Wrote a plan to future self to save the world its on a beer coaster, need to save it. So should I Drop Box, SkyDrive or Google?

MMM on 14/03/2014 - 23:29

Two part question.

1) Which cloud storage do you use and why do you prefer it?

2) I haven't used cloud storage as yet, I work with larger files being a photographer. I would like to have someone else work on the image correction or post processing but the dilemma is that I would need to upload each job weekly at 60 to 80GB in size then download them back once they are complete. I would like to outsource my image correction but its seems impossible in real world technology until maybe NBN comes into play in my location in Perth, WA and I might be dead by then.

Any suggestions or is still not practical to constantly upload and download large files.

Note: optimizing the image file size is not an option as once its compressed it loses a lot of detail required for correction.

Internet Cloud Storage

Comments

  • Riczter on 15/03/2014 - 01:38
    +1

    Would probably be quicker to physically mail it to the other person on an SD Card. In answer to your first question, i use onedrive for work and dropbox for personal. I like dropboxes ability to restore previous versions.

    Question to knowledgable people: Are there places you can go with massive upload bandwidth and pay a bit of money to use their network? For example a university. Coz if you had access to ridiculous upload speed, then maybe you could do it…

    • scrimshaw on 15/03/2014 - 02:03
      +2

      Relevant XKCD
      http://what-if.xkcd.com/31/

      Also, if you have to upload and download 80 gigabytes of data on a weekly basis, that amounts to over 320 gigs of data downloaded and 320 GB uploaded per month (4 weeks). This would require you subscribe to an unlimited plan or a plan that doesn't count uploads.

      And if you are on unlimited ADSL+ with a max upload speed of 1mbps, it would take you roughly 200 hr 14 min to upload 80 GB of data, possibly more if you have a crappy internet connection.

      I guess the "FedExNet" idea sounds like a much more pragmatic option.

      For example a university.

      Nope. University monitors traffic, they don't like people using their connection to do bulk data transfers.

      • Riczter on 15/03/2014 - 02:21

        But are there other organisations/businesses that you can go to to pay for high bandwidth internet usage? Like an internet cafe, but with extreme upload speeds. Does this exist anywhere?

  • jzdhgkd on 15/03/2014 - 08:36

    Have you tried zipping the RAWs? If they're already compressed then you won't see a benefit, but if not then it may be worth your while. Only takes 2 seconds to try zipping one and seeing how big it is afterwards. Could save you time uploading depending on your connection speed.

    It's a lossless compression so once the other person unzips then it will be as detailed as it was originally.

  • blitz on 15/03/2014 - 11:43
    +3

    Hi old MMM, this is future MMM. Your plan worked! Your beer coaster plan saved the entire planet. Everyone is living in peace and harmony, and you ended up marrying The Corrs (not the bloke). Anyway, you ended up using Dropbox to store your files, or "MMMbox" as it will be known. Hope this helps.

  • MMM on 15/03/2014 - 13:49

    Thanks for all your comments, really appreciate your spending the time to offer help.

    I would probably conclude that its still early days to think about sending large files across the internet on current bandwidth. Updating a few files here and there in cloud storage makes perfect sense for everyday applications but and I am really impressed with the "FedExNet" concept - looked at the link and it makes sense for now although again still inconvenient.

    Unfortunately the Nikon .NEF files that I use are already compressed in a lossless compression so their is little to be gained in further compression.

    Thanks Blitz, Going to set up MMMBox now as the future of mankind depends on it!

    Interesting though and prolly another discussion, we live in the world of Google. I predate Google having posted my first website prior to their existence (yes, I'm an old carbon dated fossil)I just wonder in 20 years time who will still be around, Drop Box, SkyDrive or Google etc? The brick and mortar companies that once dominated are struggling to keep alive.

    • Riczter on 15/03/2014 - 21:08
      +1

      Id say Google isn't going anywhere, so google drive should be safe. OneDrive(SkyDrive) belongs to microsoft so unless they go under onedrive should be pretty safe as well. I'd say the most at risk of the three in 20 years time would be dropbox because it hasn't got any parent company backing it or pushing it or integrating it into their other services (like Microsoft Office and onedrive) so that you 'need' it in order to use the other service.
      But who knows, a lot can happen in 20 years in the tech world.

  • 01011010 on 16/03/2014 - 10:44
    +1

    how about some sort of sFTP (or alternative) on your own network.

    Create sFTP server on your machine or storage device (like a Synology), open port to the world
    Give outsourcer details on how to access the server
    outsourcer downloads files required
    Outsourcer makes changes and uploads files?

    If you were going to do this, recommend looking at Annex M ADSL2+ which would boost your upload speed to maybe a few megabit per second.

    • MMM on 16/03/2014 - 18:53

      Thanks binaryactions:) that actually is a practical suggestion and certainly answers 50% as it takes care of the upload at my end, now to work out how the other party downloads and returns the images.

      Your suggestion though has helped me think that maybe I am overthinking this and the images possibly don't have to leave my office with upload and download maybe a Remote Desktop might also be a solution.

      Remote desktop in the old days would only display 256 colours which is insufficient to post process images as I work with high quality display's that show a billion colours. I haven't used remote desktop for a while but I think it may have improved in its display qualities so may investigate that.

      So thanks again for your suggestion!

      • 01011010 on 16/03/2014 - 21:40

        Definitely investigate that!

        You can use Remote Desktop with the same quality as if you are local to the machine. Also if you have dual monitors the person on the remote end can have that well.

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