What Obstacles Are There To Storing Your Own Media In The Cloud: Step2 Startups Feedback Wanted
from the step2-startups dept
The latest in our Step2 Startups series is from QVIVO, a maker of home based media center/storage systems, who have added a cloud syncing system, and are wondering what the biggest obstacles are for people hosting their own media in the cloud. Is it a legal issue? Cultural? Technological? What would it take for you to be willing to make use of such a service?Filed Under: cloud, media center, step2 startups, storage
Companies: qvivo
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Trust & privacy/security
By "trust" I mean that I have at least as much reliability as I do on servers I own. This encompasses a number of different things, such as connection reliability, the provider's internal reliability and uptime, and what happens if the provider goes out of the cloud business or I decide to stop using their services.
This is the easiest thing for cloud providers to address -- although by no means easy, since none of them have met the benchmark of doing it better than I can yet.
The harder things are demonstrated by Megaupload and such: if the government decides to take the servers down in connection with something I have no connection with, I'm screwed. There's nothing service providers can do about that.
Also, by "trust," I have to trust the provider that they are honest with me, and that they are dutiful and competent about security issues.
Privacy/security is a far larger issue, and not one the cloud providers can really do much about. They can opt not to mine the data I store with them (and even then, I have to trust that they are as good as their word), they can use wonderful security measures (again, I have to trust them on this), and so forth.
However, any commercial providers must provide access to the data they hold to duly authorized government & industry entities. There's no getting around that. Further, they may be restrained from even telling me that they have done so.
This is unacceptable. If I run my own cloud servers, at least I know when someone else has accessed my data.
So, all in all, I see no compelling reason now or in the future for using any third-party cloud server at all. The main problem is that the political and legal environment in which they have to operate inherently makes the services untrustworthy across the board.
If I really need the cloud, I can easily run my own servers with greater reliability and trustworthiness overall.
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Infrastructure and ISP
First, bandwidth. Will I have enough bandwidth available so that using a cloud service is no different than using my own server? Will I be constantly buffering, because the bits are going through heavy congestion at some indeterminate point along their path? Will I be pounding my fist on my desk in frustration because I can't access my files, because I've lost my connection to my ISP again (due to weather, network fault, user error, or something else out of my control)? This happened as recently as last weekend, when I was trying to watch some live streaming video program and my connection went dark for a solid ten minutes.
Second, ISPs and bandwidth caps. I came very close to my cap last month with over a week left in the month. I had to effectively shut down a lot of my internet usage. No Netflix, no YouTube, no Xbox Live. If I stored my own media "in the cloud", I would have been cut off from that, too.
Third, if I want to take my media on the road (movies for the kids in the minivan, for example), I know I will not have a usable data connection everywhere I go. Free Wi-Fi is not universal; and even if I had a cell data plan for my vehicle (an expensive add-on), there are many dead spots that I drive through just around our neighborhood. It makes no sense for me to do anything but keep the media on my own computer, convert it to whatever portable format necessary to play in the car, and move it using my own physical cables and memory cards.
Now, in the brief description above, you call it a "cloud-based syncing system", which to me means that media is stored locally, and the cloud is only used as a backup and service to sync with other devices. My first and third points aren't as critical then, but the second point, ISP bandwidth caps, is a HUGE drawback.
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Re: Infrastructure and ISP
That said, I am making heavy use of google play music. I uploaded my music(at 30kbps for the 30GB library mind you) and now stream it while at work to my phone(over wifi). There is no way it would work of the cell network, as i only have 5GB of useful bandwidth.
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Within my own network it's just easier to shift it where and when i need it, in the format i need it in.
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If I store my data somewhere I want my data to be held accountable under the country I live in and not the country the hosting provider happens to operate from.
Another method is using people's passwords to actually encrypt all my data in the cloud in a way that never exposes the password to the cloud provider (ie: I upload and download it encrypted, decryption is performed client side).
Under those conditions I could be compelled to use the cloud more often, although the connectivity problem still remains.
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Perhaps it's just a solution in search of a problem. That has happened before.
Maybe industry leaders just aren't happy with the idea of a peer to peer world of independent devices, because it kills the "broadcast" centralized distribution model which has been so lucrative.
Perhaps people just find their personal devices so complicated to use that they want to offload it all, and turn their PC back into a TV.
I can't see the sense of doing this personally. When I can carry hundreds of gigabytes, who needs cloud storage?
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With storage so cheap my stuff stays local.I can still access it from wherever and whenever I want.
Only fools will trust their data to someone else!
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Technological mostly.
One, Reliable Internet connection. Verizon has been threatening to limit transfers to 50G a month. I can't trust Verizon to allow me to use a service like this (let alone my cell provider T-Mobile).
Two, Compatibility. I'm only Windows and Android. They don't support Android devices yet.
Three, Other options. XBMC, Boxee, Windows Media Center, MythTV, SageTV (if Google ever gets off their asses), and god only knows how many more all with a wide array of features and services.
Four, Legal issues on Qvivo's side. While I assume they are using the same technique as Google to avoid legal issues, how long will that last? How long would I have a reliable off site backup? I can't trust the MPAA/RIAA so I can't depend on any service that they will target.
Five, Hardware requirements on their side. My media library is huge and with legitimate sites like Vodo and Revision3 (and an ever increasing number more), it's only going to get larger. Spread that across a few thousand users and how long will it be before $4.99/m isn't enough?
Now, despite all that, I'm off to play with it anyways. I love Google Music, and I've been waiting for someone to do this with video.
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Re: Technological mostly.
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Legality
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Still dont get it
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What about your own personal cloud
So how many out there will be starting to add personal NAS drives to their home network? The price for a 2 Tb NAS drive complete with preloaded software for internet accessibility or sharing, either publicly or privately with password protection has fallen under $130. Even if you have DHCP rather than a fixed IP from your ISP, it's still practical to use a NAS drive for personal use since most ISP's aren't changing your IP address frequently so long as your router, cable modem or computer are not rebooted.
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Personal Pet Peeve
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Facebook
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the sheer size of my media collection
i can route around privacy and reliability concerns with block crypto for the sensitive stuff, and local copies for backup purposes.
i would love to have a copy of my NAS servers out there in the ether, off site, even if it was uber slow and really only meant it was useful for backups and not streaming.
the simple fact is that i have around 8TB of data, so even transfer in and out was free, at $0.05 per gig for storage, an online file locker would cost me $400 a month.
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Privacy
With Google Drive coming out to rival Dropbox and other storage services this issue is going to return to the spotlight. Interesting enough, in the case of Google and other bigger storage providers, there is an economic incentive to stand up for user rights. If users' rights are forfeited too quickly, the latter will pursue legal action against Google creating a pretty hefty sum of legal fees. For Google, Dropbox, etc. it would make more financial sense to pick a fight with the DOJ than with the millions of users.
So, while I'm skeptical that the privacy concern will ever be resolved, I do have some hope in bigger storage companies when it comes to user rights.
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www.dewaltnailgun.org, more info HERE
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