CentreStack transforms traditional file servers into cloud file servers

Gladinet CloudAFS is reaching version 3, the same version level as the other two products (Cloud Desktop & Cloud Backup) in the same Gladinet Cloud Storage Access Suite. CloudAFS is an acronym for cloud attached file server . The basic functionality is to attach cloud storage services to a file server as a mountable volume. Thus expanding the file server with cloud storage capability. Its functionality includes Backup file server shares to cloud, Access cloud storage as a network share, Sync file servers over two different locations, Integrate existing applications such as Backup Exec with cloud storage and Connect a group of users over cloud storage. It services the same BASIC (Backup, Access, Sync, Integrate, Connect) use cases for cloud storage.

There are many ways to connect to cloud storage. The most popular one is to provide web interface inside a web browser. For example, Google Docs, SkyDrive all have their own web interface. The problem of this is that it can’t be interoperable with existing applications until the applications are re-written. Google has a Google Cloud Connector for this purpose to connect Microsoft Office applications to Google Docs. The other way is to connect directly from OS. For example, Chrome-OS is an Internet-based OS that has everything in the cloud. From within Chrome browser, you can do various browser-based access to different cloud storage services. The third way is to translate cloud storage service into mountable file system and to allow different local applications to interact with the cloud storage as a file system. This will be an important way for many of the local applications to connect to cloud storage. For example, Nuance has a Cloud Connector that connects OmniPage to the cloud.

You may have several important directories that you want to protect online. It would be nice if you can mirror these folders into a online storage service such as Amazon S3 . This tutorial shows the steps to set it up so your folders get protected by Amazon S3. You can use either Gladinet Cloud Desktop or Gladinet Cloud Backup . For the Gladinet Cloud Backup, not only you can protect your local directories, but also you can protect them with version control (snapshot) and the ability to roll back in time. This tutorial will focus on Gladinet Cloud Desktop for the mirror backup feature. When you are ready to try the snapshot backup, you can use the integrated Cloud Backup add-on in Gladinet Cloud Desktop (or use the stand-alone Cloud Backup package).

The Windows Azure storage emulator provides local instances of the Blob, Queue, and Table services that are available in the Windows Azure. If you are building an application that uses storage services, you can test locally by using the storage emulator. Gladinet has full support for Windows Azure Blob Storage. Now for those of you that develop Azure based application using local emulator, you can use Gladinet Cloud Desktop to connect to Azure Emulator and map it as a local drive too. Step 1 – Setup Azure Storage Emulator First you will need to download Azure SDK and install it. After installation, you will have it in the Start Menu.

Gladinet supported Amazon S3 with a suite of cloud storage access products since 2006, when we first saw cloud storage service from US. Gladinet supported Dunkel/Scality since 2009, when we first saw cloud storage service from Europe. Now Gladinet supports Korean Telecom ucloud storage, the second cloud storage service from Asia (after Amazon S3 Singapore Region). This is also the third OpenStack (swift) based cloud storage service that Gladinet supports, after Rackspace Cloud Files (US/UK) and Internap XIPCloud. With the Gladinet Cloud Desktop , Gladinet CloudAFS and Gladinet Cloud Backup , you will see a new option for KT ucloud storage in the drop down when you are mounting cloud storage service.

Amazon S3 is the leading and most mature cloud storage service in the market now. We have seen more and more customers started to use Amazon S3 for their storage need.  For these customers, the ability to map Amazon S3 as a Network Drive is critical. Drive mapping allows them to double click on a file and editing it in place. From a usability perspective, there is no more user interface to learn because hard drive, or USB drive and now a cloud based drive is a very familiar concept in Windows user interface. This article will document the steps it takes to map Amazon S3 as a network drive with the latest Gladinet Cloud Desktop .