CentreStack transforms traditional file servers into cloud file servers

We are hearing more and more partners talking about SharePoint replacement. As a collaboration solution, the most complaint SharePoint got was in two areas. The first is usability. SharePoint is not that easy to use with all the check-in, check-out stuff. Second is that SharePoint takes a lot of time and resource to setup and maintain. As we summarize what we have heard from our partners, it is about ease of use; either it be ease of use for the end user or ease of use for the administrator and SharePoint currently isn’t quite easy to use and that is the pain point for a replacement. SharePoint is a very successful product. However, it is disrupted by the cloud storage movement and the mobile trend.  SharePoint was designed for Local Area Network, with Web Browser as the primary user interface. Nowadays, we are seeing more and more online collaboration solutions that enables collaboration over Windows PC, Mac, iPhone and Android device, and over the Internet. Customers are looking...

To continue our last discussion of Team Collaboration in the Cloud, this article discuss the check-out, check-in and file locking. With the Gladinet Cloud client, team users get a drive letter on the desktop, representing the files and folders in the cloud. Team users can double click on a file to initiate editing of the documentation. If the editing happens in a team folder, there is a possibility of users opening and editing documents in a conflicting way. In this scenario, it will be good to be able to check out the file, make the modification and then check-in the file. During check-out and check-in, the file will be locked for editing. As shown below, when you right click on a file inside a team folder, you will see the menu to check out the file. Check Out

We are all familiar with collaboration in a local area network (LAN) environment, which was fulfilled by a Windows File Server or some device that provides a network share. This is a device in the office that people can all map a network drive to the file server share and collaborate within the office. With the Internet expands and cloud storage technology penetrates more and more into user’s daily work, it will be desirable to collaborate over the cloud, with various kinds of devices, such as the usual Windows based devices, Mac devices, iOS devices and Android devices. Before it happens, most users need clear answers to the following features. File Locking When it comes to collaboration, file locking is a must have feature. Gladinet Cloud provides two places for you to lock files for editing. First place is inside the web portal, you can click on a file and lock the file.

As Gladinet Cloud is being used by more and more businesses, we got more and more user feedback about what they would like to control about their Gladinet Cloud. Some wants to be able to see team user’s account; some wants to disable team-user from sharing home directory files and folders. Anyway, it is becoming more and more like the user policy concept and group policy concept system administrators are familiar with. This article documents the group policies in the Gladinet Cloud. Security

For cloud storage solutions, there are two big camps, one is the synchronization based solution, for example Google Drive, Sky Drive, Dropbox and SugarSync; and the other is drive letter based solution, such as Gladinet. With synchronization based solution, basically every single file is replicated and synchronized to all the devices as local folders for the devices that require access. With drive letter based solution, the cloud storage is presented to the user as an external drive , with a drive letter inside Windows Explorer or Mac Finder.  Only the folder structure and small amount of data such as file size, date and time are downloaded. The real file is not downloaded until it is used (for example, the user double click on a file to generate editing request).  There may be a third variation that combines the drive and sync together. For example, the drive letter is the main access method, and also allow local folders to be synchronized to the cloud. So when you need a...