Enterprise File Fabric™
Although the File Fabric can be used with web based document editors and can facilitate desktop editing using the unique CloudEdit feature, sometimes all you want to do is jot down a quick text note.
You might not be aware that The File Fabric has this facility built in, without the need for a third party note taking application.
Continue reading “Using Text Notes with the Enterprise File Fabric”
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More and more companies are turning to Object Storage to handle the growing amounts of structured and unstructured data that is corporately generated and consumed.
As companies move to this new storage paradigm IT is struggling to not only manage, index, and secure the newly migrated / stored data, but also having difficulty with figuring out how they can expose access to users.
by We are currently working on a dedicated standalone iOS App for OpenStack Swift and we have reached the point where beta testers are required for the first build.
Continue reading “OpenStack Swift iOS App beta testers wanted”
by The latest iOS SME client app version 3.13 released on the 25th March has been updated with very useful new features, following is a list of some of the main ones:
— Document Provider —
The new Document Provider feature makes SME Cloud available to other 3rd party apps giving easy access to your SME files.
For example, you can now import a file from a mapped SME Cloud into dropbox as follows:
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From our experience a lot of companies at the moment may not consider Swift to be ready for production. Each version of Swift that comes out is not compatible with the previous.
For example Swift 1.2 introduced some very welcome features that our development team started using but subsequently had to remove to build a version that is submittable to the app store.
Aside from this there have been a lot of Xcode bugs and crashes related to using Swift. Some of the recent Xcode versions have been almost unusable and one of them even totally unusable. Swift at the moment seems very much Beta and for early adopters.
However once you get the Swift code to build to a binary there are no compatibility issues and nothing to lose, There’s even some performance to gain as Swift is being developed very much to integrate well with LLVM and by the same person / team that created LLVM.
In our opinion Swift has the productivity of Ruby while at the same time making it easy to implement safe code that doesn’t crash as much as before. In the near future when Swift becomes more mainstream either the cost of implementing a polished app will go down or the expected standard will go up.
The simpler syntax makes it much easier to use certain features which previously were a pain ( ex. completion handlers/blocks ) or even new features ( ex. custom operators ). When you combine them the power is multiplied. Including the time taken debugging bugs that are now avoided with Swift.
The chainTest Swift function below uses a combination of a custom operator ( |> ) and the way functions/blocks are first-class citizens in Swift and can easily be passed around and chained. What the function does is call the “start” function, then on the main thread it creates an activity view ( with a spinner etc ), then with the activity view running it does some work on the global thread, when the work is finished it removes the activity view and calls the “end” function.
func chaintest()
{
start I> main I> startactivity I> global I> doSomeWork I> main I> stopActivity I> end
}
We’d estimate a 4x increase in productivity compared to Objective-C.
Our conclusion is that we’re currently at a place where using Swift provides a window of opportunity for early adopters to compete with the larger less adaptable companies.
by This blog post title may seem a little strange given that Storage Made Easy promotes the use of secure cloud file share and sync but we understand that there are times when you simply want to bulk move files directly from a laptop or PC to be able to access them on the move.
A little know feature of the free SME iOS and Android Apps is that they have the ability to turn themselves into an FTP Server which can be wirelessly connected to from an FTP client on the same network.
This allows files to be easily uploaded to the App in Bulk on each device.
From a security viewpoint you will still want to secure the files in the event you lost the device or the device is stolen.
On iOS the SME App can be protected by a pin, and the forthcoming release supplemented by fingerprint Touch ID for devices that support it. Also If you turn on the device password for the iOS device then the SME App takes advantage of the encryption features build into iOS and all files are encrypted when the device is ‘locked’ or “at rest”.
On Android the SME App can also be protected by a pin but for additional security users should consider encrypting their device storage. You can read an article now how to do that here.
by There are popular frameworks for automating iOS testing like Calabash and Frank but they can only automate your own app which is very limiting. For example you can’t automate pressing the ‘Home’ button, switching to another app, going into airplane mode, rebooting the device, touching anywhere on the screen outside your own app etc
As a concrete example, the new version of the SME iOS client app that we are currently working on implements the Document Provider extension which allows other apps to open an SME document. To automate Picking an SME Document, you’d have to automate the host app which normally you have no control over.
The existing automation testing frameworks don’t provide the required control so a better solution is needed.
One way of gaining enough control of your testing devices is by jailbreaking them. With a jailbroken device you can SSH into it and run system commands.
To be able to SSH into the device, first install OpenSSH from inside Cydia.
You also need to find the IP address of the jailbroken device by going to Settings/Wi-Fi and touching the name of the wi-fi connection being used.
Then SSH into the device from your computer’s terminal app, for example if the device’s IP address is 192.168.1.23, the following command allows you to SSH into it:
> ssh root@192.168.1.23 > password: alpine
Before you can simulate actions on the device you need to install Activator ( created by Ryan Petrich ) and SimulateTouch ( created by iolate ). To find them just do a search inside Cydia.
Activator allows you to run automation commands like for example:
– Run the SME app or bring it to the foreground if already running:
> activator send com.janats.smestorage
Run the Readdle Documents iPad app:
> activator send com.readdle.ReaddleDocsIPad
Simulate touching the home button:
> activator send libactivator.system.homebutton
To list the commands you can run with activator use the following command:
> activator listeners
SimulateTouch allows you to run the following command to simulate a touch on the screen position with x=100 and y=200:
> stouch touch 100 200
With Activator and SimulateTouch you can automate just about everything but you also need to download the screenshots taken by your device which will be processed on your computer to determine if a test has succeeded.
To take a screenshot use the following command:
> activator send libactivator.system.take-screenshot
The device will save the screenshot image to:
/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/100APPLE
You can look at the contents of that folder with the command:
ls /var/mobile/Media/DCIM/100APPLE
You should see images with names like “IMG_0260.PNG”, the index will increment for each screenshot taken.
To retrieve the image to your computer you can use SCP as follows:
scp root@192.168.1.23:/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/100APPLE/IMG_0260.PNG ./
You should then have the screenshot available locally.
Now we’re equipped with the tools we need for the implementation of an automated testing framework.
To where your appetites for the next part of this article please find below a short video of the automated visual testing framework that has been created to easily test iOS Apps.
by BoxCryptor provides a virtual hard disk that encrypts files within a storage account using using 256-bit AES encryption. BoxCryptor encrypts individual files, not an entire volume or container.
BoxCryptor encrypts and decrypts files locally, and it doesn’t transmit passwords to third parties. As a result files remain unreadable to outsiders even if hackers manage to steal passwords as they need to also break the file encryption.
How is this different to SME provided encryption? SME provides streamed encryption which occurs over the https protocol. Users choose a private key to encrypt files on upload to their underlying cloud and SME does not store this key on the SME platform.
Like BoxCryptor Storage Made Easy also uses AES-256 encryption. We use the Rijndael cipher, with Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) where the block size is 16 bytes..
Storage Made Easy also provides a file decryption tool that is available for Mac, Windows and Linux for local decryption of files downloaded direct from a Storage provider rather than via SME tool or client.
BoxCryptor recently updated their iOS App and although the App supports several storage clouds, as SME supports 35+ storage clouds and provides access into them using WebDav, BoxCryptor can be used in conjunction with SME to create and access encrypted folders with files on any cloud SME supports.
The pictorial walkthrough below shows how to achieve this.
BoxCryptor also supports Mac and Windows and can be used with SME Webdav or the Cloud Drive Apps. There is also a BoxCryptor Android App which can also similarly used with SME WebDav.
by We’ve updated the Storage Made Easy iPad / iPhone App. As with all Storage Made Easy mobile clients, the App unifies public cloud services such as Box, SkyDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, Amazon S3 as well as private cloud services such as OpenStack, FTP(s), WebDav, Zimbra etc.
The App also features our innovative CloudDav feature. CloudDav enables WebDav across any Cloud that is mapped to the App. This then enables users to edit documents using any of their storage services with Doc editing Apps such as iWork, even if the native Cloud does not actually support WebDav.
This update includes a number of refinements and changing such as slight tweak to support the iPhone 5 screen resolution, and the release also extends the Business WorkSpaces feature. This feature lets users create Business WorkSpaces directly from the App and enables members of the group to share files securely with each other.
Cross Cloud Search is also a feature of the App. This means, for example, that if you need to search for files related to a a certain project keyword you can simply type the search terms and all the cloud data sources that you have mapped to the App will be searched and the aggregated results returned.
For the SME business SaaS and on-premise Appliance customers the integration of the SaaS and hybrid Appliance with on-premise Active Directory servers enables single sign-on as users can authenticate with their Active Directory username and passwords.
Some review comments taken from the App store reviews can be seen below:
“This app is a must have if you want to easily manage and have functionality between up to 3 cloud apps. SME is e a very advanced app. So far I’ve been able to download zip files from my email, un-zip (or in SME terminology unarchive) and send to any of my cloud accounts. I can transfer files between clouds from the app either by cloud copy or cloud cut, the later of which will move the file. There’s definitely a learning curve for the advanced features, but the ones I described are easy learn. SME has bar non the best tech support I’ve ever dealt with. On three occasions I needed help to learn the functions, and within 30 minutes tech support had my problem resolved. P.S. not being tech savvy the 3 problems were on my end. By far this is one of the best apps I’ve purchased. The functionality it provides the Pages App alone makes SME worth every penny.”
“Needed a WebDav solution for iWork apps in order to move files to and from the iPad. Dropbox does not support WebDav, iWork does not support Dropbox. iSMEStorage fills the void, providing WebDav services to Dropbox and many other cloud storage providers. Getting WebDav enabled via SME’s CloudDav was not as easy as it could have been, but SME Support was fantastic, getting me up and running on the weekend. All I can say is well done! Now I can move files on & off the iPad seamlessly. Very nice! Well worth the one time charge for the app.”
“First App I’ve used that lets me sync a few different folders on different clouds in one go, and editing files from clouds that iWork does not support is pretty cool however they manage to do it !”
“This is a great supplement for creating your own personal cloud service. Great!”
iSMEStorage from Storage Made Easy is available in the Apple App Store for iPad and iPhone users.
by SMEStorage Cloud File Server now supports HP Object Storage which is in public beta. You can sign up for HP Object Storage from HP Cloud Services here.
To add HP Object Storage to your account after sign up please take the following steps:
Navigate to your DashBoard and choose to add a new Cloud Provider and choose the HP Cloud:
Next follow the wizard to enter the correct information:
When you are authenticated, if there are existing buckets then you can choose to index them to make them available via the SME Cloud File Server and/or you can create a new bucket name:
Next your can choose to sync or index your data. All this does is find out information about your data such as filename, date, size etc.
Once done your data is available to work with through the web rich client as well as other mobile and desktop tools:
In a future blog article we will look at how you can use HP Cloud Storage to implement a full fledged multi-tenant Cloud File Server in which you can assign user permissions and governance controls to data.
by One of the issues that becomes apparent with more users choosing to work from mobile phones and tablets is the issue of security. Sometimes these devices can end up in the wrong hands and when that happens it is reasonable to take precautions about how can open and gain access to files you have stored in the Cloud.
The secondary security concern can be with Cloud the Providers themselves. Users often want to protect certain files on the actual Cloud where they reside, and to that end they can want to use encryption independent of the Cloud Provider.
This particular use case can be solved by using the Cloud encryption service that SMEStorage provides. This features is provided to free, personal, and Cloud File Server users.
Encryption works when users upload files from SMEStorage web or desktop access Client, to any of the 35 Cloud Storage and Saas Providers that SMEStorage supports. Users connect over SSL and assign files a key phrase to file that are uploaded. This key phrase is not stored anywhere on the SME service, and files are encrypted as they stream through the SME service to the remote Cloud Provider.
When web, windows / Mac / Linux, or iOS, Android, WP7 or BlackBerry mobile clients are used to try and access an encrypted file then a password prompt will be presented and the file will be unable to be accessed until this key phrase is entered. If the files is share using a file share link then anyone who then tries to open the file will also be required to enter the key phrase before accessing the file.
SMEStorage uses AES-256 encryption using the Rijndael cipher, with Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) where the block size is 16 bytes. The cipher Rijndael consists of:
– an initial Round Key addition
– Nr-1Rounds
– a final round.
The chaining variable goes into the “input” and the message block goes into the “Cipher Key. The likelihood of recovering a file that has been encrypted using our encryption is fairly remote. The most efficient key-recovery attack for Rijndael is exhaustive key search. The expected effort of exhaustive key search depends on the length of the Cipher Key and for a 16-byte key, 2 to the power of 127 applications of Rijndael.
Any AES-256 decryption tool that supports the Rijndael cipher with 16 byte blocksizes can be used to un-encrypt files. For example the popular freeware file manager Total Commander has a free plugin to handle such decryption.
by The latest version of iAnnotate PDF, the iPad App that enables editing of PDF Documents, adds support for WebDav which means that you can use the SME ClouDav Protocol Adaptor, free with the iOS SME iOS App, to connect iAnnotate to many Clouds that it does not natively support. SMES supports integration with more Storage and SaaS Clouds than any other service.
The steps to enable access to the Clouds mapped to your SME Account are simple:
CloudDav is enabled with all Business Cloud File Server Accounts and also available in the on-premise enterprise version of the Storage Made Easy EFSS solution.
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