[Mugge]

With the decommissioning of iDisk approaching I'm considering a new on-line storage option and why just jump on iCloud now that there are so many new choices:

Dropbox
Pros: Dead simple synch features, supported by many other services, possible to put own encrypted images onto it
Cons: Own security discredited
Price: 100 GB for USD 240 yearly (worst)

SpiderOak
Pros: claimed zero-knowledge security, client moving towards open source (possible verification of zero-knowledge)
Cons: no password recovery
Price: 100 GB for USD 100 yearly (best)

Wuala
Pros: claimed zero-knowledge security, trade own disk space for on-line space
Cons: no password recovery, P2P storage among users (one must really hope it's safe)
Price: 100 GB for EUR 99 (USD 142)

iCloud
Pros: Should work seamlessly for a Mac/iOS user
Cons: No information on security model
Price: 55 GB for USD 100 yearly

Mozy
Pros: ?
Cons: No synch features, no iOS support
Price: 125 GB for USD 120 yearly (3 computers)

Since my own priorities are firstly security and secondly price, I am most inclined to go with Spideroak. Of course the free versions allows you to mix more than one service and iTunes Match might be best for handling your tunes, but I am mostly looking for a place for general back-up purposes.

Any of you guys having any knowledge or experience worth sharing about the above, or do you know of any other contenders than I have missed?

[chucker]

Those are some, well, not entirely comparable services. For example, Mozy is a backup solution, so it's more comparable with Carbonite and BackBlaze. Dropbox is a folder that syncs, while also offering some additional niceties (versioning, online viewing). OTOH, it is comparable in iCloud in that both are used (or, rather, will be used) by applications for storing documents in the cloud; in the case of Dropbox, this is particularly common for iOS apps.

It's not clear to me yet to what extent I can store stuff on iCloud. It doesn't appear to pop up as a drive, so I think it's limited to applications using the API (and stuff like Mail and iTunes), but maybe I'm wrong on that.

I know, I'm not really helping decipher this confusing "cloud" thing.

[ezkcdude]

I love Dropbox.

I'm also trying out a service called Box, not to be confused with Dropbox (although I admit it's confusing). Box seems more geared towards business folks and collaboration. You can sign up for a free 5GB account. The "Business" plan gives you 500 GB for $15/mo. It has an interesting interface where you can drag files onto the browser.

[Mugge]

Well, I knew they weren't exactly the same, so no harm done.

Synch is nice, but for my purposes it's mainly a new means of securing my hoard of data from the house burning down.

[Mugge]

Been doing some studying and testing of Spideroak and Wuala. So far I haven't found out much more than just the basic user experience.

Wuala likes to mount like an iDisk, is available in Finder and uses MacFUSE to accomplish this. I haven't been able to determine wether it creates a local duplicate like iDisk and to make things weirder, you can't eject like any other mounted drive, you have to quit the client app, which then throws up an error message. It's is Java based, a bit stuttering when scrolling and it resides in the dock. Datacenters are in France, Germany and Switzerland. They also boast about "Swiss technology".

Spideroak does not mount anything but simply backs up and synchs the folders you tell it to, but is not available though Finder. Though, the folder that it backs up and syncs are, thus making it more invisible than Wuala. I think it's Qt based (an old 2009 review said Flash?!) and resides up in the menu bar.


However, I've also found another contender: Tarsnap by a Dr. Colin Percival. It brands itself as back-up for the truly paranoid (and truly nerdy, might I add). The client is open source because you shouldn't take his word for it regarding client side encryption and zero knowledge security. In fact, he's not even offering a compiled version for download. I don't think he wan't to do any business with the likes of me.

[Mugge]

Conclusions so far:

Spideroak seems to be working best and once you get the hang of it the client is also the most pleasant to work with. My upload speeds seems to be circa 550 MB pr. hour with my 12/2 Mbit DSL connection. I suppose that's not too shabby (infinitely better than the f***ing iDisk) and I'm prone to declaring Spideroak the winner of this contest.

Wuala on the other hand has stopped working all together. I've tried deleting it and all it's associated files, flushing the Java cache, and disabling and deleting MacFUSE. But to no avail. Not very impressive for something that's supposed to keep you stuff safe.

I've also found an alternative to pure on-line or off-line back-up: Lacie, the owners of Wuala, also offer a hybrid solution called the Cloudbox that offers a 100 GB NAS that backs itself up into the cloud (Wuala back-end). Pretty clever, but sort of redundant if you already have a stationary computer. And sort of limited if you have more than one computer, since it doesn't offer any syncing.

[micalhassi]

Hi Friends !!!
I read your all posts which is much informative for everyone who are new here as me, So Spideroak does not mount anything but simply backs up and synchs the folders you tell it to, but is not available though Finder. well....