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How to make sure your Cloud data does not disappear overnight

If you you’ve been following the IT news recently you probably saw the issue that users recently had with GMail. If not you can read more about it here. Imagine one morning firing up your Android phone or laptop and finding your data was gone!

Of course, this does not just affect email systems. It can affect any cloud service you store data with. Carbonite was another high profile example of data loss, and of course there are many others, and no doubt there will be many more.

So what can you do to prevent such loss? Well, you can backup! Exactly like you do with your laptop. At SMEStorage all users, including free users, can backup their emails to their storage cloud of choice, as long as their email provider supports IMAP, the user can start or schedule a backup and just leave it to complete. An effective solution to a horrible problem should it ever arise.

What about you Cloud data? Well, our Personal Cloud Lifetime and business users can choose to ‘pair’ a backup cloud with a primary cloud. This will instantly schedule a sync of all existing data to a backup cloud, and it will also backup any future data uploaded, giving you total piece of mind that your Cloud data is highly available as a backup copy is stored on another cloud. this could be Amazon S3 and RackSpace for example, or MobileMe to Azure Storage, whatever combination you would like to choose!

If you primary cloud goes down or your data is not available we’ll get it from your backup cloud.

The Cloud does not have to be a dangerous place, just take sensible precautions to protect your data.

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Android SME Cloud File Manager updated to 1.7

We have updated our Android SMEStorage Cloud File Manager on the Google Android Marketplace to version 1.7. This new release has the following changes:
– Enabled Notes to be emailed as attachments
– Accessing notes changed to a double tap
– Added support for HTTPS on login (https is slower)
– Added support to upload any file from phone to storage cloud chosen
– Added support for icloud, safesync & Sharepoint clouds. SharePoint can only be used by SMEStorage business accounts.

The next release will feature HTTP / FTP support for local file upload over Wi Fi and also sync from ‘cloud to phone’ / ‘phone to cloud’ scheduling, a much requested feature.

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Release of Cloud Backup Tool for S3, Google Storage, RackSpace, OpenStack and Eucalytpus Walrus

As well as updating our main site today, we also released a Windows Cloud backup / upload tool for the Amazon S3, Google Storage, and the RackSpace Cloud Files Storage platforms.

The Cloud Backup Tool also supports the Swift Storage framework as well as the Eucalyptus Walrus platform which enable users and ISP’s to implement their own private object storage cloud implementations.

We had many of our users who wanted a simple tool to upload large volumes of files from their windows desktop to clouds such as RackSpace, Google Storage and S3. They wanted such a tool to automatically check and update prior versions of files the next time they uploaded the same structure. It got to the point where we actually built such a tool for one of our customers that uses RackSpace and then we extended it for another customer that used Amazon S3. At this point we decided to broaden it to use other clouds and make it commercially available.

It is a fairly simple tool but it seems to fill a niche in that it can be used to get large volumes of files into the Cloud for these providers.

As we were getting so many requests for users who wanted to use private cloud implementations we decided to add in the support for these also, as both Walrus and Swift are basically the same API implementation as Amazon S3 and RackSpace Cloud Files with the exception of a user definable endpoint.

The Enterprise Cloud Backup tools is available to purchase from the SMEStorage website for $9.99 and works only on the Windows Operating System.

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How to Access Google Docs, Amazon S3, DropBox and more using the Nokia N8 integrated WebDav client

The new Nokia N8 is a next generation smartphone from Nokia. We’ve had a few requests as to whether we will build a mobile client for it. The answer ? There is no need. The Nokia N8 has an integrated WebDav client built directly into the phone and with our CloudDav implementation we are able to offer WebDav access into many clouds, even if the underlying cloud does not support WebDav (which Google Docs, Amazon S3, RackSpace Cloud Files and DropBox don’t).

To start managing your files directly from your N8 phone with WebDav you need to do the following:

1. Register for a free account for your clouds of choice with SMEStorage.com

2. Purchase the CloudDav add-on. You can do this from the “Purchase add-on’s” link in the sidebar.

3. Now go to your N8 phone and ensure you have a WiFi or data-connection

4. Go to Menu -> Applications -> Office.

5. Go to File Manager-> Options ->Map new Drive

6. Enter ‘SMEStorage’ for the name of the drive to be mapped

7. Enter the SMEStorage WebDav url (https://webdav.storagemadeeasy.com)

8. Select the access point you would like

9. Provider the username and then the password for your SMEStorage account.

10.Now tap the ‘back’ button.

11. You will now see the file listed in the File Manager and you can tap to connect (as long as you have a data connection)

You will now see your file listing for the clouds you have mapped to your SMEStorage Account

Using CloudDav and the N8 WebDav feature in this way, you can not only access files, but copy files, create new files, and delete files from a multitude of storage clouds directly from your phone.

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iSMEStorage 2.0 is released

iSMEStorage 2.0 is now in the App Store. It has a ton of new features, which you can refer to from our prior post. There is unfortunately a bug that was picked up on release when using the folder actions when in the Cloud Files view which crashes the App. We’ve already issued a 2.01 release fix for this and this should be in the App Store around about the 5th November if Apple keep to their normal weeks approval timeline.

In the meantime we put together a short slide set so you can have a quick browse of the features in the 2.0 release:

iSMEStorage 2.0 multi cloud and local file manager for iPad & iPhone

View more presentations from SMEStorage.

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ExtJS Storage enabled Portlets – integrated with Google Docs, Amazon S3 + 10 other storage clouds

We’ve recently been doing some integration work with a large engineering company that has been focused on integrating multiple clouds with their Portal framework which in this case is Ext JS. Ext (pronounced “Eee Eks Tee”) is a JavaScript library for building interactive web applications using techniques such as Ajax, DHTML and DOM scripting. It has gained quite a following and is a popular choice for a Portal infrastructure.

The main advantage of that ExtJS has over other frameworks is its component-oriented model which leads to a consistent and easy to use API to build widget-based interfaces. It also now features integrated touch sensitive web apps using HTML5 which makes it an even stronger Ajax tools and Portal framework

The integration that we have done for the engineering company is going to be  key to enabling data access for storage clouds when users sign into the Portal. Clouds such as S3, and internal storage clouds, will be mapped into the on-premise SMEStorage Cloud Gateway appliance. Authentication is being handled by integration with an internal identity management server so that single sign-on can be accomplished.

The real power of the on-premise appliance and the rich API is that not only can users use the Portal to access files, they can also use the white label version of the Windows / Mac / Linux desktop tools , and also the Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, IPad mobile clients.

If you are interested in integrating ExtJS with an on-premise Cloud Gateway then please contact us

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Further news on iSMEStorage 2.0 for iPhone and iPad

We’ve just released the new version of iSMEStorage to the App Store. We put so much effort into it that is has become a major release version rather than the 1.67 version we had previously intended.

The release includes the following features:

– Enhanced Security: The App can now be assigned a PIN over and above the normal login (for security of local files)

– Better local file sharing: Added ability to email local files as file attachments

– Sync from any Cloud: It is now possible to sync any cloud directory (from any of the clouds we support) to your phone. You can do this with as many directories as you wish and can set the sync directory from within the App.

– The first App to offer cut and paste between clouds: We’ve added cut and paste of files between cloud directories and even between different storage clouds used the concept of File and Folder Actions! You can also now use the Cloud Clipboard to store multiple files that you wish to cut and paste in this manner.

– Fully fledged FTP Server: You can now turn iSMEStorage into an FTP Server and batch upload as many files locally as you wish.

– Fully Fledged Local File Manager: We’ve beefed up the local file operations so you can now cut and paste files between directories locally and also added the ability to create and use folders as categories for the Memos and Voice Memos sections of the App.

– Enhanced Text Editor: We’ve beefed up the text editor so it is now full screen and has a word search as many of you requested. We also added the ability to edit any local text file as you wanted and enabled .html .css .xml and any other type of text format file to be edited.

– Google Maps integration: The GEO location of where a file was uploaded and where a file is stored is now integrated with a Google Maps view.

– Enhanced Cloud Support: Added support for DropBox, Zimbra Briefcase and Files Anywhere (Web Advanced Plan required)

– Email to Cloud Support: Added FileBox menu option so that you can easily get to file attachments that you have mailed to your Cloud

– Mark Folders as Favourites: Added support for marking folders as favourites from directly within the App.

– Web Viewer fixed: Amended Web Viewer so that state is kept when browsing in menu.

– Organisation Ready: Added icon for Organisation Folders and Organisation Support for our business users



Apple normally approves within a week so we are hoping that the App will be released around the 20/21st October unless we have to do any amendments as required by Apple.

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Coming Soon: Access your Cloud Files from any cloud using S3 API

We’ve been surprised by the huge success of the work we did with CloudDav which enables you to access your Cloud Files from any of the storage clouds we support using WebDav, even if the underlying Storage Cloud itself does not support it.

With that in mind we’ve been working on something even more innovative and that is enabling you to access any of your Cloud Files using the Amazon S3 API. This will mean that you will be able to use existing Amazon S3 tools, scripts etc that support the ability to specify your own endpoint to directly access Cloud Storage on Cloud such as Google Docs, DropBox, RackSpace, SkyDrive etc. We think this will prove just as useful to many developers, individuals and companies as our CloudDav layer has been.

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New Drag and Drop Web Uploader for batching file uploads to multiple clouds

We’ve made some update to our HTML file uploader for the Rich File Manager on the website. Uploading a few files over the web was always difficult because you had to browse each file one by one. Now you can choose to launch the uploader and just drag and drop multiple file which will then be uploaded in sequence.

Of course as the File Manager view lets you see multiple clouds due to the Virtual Cloud File System that SMEStorage providers through its Cloud Gateway, you can easily batch upload files to different cloud or information stores and as such works with all those we support which includes DropBox, Google Docs, Amazon S3, RackSpace, Microsoft SkyDrive etc.

A short video below demonstrates how this works:

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