Traditionally, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) has been the standard for transferring and sharing files. However, it is not without its problems. These include concerns about security, cost, efficiency, reliability and simplicity. For these and other reasons, many businesses are looking to replace FTP with a cloud storage solution.

Gladinet Cloud for Teams offers a great FTP replacement. The service allows you to attach a local folder to the cloud, which immediately makes any of its files accessible anywhere, and synchronizes access to the folder by maintaining version control of files that are written simultaneously. Once the local folder is attached to the cloud, it can be exposed to other team members using access controls provided in the service’s management interface. So you end up with several members of your team sharing access to the same set of files in a centrally controlled environment.

The instant accesibility of attached folders deserves some emphasis as it mitigates one of the pain points of cloud migration. That pain is usually experienced when a large data set needs to be moved to the cloud over a relatively slow connection. For example, even a reasonable 10Mbps upstream connection can’t upload more than 5GB in an hour. Just imagine how long it would take to upload 10TB of data! Fortunately, with attached folders, the time it takes to complete the initial upload will not determine how long the cloud migration will take. Instead, everything is immediately accessible even as the data in the attached folder is synchronized with the cloud in the background.

There are several advantages of using the cloud to share files. For instance, FTP servers require that an additional communication channel (port 21) be opened through your firewall, increasing your attack surface. Cloud communication, on the other hand requires no additional channels since it uses http on port 80 which is already allowed through most firewalls. Security is further enhanced since we use a secure version of http called https on port 443.

In addition to being more secure, a cloud FTP solution tends to be more cost effective, efficient and reliable. There is no need to maintain FTP servers onsite and there are efficiencies of scale that can be leveraged when the infrastructure required for reliability is centralized and managed by cloud storage service providers.

What’s more, Gladinet Cloud can be configured to use Amazon S3, or any of these providers (Google Cloud Storage, Openstack, Rackspace, and any S3 compatible service) as its internal storage, yielding a file sharing solution that is completely under your control while leveraging the benefits of cloud storage to provide a secure, easily managed file sharing solution that should prove a welcome FTP replacement for many small and medium sized organizations.

To see an example, please take a look at this file sharing video.

For more information about our solutions, please visit our website.

You have online storage accounts such as Google Docs, Box.net and etc. You want to connect to them from Windows Explorer and transfer documents using drag and drop.

You need Gladinet Cloud Desktop for its Cloud Drive feature.

It is $40 per user. Perpetual License for the current version. Click here to purchase.

Use Case 2 – PC-2-PC Synchronization

You have a local folder that you want to be able to sync to a local folder on your other PC. You plan to use Cloud storage service as a repository and conduit to take snapshots of the local folder to record files that are changed.

Use Case 3 – Simple Backup of Music, Pictures, Files and Video

You just want the ability to store these media files on cloud storage. It is a simple local to cloud storage copying and mirroring feature.

For all the above 3 use cases, you need Gladinet Cloud Desktop for its Cloud Drive feature.

It is $40 per user. Perpetual License for the current version. Click here to purchase.

Use Case 4 – Snapshot Backup

You need a more sophisticated backup solution, with the ability to take snapshot of your files and folders.

You need Gladinet Cloud Backup. If you are already a Gladinet Cloud Desktop user, you don’t need to download the cloud backup stand-alone package. You can simply purchase the license here and apply the license to the Gladinet Cloud Desktop add-on in the Gladinet Cloud Desktop.

It is $5/month/PC. It is a monthly subscription model. Click here to purchase.

Gladinet Cloud Desktop

Gladinet CloudAFS™

Gladinet Cloud Backup

Quick Start Videos

AT&T Synaptic Storage

Gladinet Product Quick Start Video w/ AT&T Synaptic Storage

Purchase Gladinet Enablers for AT&T Synaptic Storage

	Add 5 Connection License Pack	Purchase Additional Backup Licenses
	Add 10 Connection License Pack
	Add 50 Connection License Pack

Version 3.0.569 (Feb 5, 2011)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 3.0.569.11801 [14.3MB]
Starter Edition 64-bit version 3.0.569.11801 [17.9MB]

• New Cloud Sync Folder
  Cloud Sync Folder is a new feature in the release. It syncs a location folder across different computers, using the corresponding cloud storage to manage version history. Check here for details.
• New Management Console
  Management Console is completely rewritten. It makes task management easier.
• Performance Enhancement and Bug Fixes

Version 2.5.551 (Jan 23, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.5.551.11424 [12.4MB]
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.5.551.11424 [16.0MB]

• Enhance Google Docs, Azure and Amazon S3 support

  • Google Docs: Fix the issue that in certain accounts, only shared folder can be viewed.
  • Azure: Support Azure when access in certain 3G networks
  • Amazon S3: Keep file ACL during rename

• Performance Enhancement and Bug Fixes

Version 2.5.529 (Dec 24, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.5.529.11003 [12.5MB]
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.5.529.11003 [15.9MB]

• Subfolder Support for Mirrored Cloud Folder
  Mirrored Cloud Folder used to only support files directly under the folder. There is no subfolder support. From the release, mirrored cloud folder will traverse all the subfolders to sync with local. Moreover, the sync target folder is moved to your desktop, instead of Gladinet Cache. It makes offline access easier.

• Enhance Google Premier Support

• Performance Enhancement and Bug Fixes

Version 2.4.514 (Nov 19, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.4.514.10590 [12.3MB]
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.4.514.10590 [15.9MB]

• Support Google Docs New Interface
  Google Docs has upgraded its interface. The new release supports the new interface to upload to Google Docs.

• Skydrive Bug Fixes
  Will not get session time out when access Skydrive

• Support Deletion in Cloud Explorer
• File deletion in Google Docs for Google Apps now follow the setting to decide whether to keep the file to trash folder.

Version 2.4.502 (Oct 31, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.4.502.10366 [12.3MB]
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.4.502.10366 [15.9MB]

• Terminology Change: Mirrored and Snapshot Backup
  We rename the old Backup function in Cloud Desktop 2.3 release to Mirrored Backup. We integrate Gladinet Cloud Backup to Cloud Desktop in the release, as Snapshot Backup.

  • Mirrored Backup: This was the ‘Backup’ function of 2.3 and before, in Gladinet Cloud Desktop. It creates a mirrored copy of your source file, in the target cloud. When the source files change, Gladinet Cloud Desktop will overwrite the file in target cloud, to create a mirrored copy. The old ‘Backup’ task will keep working, as mirrored backup, in the new release.
    Read here for details.

  • Snapshot Backup: The new Backup function works the same way as Gladinet Cloud Backup. Snapshot Backup backs up the source folders/files to cloud as snapshots. It supports incremental upload of the updated file, to avoid a full upload when the file is modified. It supports backing up of open/locked files, and Windows State, SQL Servers and Exchange Servers.
    User can restore from any snapshot, to the original source folder or to a new location.
    Please notice that a separate license is required for the Mirrored Backup function.
    Read here for details.

  Here is a detailed comparison of Mirrored Backup and Snapshot Backup.

• Add ACL control when mount S3 bucket

  When mount a S3 bucket, you can define the default permission. Files uploaded to the bucket will always have the default ACL. The value supported are:

  • private
  • public-read
  • public-read-write
  • authenticated-read
  • bucket-owner-read
  • bucket-owner-full-control

• Auto Disable Performance Impact Internet Explorer setting
  In certain systems, especially Vista and Windows 7, one default Internet Explorer setting can slow down Windows access to mapped network drive. Gladinet will auto disable the setting from this release. You can disable it manually. Check here for details.

• Skydrive Bug Fixes
  Fix Skydrive download issues in certain cases

• Various performance enhancement and bug fixes

Version 2.4.494 (Oct 24, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.4.494.10286 [12.3MB]
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.4.494.10286 [15.9MB]

• The Gladinet Cloud Backup product is available as a separate add-on to Gladinet Cloud Desktop in the release. For existing users, please notice the old Backup feature was renamed to Sync because sync better describes the old feature set. The local folders can be monitored and sync to the cloud storage as a second copy.

  • Sync: This was the ‘Backup’ function of previous Cloud Desktop release. Cloud Desktop monitors the local source folders/files and uploads the source files with the same folder structure to the cloud storage. There is only one copy of the source file synchronized to the cloud. If there is any file change locally, Cloud Desktop will overwrite the copy in the target. You can use this feature to create a second copy of the local files and folders for backup purpose. See here for details.

  • Backup: The new Backup function works the same way as Gladinet Cloud Backup. Cloud Backup backs up the source folders/files to cloud as snapshots. Admin can define how often to create a full snapshot. After a full snapshot, when the source file is modified, if OS supports, Cloud Backup will only do an incremental upload of the changes. No full upload is required. Backup also supports uploading open/locked files. User can restore from any snapshot. Please notice that a separate license is required for the Backup function.
    See here for details.

• Support Rackspace CloudFiles

• Support CAStor Storage
• Support Google Apps Premier

• Support Skip Initial Upload in Sync task

• Various performance enhancement and bug fixes

Version 2.3.432 (Aug 30, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.3.432.9299 [11.2MB]
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.3.432.9299 [14.8MB]

• Support Amazon S3 bucket mount
  In the release, user can mount a bucket in Amazon S3 storage in Gladinet directly.
  The advantages to mount a bucket, instead of the whole S3:

  • Support all Amazon regions, including US, US West, Europe and Asia Pacific.
  • Can add files in the mounted virtual directory root, while Amazon S3 doesn’t support files under root level.
  • Less buckets to manage in Amazon S3
• Support Dunkel Cloud Storage

• Support Converted Google Apps account for Google Docs
  A new mount called Converted Google Apps Account is added. It can be used for those Google Apps accounts which have been converted to Google Docs.

• Various bug fixes

Version 2.3.392 (July 4, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.3.392.8674 [11.2MB]
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.3.392.8674 [14.7MB]

• Support Storage Package
  From the release, the cloud services Gladinet supports is split in to different Storage Packages. Starter Edition (the free edition) will only support one Storage Package. During the initial settings, you need to select the package fits you best. Right now we have the following packages.

  • Default

    Includes Amazon S3, Box.net, FTP, Google Docs, Google Apps, Google Picasa, Local File system, Skydrive, Google Apps, WebDav, etc

  • AT&T Synaptic Storage

  • EMC Atmos
  • Mezeo Personal Cloud
  • Nirvanix Storage
  • Windows Azure Blob Storage
  • Generic Google Storage for Developer

  • Peer1 CloudOne

  After you select a package, you can mount the storage included in the package free. However, if you want to mount any storage not included in the package, you’ll need a Professional license.

• New Gladinet Cloud Space Service
  Gladinet Cloud Space service is a brand new service. It provides browser access to all the cloud storage you have mounted in Gladinet Cloud Desktop instance. You can configure the Cloud Space service in Gladinet Cloud Desktop. After that, if you are away from the machine, as long as Cloud Desktop is running, you can login to mycloud.gladinet.com from browser and access all your virtual directories.

  • - Please notice that to access your virtual directories in Gladinet Cloud Space service, Gladinet Cloud Desktop has to be running on your machine.
• Performance enhancement
• Enhance Google Docs support.

• New Local Disk support.
  You can mount your local folder in Gladinet Cloud Desktop directly. Just select ‘Local Disk’ in the storage list and type in your full path for the folder to be shared. Together with the Cloud Space service, you can access your local files anywhere from a browser.

• Various bug fixes

Version 2.1.357 (May 10, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.1.357.8065 [11.2MB] May 10, 2010
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.1.357.8065 [12.4MB] May 10, 2010

• Fix login problems in
  • Google Docs
  • Google Docs for Google Apps
  • Skydrive
• Performance Fix
• Memory Usage Enhancement

Version 2.0.350 (Mar 22, 2010)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 2.0.350.7438 [11.2MB] Mar 22, 2010
Starter Edition 64-bit version 2.0.350.7438 [12.4MB] Mar 22, 2010

• Gladinet Management Console
  • The new Management Console integrates the old virtual directory manager, task manager, settings manager, backup manager and audit trace into one single UI. It is much easier to navigate here, than in 1.x release. Task Manager is re-worked to make task management simpler.
  • Gladinet Cache Manager
    • Cache Manager makes cache management easier. User can choose between 3 pre-defined cache modes. User can also customize cache settings and check all cached files.
  • Support encryption, compression in folder level.
    • Can define which folder in Gladinet to encrypt and compress files during uploaded.
  • Support chunk per virtual directory, instead of global.
    • Can define which storage to support chunk. And each storage has its own split size.
  • Support Mirrored folder
    • Mirrored folder is a new feature in Gladinet. Mirrored folder keeps syncing with cloud storage.
  • Smart Bandwidth Control
    • Gladinet can slow down network activities when user starts to browse web. When the browser stays idle, Gladinet can resume the regular network speed.
  • New Gladinet Cloud Explorer
    • Gladinet Cloud Explorer is a new tool to access the mounted storage in Gladinet. It can be useful when Gladinet can’t mount the drive. It supports some advanced features. For example, access control in Azure and Amazon S3.

      For existing XP/2003 users, with Gladinet Cloud Explorer, Gladinet decommissioned Gladinet Virtual Adapter. If you are using Gladinet Virtual Adapter to solve the port 80 conflict, Gladinet will not mount My Gladinet Drive in 2.0. You can use Gladinet Cloud Explorer to access your virtual directory. You can also follow Gladinet Trouble Shooting Guide to solve the port 80 conflict with Gladinet.

• Better support for Google Docs and Google Docs for Google Apps
  • Support Google Docs any file upload

  • User can disable Google Docs conversion when upload files to Google Docs. See our How-to guide here.

  • User can enable SSL connection to Google Docs. See our How-to guide here.

• Enhance WebDav https support

• Amazon S3 and Azure ACL support in Gladinet Cloud Explorer

• New Wiki Guide

  • We update our Wiki for 2.0 release.

    Please check here for details about 2.0 features.

Version 1.4.232 (Dec 23, 2009)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.4.232.6355 [8.9MB] Dec 23, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.4.232.6355 [10.0MB] Dec 23, 2009

• Support Windows Azure Blob Storage
• Support Network Resource
  • Mount network share

• Various bug fixes

Hotfix 6356 (Jan 25, 2010)

• Support All File Type upload in Google Docs
  When upload files to Google Docs, Gladinet will convert the following files to Google Docs format: .doc, .xls, .odt, .ods and .ppt files. For the rest type of files, Gladinet will upload them with the new All File Type support. Please notice that it will use the 1G limit in Google Docs.
  For 1.4.232 user, please start Gladinet and verify Auto Update in Tools->Settings. If Auto Update is enabled, Gladinet will download the hotfix automatically.

Version 1.4.225 (Nov 30, 2009)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.4.225.6058 [9.0MB] Nov 30, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.4.225.6058 [10.0MB] Nov 30, 2009

• Support Nirvanix Storage
• New Initial Mounting to enhance first time experience
  • First time user can select which storage to mount when start Gladinet
• Backup task configurable to delete files during backup
  • It used to be that when source file was deleted, backup task won’t delete the corresponding target file. Now it is configurable in Professional Edition.
  • The configuration only applies to regular folder backups, not file type backups.
• Performance tuning for file type backup
  • File type backup (the task to backup all your Documents, Pictures, Musics or Videos) will start faster.

• Various bug fixes

Known issue:

• When change any parameter in backup task, have to restart Gladinet Cloud Desktop to make the new configuration in effect.

Version 1.4.218 (Nov 16, 2009)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.4.218.5865 [8.8MB] Nov 16, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.4.218.5865 [10.0MB] Nov 16, 2009

• New File Type Backup
  • Backup documents, pictures, musics and videos on your local disks
• Support new interface to Google Docs for Google Apps
• Mount Skydrive shared folders from friends
• Various bug fixes

Version 1.3.208 (Oct 27, 2009)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.3.208.5638 (8.7MB) Oct 27, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.3.208.5638 [9.9MB] Oct 27, 2009

• Online Service (Beta)
  • Share profile among all your computers
• Cloud Gateway Support
  • Access central Gladinet Cloud Gateway
• Support new Google Docs interface

• Support AT&T Synaptic Storage

• New Settings Window
• New Context Menu to Clear Folder Cache and Refresh File
• Various bug fixes

Version 1.2.191 (Sept 28, 2009)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.2.191.5060 [12.3MB] Sept 28, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.2.191.5060 [12.3MB] Sept 28, 2009

• Support Proxy
  • Setup Proxy in Gladinet Initial Settings.
• New Gladinet Task Center
• Optional User Register in Starter Edition
• Enhanced EMC Atmos Support
• Various bug fixes

Version 1.2.178 (Sept 7, 2009)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.2.178.4761 [12.4MB] Sept 7, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.2.178.4761 [12.4MB] Sept 7, 2009

• New Audit Trace Viewer
• On-demand chunk enabling if hit storage single file size limitation
• Edit title for My Gladinet Drive in Initial Settings
• Enable/Disable Verification in task process
• New Plugin Upgrader
• Various bug fixes

Version 1.2.168 (Aug 31, 2009)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.2.168.4679 [12.3MB] Aug 31, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.2.168.4679 [12.3MB] Aug 31, 2009

• New Backup Manager
  • Add more source folders
  • Add more target folders
  • Edit backup name
  • Reschedule backup task
  • Individual include/exclude settings for each backup task
• Support SSL in Google Docs for Google Apps
• Google Docs bug fixes

Version 1.2.160 (Aug 18, 2009)

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.2.160.4507 [12.2MB] Aug 18, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.2.160.4507 [12.2MB] Aug 18, 2009

• Google Docs Backup
• New Virtual Directory Manager
• Simplified systray menu for first time users
• Task Manager is now available in Starter Edition
• New license enforement
  • Starter Edition is now limited to 1000 subtasks per task
  • Google Docs for Google Apps only available in Professional Edition
• Ability to Pause/Resume all tasks in the Systray Menu
• More Gladinet Applications in the “All Programs” menu
• Backup monitoring task optimizations

Version 1.1.151

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.1.151.4267 [11.8MB] July 24, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.1.151.4265 [11.8MB] July 24, 2009

• Support Google Docs new interface

• New Task Manager

• Upload Performance Optimization
• Faster download. Support parallel download
• Usability Improvement

Version 1.1.139

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.1.139.4045 [11.8MB] July 13, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.1.139.4045 [11.8MB] July 13, 2009

• Multiple threads in upload task
• Faster upload. GCD won’t cache file(s) during upload anymore
• Various bug fixs on FTP, Atmos, Google Docs and Amazon S3

Version 1.1.134

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.1.134.3922 [11.7MB] Jun 30, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.1.134.3922 [11.7MB] Jun 30, 2009

New Storage

• FTP Server

• Regular WebDav

• Amazon S3 EU buckets
• Box.Net
• EMC Atmos onLine

• Google Apps
  Cannot download xls files from Google Apps yet.

New Functions

• Support multiple sessions in Terminal server/Citrix server environment

• ‘Force Start Now’ in Gladinet Task Manager
  When a scheduled task is pending in Task Manager, you can right click it and select ‘Force to Start Now’, to start the task even when the schedued time is not reached yet

• New mounting page
• New Initial Setting page

• Gladient Side Panel is not displayed by default
  If you need to access Gladient Side Panel, in windows explorer, select ‘View’->’Explorer Bar’->’Gladinet Side Panel’. On Vista, you need to check ‘Origanize’->’Layout’->’Menu Bar’ to display the explorer main menu first.

Version 1.0

Starter Edition 32-bit version 1.0.121.3511 [11.7MB] May 18, 2009
Starter Edition 64-bit version 1.0.121.3511 [11.7MB] May 18, 2009

• Support Many-to-many backup

• Gladinet Side Panel is moved to explorer bar menu

• Add more settings

• Easy bandwidth control in Task Manager

• Easy exclude list configuration in Backup Manager

It is practical to store daily documents on SkyDrive for backup purpose. This article talks about a way to backup daily from local PC to SkyDrive.

First download and install Gladinet Cloud Desktop. After that you will mount your SkyDrive account into Windows Explorer as a network drive.

Let’s say you save files to your “My Documents” folder. You can have this folder backup daily to SkyDrive.

Using the Backup Manager, you can setup a link between the local “My Documents” folder to a folder in SkyDrive.

By default, the backup task will start immediately and the folder will be monitored. However, you may prefer a backup at a different daily schedule so it doesn’t compete with the same network bandwidth when you work during the day.

You are fully aware of what it is by now. Have you tried it yourself? If you haven’t, here are several steps to jump in. If you have, jump in in the middle.

Step 1 – Play with Google Apps, Google Docs and SkyDrive

Google isn’t about cloud storage yet. However, it is pretty big in the cloud infrastructure with the Google Apps and Google Docs. If you have a domain name, you can start Google Apps for free. If you have a Gmail account, you can use Google Docs free. If you use MSN messenger or hotmail, you can play with Windows SkyDrive.

The idea here is not to use them as your IT infrastructure. The goal is to see the “Cloud” in action. Once you see them, you will have more ideas about the cloud. If you are starting up a company, you can start with Google Apps for sure.

Step 2 – Play with Amazon S3, Windows Azure Storage from your desktop

This step is more involved as compared to the step 1. In step 1, you don’t need to do too much beyond signing up for an account.  since Amazon S3 and Windows Azure Storage are both pure cloud storage with REST API only, you will need to fire up Visual Studio to write some code. You can also find a desktop client tool such as the Gladinet Cloud Desktop to mount them as network drive and start playing with the desktop integration.

The idea here is to see the latency, the speed and see how practical it is to use the cloud storage. You may also want to check your monthly bill to see the cost.

Step 3 – Play with a Cloud Storage Gateway

Now you are seriously thinking about extending your IT infrastructure with the cloud storage. In this step, you will play with a cloud gateway. The idea of a gateway is translating the REST API to CIFS protocol, so your end users can do map drive to the net share exposed by the cloud gateway.  This step is even more involved than step 2. In order to play within a clean environment, typically you install the gateway inside a clean virtual machine or a QA machine.

You can try Gladinet CloudAFS, which can be installed on Windows 2003/2008, 7/vista/xp to see how the cloud storage is transferred to a Windows File Server Share.

The idea in this stage is to do proof of concept and see how possible it can be rolled out. Also trying to finalize the use case POC in this stage.

Step 4 – Play with a Cloud Backup Solution

A predominant use case of the cloud storage is offsite backup. If you have an existing backup solution, the step 3 with a Cloud Gateway should be good enough to connect your backup solution with the cloud storage.

If not, you can try some turnkey cloud backup solutions. For example, Gladinet Cloud Backup is a turnkey cloud backup solution.

The idea here is to see how fast you can backup, restore. How flexible you can restore, which snapshot, which PC and so on.

Step 5 – Finalize Your Cloud Storage Application Stack

The Cloud Storage Application Stack includes

1. Cloud Gateway acting as a file server, a pathway to the cloud storage (Who connects you to the cloud)
2. Cloud Storage Service Provider (Who owns the data center)
3. Cloud Storage Solution Vendor (Who created the technology)

This year, the 2 & 3 are mostly one entity. For example, Amazon is both the Service Provider and Vendor for Amazon S3. Microsoft is both the Service provider and Vendor for Windows Azure Storage. Later you may be able to say, I like Microsoft’s technology and I like the data center that is across the street.

Step 6 – Thinking about the Future

With almost all the pieces fitting together in step 5, now it is time to think about the future. Can you switch to a better technology later? Can you switch to a closer data center later? Can you switch to a better solution later? Public cloud or private cloud?

As a home user, perhaps the easiest is a desktop client tool. Install the desktop client tool, putting in Amazon S3 access key and secret key, you can access Amazon S3 from Windows Explorer directly. For example, Gladinet Cloud Desktop is one such desktop application, connecting directly to the cloud storage.

However, for an SMB with a small IT staff, the desktop client may not be the easiest, since it still require some installation and configuration work. The easiest could be a cloud storage solution that allows the end user access the cloud transparently, meaning they don’t even need to know that they are using cloud storage.

This is when a Cloud Gateway comes in.

A cloud storage gateway is a network appliance or server which resides at the customer premises and translates cloud storage APIs such as SOAP or REST to block-based storage protocols such as iSCSI or Fibre Channel or file-based interfaces such as NFS or CIFS.

Quote – Wikipedia

Take Gladinet CloudAFS as an example. It was first introduced around Oct 28, 2009 as the Gladinet Cloud Gateway. After 6 months of beta run. it was released as Gladinet CloudAFS™ (Cloud Attached File Server).  The name change reflects its positioning as a server product as compared to the Cloud Desktop (client product). The name change also reflects functionality change from a simple gateway to a more advanced tier1/tier2 storage manager.

The CloudAFS can be installed on either 32-bit or 64-bit Windows System.

It can be installed on physical server or virtual servers (such as those in ESX/XenServer).

To allow transparent user experience, you can use the Active Directory to redirect user’s home directory to the CloudAFS net shares.

This way, the local users enjoy local LAN speed to the CloudAFS instance. The CloudAFS then synchronized with the cloud storage if you have new contents coming in from the LAN. This way, you extend your local storage with the cloud storage, through a Cloud Gateway.

This article will describe a practical method to access Amazon S3, securely from your local PC.

Gladinet has 3 products, Cloud Desktop, CloudAFS and Cloud Backup. The 3 products are all capable of encrypt file content before sending them off to Amazon S3. Today we will focus on the Gladinet Cloud Desktop. The User Interface is consistent through out the 3 products. Once you know one, you can use all of them.

In Gladinet Cloud Desktop, first you will need to mount Amazon S3 as a virtual folder.

After the mounting finished, the S3 folder appears.

If this is the first time you use S3, you will see empty folder instead.

Now open up Gladinet Management Console (Task Manager), open the virtual directory manager section and click on the Encrypted Folders.

Now click on the Add New Encrypted Folder icon. The encryption is setup by folder.

Now you can select the whole Amazon S3 folder as the encrypted folder.

If this is the first time you setup encryption, you will be prompted for a password. Don’t forget the password, because this is the only key to get your files back!

Now it is all set. You have an Amazon S3 virtual folder in your network drive. Any files move to this folder will be encrypted with 256-bit AES encryption algorithm.

You can set it up per folder creates flexibility. Since S3 is capable of share a file as a public url. Another option is that you can have two folders under S3, one encrypted for yourself. one plain text so you can share with others.

Visit Gladinet’s Amazon S3 solution page for more information.

Google Docs is also an online storage. One of the unique differentiator is that it is very cheap at 25 cents per GB per year. It also supports all-file-type so you can store many different kind of documents to it. It also support non-conversion for documents so you can use it as a binary storage. You can also choose to convert documents to Google format, so you can enjoy the online features to edit and share documents.

This is all good. Today’s article will talk about how to use Google Docs as a backup destination to keep a second copy of important local documents.

First you will download and install Gladinet Cloud Desktop. It can connect to your Google Docs account from your desktop.

Second, you will need to mount your account into Windows Explorer namespace. It will appear as a virtual folder in a network drive.

Now you have your Google Docs in a network drive.

After this, you have two choices. First you can do ad-hoc drag and drop to backup local documents to Google Docs, directly from within Windows Explorer.

The second choice is to use the Backup Manager. You can reach the Backup Manager from the systray menu.

There are basically 3 types of backup:

(1) backup by folder – so you can pick a local folder and backup to Google Docs, with a schedule.

(2) backup by file type – Gladinet will scan your files by type efficiently on your local system and backup those files.

(3) backup Google Docs to local or another destination (Another Google Docs account?)

This is it, simple!

Visit Gladinet Google Docs solution page for more details.

A commodity is a good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. Commodities are substances that come out of the earth and maintain roughly a universal price

Quote – Wikipedia

Cloud Storage is becoming a commodity. The pricing is becoming similar with the interface becoming similar too across cloud storage vendors.

There are three layers in the cloud storage stack:

1. cloud storage software facing the end user;
2. service providers providing the services
3. the cloud storage vendor providing the solution to the service providers.

On the user front, more and more cloud storage software are available supporting more and more cloud storage vendors. For example, in 2008, Gladinet supported SkyDrive, Google Docs, Google Picasa and Amazon S3. In 2010, the list expands to include AT&T Synaptic Storage, Box.net, EMC Atmos Online, FTP, Google Docs, Google Apps, Google Storage For Developers, Mezeo, Nirvanix, Peer1 CloudOne, Windows Azure, WebDav and more. This trend enables the consumers to pick and choose which cloud storage services they need.

On the service providers front (service providers are the biggest cloud storage service providers),  they may not all create cloud storage services themselves. For example, AT&T and Peer1 are using EMC Atmos. Verizon and Planet are using Nirvanix. As time goes on, we will see the same provider using multiple backend solutions to satisfy different need. Also when service providers merge, the merged company may be using backend solutions from multiple vendors.

On the cloud storage vendor front, more and more are conforming to the Amazon S3 API. We saw Google Storage for Developers, Eucalyptus, Dunkel and Mezeo all creating S3 compatible APIs for their cloud storage solutions. On the other hand, Rackspace is pushing the OpenStack project. All are trying to create a unified interface.

All these are turning cloud storage into a commodity.