that one) and is scheduled to run at intervals defined by you.
I am still un-decided whether I need file sync AND Vault Backup, but there are certainly files that I don't need synced but would like to know they are backed up... so I will run both for the time being.
One more suggestion; choosing Rackspace for data storage means you won't have to pay for data transfer.
By Brendan Byrne
Adendum, I just found out that SugarSync do now offer business services with similar functionality, although marginally higher costs to Jungle Disk, just a fraction too late for me thought...
*Suggestions and recommendations made on this website are just that, you should investigate and consult your own IT person before implementing any of our suggestions.
Brendan Byrne - Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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