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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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Using SME with your Mac. Upload your Cloud Files direct from the Finder

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:

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SME now supports Euro Buckets

If you are using SMEStorage with your own Amazon S3 keys from our OpenS3 beta programme, you can now create new buckets that are located in Europe as we now support the Amazon European bucket functionality.

To do this do as follows:

Step one: Go to MyAccount – > MyProviders


EuroBucket1

Step two: Choose to syncrhonize your S3 Account

EuroBucket2

Step three: Add the checkbox for ‘European Bucket’

EuroBucket2

Remember: You will need to add this bucket to you account (using “manage additional buckets” link) to be able to use it. Also if you want this as the default bucket you will also need to change it using the “default bucket” link.

This is useful if you reside in Europe as the latency should be less for uploads and download, and also if you have documents or files that should not cross country borders.

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New Cloud Storage Package launched – Amazon S3 + GMail

We’ve launched a new free cloud storage package that enables your to have a virtual cloud
file system based on a combination of Amazon S3 and GMail. In this free package you get
250 MB free on Amazon S3 and can also choose to store files on a GMail account. You can
see all files through the SMEStorage virtual file system.

The steps you need to take for this package are:

  • STEP 1: Register for the GMail + S3 package

    • register

  • STEP 2: Activate your account

  • STEP 3: Login and go to My Account -> My Providers

    • 3.jpg

  • STEP 4: if you wish to Use Gmail as well as Amazon S3 add the Gmail provider

    • 4.jpg

  • STEP 5: Enter your GMail account information. We store this as encrypted information in
    our Database.

    • 5.jpg

  • This information is then authenticated against GMail

    • 6.jpg

  • STEP 6: Finally, you are ready to sync. If any files already exist in the GMail account they will be
    sync’d to SMEStorage cloud file system

    • 7.jpg

  • DONE !: You can now see the imported files available in the SMEStorage cloud file explorer.

    • Cloud Explorer

  • When you go to upload file to your cloud you now have the option to store them on
    SMEStorage S3 or on Gmail, and of course you can still encrypt files for each platform

    • Cloud Upload

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    SME New API Manual

    We’ve released another update to our API manual. This incorporates the new uploader API changes, email backup, and our an API for our forthcoming Fax integration.

    This API is what we use to design the tools and add on’s you use, from the iPhone Web Application to the Windows File Explorer and Microsoft and Open Office Add-In’s.

    You don’t need to worry about any provider we support, this API sits on top of that. Right now the two storage cloud providers we support are Amazon S3 and Google GMail, although we will be announcing several more soon. This API provides a real file system on top of these providers as well as offering all sorts of functionality such as sharing files, making files public etc.

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    Amazon Import / Export on all accounts

    In the recent batch of changes we also snuck in an Amazon / Import export for all accounts. This means that if you have a SMEStorage Account and you want to import your files to your own Amazon then you can. Alternatively if you want export your own Amazon S3 Account files to SMEStorage you can.

    And of course you can do combinations that involve AOL XDrive and GMail now also.

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    SME now supports Google Mail for Cloud Storage

    The SMEStorage platform now supports Google Mail for Cloud Storage. What does this mean ? It means that when you establish a Google email account and pair it with SMEStorage you can use the Google email account for file storage and data access via the SMEStorage platform.

    All files stored will be able to be used with the SMEStorage Windows File Manager, iPhone, iGoogle, Facebook etc, and can be integrated with Microsoft Office, Open Office, Zoho Office, iPaper, and Picnik for imaging editing etc.

    As we provide a consolidation layer and API on top of cloud storage platform, this means you can do some really cool stuff like import your Amazon S3 files to Google, or export your Google emails and files to Amazon S3. As we also support AOL XDrive, you can also import your AOL XDrive files to Google.

    Here is how to start:

    1. First Establish a Google Account

    2. Next Register for a new SMEStorage Account. Make sure that your register for the GMail package. Once you have validated your account, login and enter your Google details. If you have existing emails and file attachments in your account these will be imported. It can be a good idea to start a separate Google Email account for your stored files if you want to use Google email as your cloud storage

    3. Next Enter your Google Details.

    GMail_logon

    These details will be checked and then you will have the option to save the details. If you choose to save them they will be encrypted and saved. If you choose not to save them you will have to enter them every time you access your SMEStorage account.

    GmailSave

    Once you click continue you may have to wait a while if you have a lot of files / email as SMEStorage syncs with GMail. If this is a new GMail account you have just created then this step will be quick.

    That’s it ! You can now upload files to Gmail via SMEStorage. All your files will be stored in GMail and accessible also via the GMail platform.

    GmailInfo

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    Upload and download your files to the cloud and Amazon S3 with a Windows Explorer as well as Microsoft Office and Open Office !

    Well, SMEStorage Explorer is finally released. It is a windows explorer for SMEStorage.com that allows you to upload and download your files to any of the storage platforms we support, which include Amazon S3. If you take part in our OpenS3 programme you can use your Amazon S3 keys and take advantage of using the tool to upload / download files, share files, and collaborate with business groups.

    When you install SMEStorage Explorer, if you have Microsoft Office and/or OpenOffice installed you will get another toolbar that allows you to open and save files to the SMEStorage cloud, which again includes Amazon S3. Pretty nice we think. This was built using the SMEStorage REST API.

    SMEExplorerGif

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    How to backup your emails to Amazon S3

    If you are like me you have several email accounts, some free, some not, and many of these you probably have email accounts where you store email locally and others where you have email stored on the server side.

    As always with any form of data it makes sense to backup, and where better to do this than to Amazon S3. SMEStorage allows you to backup any email account to Amazon S3 via SMEStorage, or if you subscribe to our OpenS3 beta service, using your own Amazon S3 Account.

    Once you have your email backed up, if you need to, you can access email items through your iPhone or share items through Facebook, or just so know you have it all backed up….just in case 😉

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    Unlock Amazon S3 with OpenS3

    OpenS3 logo

    We recently announced that we had launched our OpenS3 beta. The purpose of OpenS3 is to allow any Amazon S3 user to be able to access the SMEStorage platform and take advantage of all the channels and features we have. This means if you would like to have access to your Amazon S3 files via your iPhone for example you now can. If you want to share your Amazon S3 files or use them on Facebook you can , and much more.

    After you have registered for the beta, using OpenS3 is simple. You merely enter your Amazon S3 keys (and choose to store them on our servers or not. If not you will need to enter them each time you access your account) and then we import the metadata from you S3 file to the SMEStorage platform. We don’t move the files themselves or change them in anyway. This means you can still access them from any other S3 tool that you choose.

    Once you have synchronised you can then choose to change your filenames and store the files in a proper directory structure. Again this will not change the core S3 files. We overlay a proper directory structure on top of S3.

    Once you have completed this process you can use the rich SMEStorage filemanager to access all the additional functionality that we provide over and above Amazon S3 such as being able to back up any email account to S3, easy file sharing, unique url for each file, Public files, Business Groups, Faxing, and integration with Flickr, PicniK, Zoho etc.

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