Cloud Storage

Institutions and corporations provide space within their own networks to share data and to maintain security for their own intellectual property. Access is available to users dependant on their predefined authorities; and can be gained from within our without the corporate network, dependant again on the controlled access as defined by the institution.

The preservation of intellectual property requires constant backup across media and in separate geographical locations. This is a component of administration that requires as much of a clearly defined management programme as sales, operations and accounts but is often pushed to the side as a secondary consideration. Without a clearly defined process for the preservation of intellectual property in the face of catastrophe, an institution can be brought to it’s knees.

 I have been unfortunate enough to have worked in a business that suffered the total destruction of it’s offices through fire. Every physical invoice and purchase order record , everybody’s personal work area and associated document storage, everybody’s PC and most devastatingly the server room itself were all destroyed.  The most recent local backup had not been performed for several weeks. Fortunately the order and the email system were located in another place, and the fire did not reach the inventory, so it was possible to continue trading – but only just. The destruction of intellectual property will destroy an institution. Few businesses can survive such an event.

Curiously enough at that time I found myself in the position where the files that were located on the hard drive of my own laptop, which was not destroyed because it was off site were among some of the only current records available for me to do my job. Whilst the merits of digital storage are obvious, it is also worthwhile to point out that local physical storage is not redundant and should not be discounted.

Google Docs.

Being suspicious of Google and the means by which it accesses it’s clients as information consumers, I approach the storage of any information on their site with a fair degree of scepticism. They quite plainly declare as a term and of usage that they will use the data that you store as a means of measuring you as a consumer, and therefore pinpointing which advertising will be most likely to be effective. Beyond this there is the potential to analyse your data as a means of refining their own corporate strategies. You become an unpaid contributor to their marketing programme.

Google Docs use a couple of applications that are modifications of existing Microsoft based formats. Therefore the capacity of the medium as backup and/ or file exchange system are limited. Having said all of that I am impressed by the testimony of teachers who are building worldwide curriculum programmes through the medium. The capacity of a popular site such as Google to transcend local intranets is obvious.

I have agreed with some fellow students to use Google Docs as a means of sharing documents in a Group exercise that is being undertaken in another subject. I will report on this as we progress through this assignment in the coming weeks.

Drop Box

Drop Box makes claims about it’s capacity to provide real time syncing for files. I found that across separate computers this is true: ie I attempted modifying files on my Mac, which updated the file online and was visible on my work PC Based laptop, both computers having had Drop Box installed. As the updates are performed a bubble pops up for a few seconds advising of changes, and giving reversion opportunities.

Frustration set in however when I saved a file from my PC to drop box, then modified it locally and replaced it to Drop Box in the same session from the PC. The modifications were not carried across. I found that the only way that I could successfully update the file to Drop Box in this manner was to delete it there and then replace it with the modified file.

Further to this new files and modified files that were saved to a folder from the PC and then replaced to Drop Box via the folder were not being replaced to the backup folders that already existed in Drop Box, that had been saved thence from the PC in the same session. Changes from the MAC were however being updated to Drop Box in this manner in real time. Bubbles pop up for a few seconds advising you of the change.

I conclude from this that the real time updating is limited to the extent that you cannot expect to transfer files that already exist in Drop Box in the same session on the same computer. This is contrary to the notion of this Cloud Storage tool as a real time updating system. If you are using it as a kind of network medium between systems this is OK, however it does not appear to be smart enough to pick up changes in the same session. I am happy to be corrected if I am wrong....

A history of sorts is provided by Drop Box of changes, and opportunities are presented to revert these changes, however the full history of changes is not available on the Drop Box interface.  This makes it a bit incomplete as a point of editorial reference.

The conclusion that I draw is that if you have finished your file for the moment then Drop Box is useful both as a backup and as an intermediary. Thus I have chosen to use it only for finished works, or works that are for the present finished and may require a network intermediary.

For the moment I’m sticking to my hard drive, the USB Drive and the network for complete record backup of works that are in progress. They seam more reliable and less fraught with potential pitfalls for the unwary.