Enterprise File Fabric™
We have updated our Android Cloud File Manager application today in Google Play and on our site. The new version adds supports for:
– iCloud
– Google Drive
– BaseCamp
– Office365
It also features a dedicated settings section where the various App settings are now consolidated. The App also now supports copy and paste between Clouds, an often requested feature.
For a brief overview please check out the video below:
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In our previous post we demonstrated how files from one Cloud Storage Provider could be moved or copied to another Cloud Storage provider using Drag and Drop.
We’ve now done some further work to make it easy to also move or copy nested folders from one Cloud Provider to another. Please review the video below for a demonstration:
by For over 2 years now we have had the Public Files page. When users sets a file public from any of the 35+ information Clouds they have mapped to their account then it is displayed on this public files page. Users have always been able to make such files password protected by encrypting the files on upload through our platform, but we have had feedback that what users really wanted was the ability to have any files on this page password protected, whether they were uploaded as encrypted files or not.
We’ve now added this change to the service. To take advantage of it all that needs to be done is to assign a password to the public files page from your Cloud DashBoard after login to the web. This can be set under the “extended options” section (at the bottom of the DashBoard).
Setting files to be public is easy, just right click on the file from the web and choose to make the file public:
Other desktop and mobile clients also enable files to be set as public, as in the Android example below:
Once files are set public they appear on the public files page that each user account has:
These files are also available as an RSS feed that can added to the foot of an email for example, or as a an iPhone App:
Once a file is then accessed when public file sharing is turned on then the user is redirected to a password page when they try to access any file from the public files page:
This feature works across files from any Cloud and indeed Cloud Files from different clouds can be shared and protected from the same page in this way.
Business Cloud File Server users can take advantage of this or turn off file sharing completely for their users.
by We have done a major update of our Web File Manager today. You may have used our File Manager beta over the last few months. This File Manager has gone live and there are shot of new features that business and individual users can take advantage of. The include:
1. Simplified Layout: The whole File Manager has been simplified. Now the two panes of how files are shown works just as it does not the desktop with files being shown in both panes. Also the menu bar has been vastly simplified to concentrate on the options that are used the most, such as sharing, folder creation, and upload.
Also all file and folders function has been consolidated on a right click. Right clicking on a file brings up the options for the file, the same with folders:
2. Improvements in Links sharing and link expiry: We always supported password protecting files on upload via file encryption and link expiry on email generation for file sharing but we have extended this for password protecting any shared link generated with link expiration:
3. Improvements in how to copy and move files between different services: This is as easy as shift and click and then dragging and dropping. Refer to the below video for more details.
This works with folders too, you can drag and drop folders between services easily.
4. Improvements when using a tablet: When using a tablet, the File Manager reacts differently and is optimised for touch screens. Selecting multiple files is just a matter of clicking to the left of the file, and a tick will appear to let you know the file is selected. File options can be done by doing a long touch or press on the file as right click is not applicable on tablets.
We hope you like the new look File Manager. We continue to work on it and have some even further optimisations to come soon !
by We recently updated The Windows Phone Cloud File Manager. Features include:
– Instant access to unified Cloud files anytime, anywhere direct from a WP7 device.
– Assign lengthy tasks and operations to the SME Platform Tasks Engine (PTE). Use your phone while tasks are completed in background. Check progress at anytime in cloud tasks.
– Manage multiple Clouds in a single view. Easily move files between different clouds, done in background.
– Advanced Cloud Search feature that can search for files across multiple clouds.
– Unique Cloud Clipboard feature enables file management from different clouds in batches, without downloading & then uploading.
– Unique Direct Upload uploads files from web directly, no need to download and then upload, just enter file address and our servers will upload it in background.
– Open files in the phone in Microsoft Office, MediaPlayer etc.
– Share and collaborate – share files to social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Windows Live, etc.), over email or with users groups.
– Record audio (even with screen locked), take notes and 2-way sync with chosen Cloud(s). No need for another recording App.
– 2-way sync pictures with different Clouds. Integrated with Pictures hub. Pictures can be uploaded (shared) directly from the hub.
We have seen a recent surge in business customers wanting to use the Windows Phone with our Cloud File Server SaaS and hosted hybrid appliance and expect this to continue with the recently announced windows phone business features.
by We’ve updated our Linux Cloud Tools to 3.0.12. The changes include:
1. Supports deleting of files during sync
If a user deletes files locally and syncs then the files will be deleted on the server. If a user deletes files on the server and then syncs then files will be deleted locally. These 2 options are ‘Off’ by default. and can be turned on in settings of the sync center.
2. In Ubuntu 11.10+ “Hide in tray” works correctly.
3. Fixed Menu duplication
4. Fix for large fonts bug.
5. In Explorer new option to upload folder (previously only individual files were possible to upload).
6. Fixed bug with trash in explorer (not all files from trash were displayed)
7. Sync center works as per other OS sync tooling. The “My syncs” folder concept is not used any more and desktop to different cloud folders can be mapped. ie. any folder can now be nominated for sync. The free version has a restriction of 3 folders that can be sync’d
8. Encryption now supported (only for Personal Cloud or Business Cloud users.). In the Properties window it is possible to set a password for encryption of files during sync.
9. Small fix for Properties window for small screens. Scrolling works correctly now.
The Linux Cloud Tools can be used with the following Clouds:
Google Docs, Google Storage, Google Sites,
Amazon S3, MobileMe, Microsoft Live Mesh (read only),
Microsoft SkyDrive, DropBox, Azure Blob Storage,
Box.net, RackSpace Cloud Files, OpenStack Swift,
Gmail-as-a-Cloud, Email-as-a-Cloud, Mezeo,
HP Object Cloud Storage, S3 compliant Clouds such as (Eucalyptus Walrus),
Ubuntu One Cloud, iKeepinCloud, PogoPlug,
BaseCamp SaaS Service, IBM Connections Files,
EMC Atmos, Office365, SharePoint, CloudMe,
HostingSolutions.it, Scality, Alfresco (on-premise),
Zimbra Briefcase, SafeSync(WebDav enabled),
FilesAnywhere (WebDav enabled), and any WebDav enabled Cloud.
The tools can be downloaded from the Linux Cloud Tools Page.
by 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.
by 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:
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.
by 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.
by For many of use in the office using Mac’s we’ve yearned for some tighter integration with SMEStorage and the Mac. You can choose to use the Windows explorer via Crossover or WINE with the Mac and it works nicely, and you can also use the Firefox plug-in which also works really well, but having OS level integration is always nice.
Snow Leopard has enhanced the integration of the automator services into the OS which makes it much easier to provide contextual functionality.
Using this method there is now available an add-in for users of SMEStorage to be able to upload their files directly from the Mac to their chosen cloud of choice (and we now support over 10 storage clouds), and after the file has been uploaded a unique link for the file will be copied to the clipboard.
You can view a video below that show this working with Google Docs:
by We’ve released the second of our WordPressPlug-Ins which enables users of different Cloud Storage Providers to make files available for download on a WordPress Blog.
The extension supports all the clouds that are available via the SMEStorage Gateway API which include Amazon S3, RackSpace Cloud Files, Box.net, Microsoft SkyDrive, MobileMe, GMail-as-a-Cloud, Email-as-a-Cloud, FTP-as-a-Cloud, and any WebDav compatible storage Cloud.
To enable your files to be shared on the WordPress Blog you need to make the files public within SMEStorage:
1. Use the SMEStorage File Manager to navigate to select files to make public. Please read this blog post for more information on how to do this. Files set to be public can then be made available from the Plug-In.
2. Login in to WP-Admin. At the bottom of your dasboard on the right hand side you will a ‘SMEStorage Public Files option’. Click on this. Here you can enter your SMEStorage username and how you want the files to be selected for display i.e. via tags you have assigned to them or * for all public files.
3. Now go to Appearance-Widgets and choose where you want the widget displaying your files to be.
The Plug-In was developed using the SMEStorage multi-cloud API.
The Plug-In is available for download from the WordPress extensions site.
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During a lightening talk at London CloudCamp we talked about the need for a multi-cloud storage API (slides below). We then presented the options currently available, and of course the SMEStorage multi-cloud API is one of several. We do believe we bring some nice things to the table with out API which include:
– REST based providing an SPI to multiple clouds
– Provides value added services over and above just upload/dowload, and file system view. There are too many to list, but these include file encryption, Email backup, ETL from one cloud to another cloud, content filtering, faxing and much, much more
– Ability to provide a single view of disparate data in different clouds – a cloud data unification within a single file system view.
If you are a developer take the time to check out the API and let us know how we can do more to help and what features you are looking for.
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