CentreStack transforms traditional file servers into cloud file servers

Google Cloud Storage was Google Storage for Developers in the Google Lab. It has since graduated out of the lab and officially became the Google Cloud Storage. In this article, we discuss an easy way to use Google Cloud Storage right from your Windows Explorer interface, with a mapped network drive. If you are not familiar with Google Cloud Storage yet, you can start at https://developers.google.com/storage/ . Step 1 – Activate Google Cloud Storage Before you can use Google Cloud Storage, you will need to at least have a Google account. If you use GMail, Blogger, Picasa or Google Apps, you already have a Google account. You can then activate it at https://developers.google.com/storage/docs/signup

Google has many different storage options. For example, you have Gmail storage, Google Picasa storage, Google Docs storage and etc. This article talks about yet another one, Google Storage for Developers, a new storage option, which is also a pure REST (Representational state transfer) API (application programming interface) based storage service. Search for “Google Storage” in Google, you will land at the Google Storage for Developers home page , where you will start.

Google Storage ( Google Storage for Developers ) has been on the market for a long time now. It functions very much like Amazon S3. It can be an excellent online backup storage. This article discuss how to setup Google Storage as an online backup target, allowing you to access files both locally and from Google Storage’s online Google Storage Manager. First you will need to sign up for Google Storage . If you have a Google account already, all that you need to do is to activate it. During the activation process, you will need to enable the Google Storage access and also setup billing information through Google Checkout.

“ If I have Amazon S3 , do I still need Google Storage ?”, a customer asked us during a support call. The mind was drawing blank that moment, and after a few seconds, the answer was ‘no’ as it slipped off my tongue. That could be a typical moment when you were asked a question that you never thought about before and had to answer it quick. After the call, we had all the time to answer the question – If I have Amazon S3, do I still need Google Storage ? Coming back to the context of the call, the customer is a Google Apps user, with Google Docs . He was finding ways to work around the Google Apps 1G byte limit in the Google Docs. Apparently he likes Google Docs and wish he could put more into his Google Apps account. Finally, we told him, look, we have been waiting for the more storage from Google Docs (w/ Google Apps) too. There is Google Storage for Developer, priced similarly to the Google Apps storage,  which allows you to store 1T bytes.

If you have a Google Storage for Developers account (through invitation only), good for you because you can continue to use the 100GB free storage as long as Google Storage is still in preview mode. If you don’t have a Google Storage for Developers account already, you can sign up with billing information. You don’t get the 100GB free storage but you can use up to 1 Terabyte of storage as long as your billing info allows. It is now in this Preview/Production mixed mode. Before long, Google Storage may enter into the full production mode, competing with Amazon S3 for the cloud storage business. If you are new to the cloud storage, you may be looking for some review materials to decide which one you will use. This article will compare them from different aspects.

Yesterday I received a Google Storage for Developer Update email from the Google Storage Team. The Email Here is a quote from the email: Thank you for using Google Storage for Developers. We write today to make sure you're aware that we've changed our service. Increased Account Limits & Billing When we began the Google Storage for Developers preview, all accounts were free and limited to 100 GB of storage. Google Storage accounts can now access increased storage by providing credit card billing information. Additionally, for accounts with billing we provide a service level agreement (SLA). Find our published service level agreement at: https://code.google.com/apis/storage/docs/sla.html . Accounts with billing can now use up to 1 Terabyte of storage by default. If you need more capacity, just let us know! Contact information is on our FAQ page: http://code.google.com/apis/storage/docs/faq.html . The Change Officially still in preview mode,  Google Storage starts to ...

In the past when I felt that a document was important, I would email it to my Gmail account and label it with “important document”. After all, it has over 7G free space and growing. Now there are more choices. First is the Google Docs account can be used for storage. Second is the Google Storage for Developer. If you do a Google search for “Google Storage”, you can see these two options. Next I would need a desktop tool that can allow me to build a folder link between my local folder and my Google storage accounts. Gladinet Cloud Desktop would be fine to do so.

In the eyes of cloud storage service providers such as Google Storage, any On-Ramps tools, desktop clients, edge devices or appliance that can talk to Google Storage is a gateway. In the eyes of end users or IT admin, A cloud gateway refers to a central access point that does the translation of LAN based file protocol such as CIFS (Microsoft net share) to the cloud storage REST protocol.  As a non Google storage user, Google storage may refer to the Gmail storage, Google Docs storage . As a Google Storage user, the Google Storage may refers to the Google Storage for Developer (which announced at Google I/O this year). It doesn’t matter which definition you take, Gladinet got it all covered. The 3 products Gladinet Cloud Desktop , Gladinet CloudAFS and Gladinet Cloud Backup can build the bridge between local access and the remote storage from Google.

As a continued research of Cloud Storage speed test , this time the test is moved to EC2. From an EC2 instance, the Gladinet Cloud Desktop is installed. Both Amazon S3 and Google Storage for Developer are mounted as virtual directory in Windows Explorer. The same upload/download test is done to both storage to see how fast they can be.

Google has 3 different kind of storage. Google Storage as in the Google Picasa and Google Docs for a Gmail user. Google Storage as in the Google Apps. Google Storage for Developers as an Amazon S3 Competitor. You can access all three from the convenience of your desktop. Since Google Storage for Developers (GSD) is relatively new. This article will focus on the GSD. Once you are familiar with one, the other two will follow similar steps.

First we know there is storage in Gmail. After we saw Google Docs, there is storage in Google Docs. If you are a Google Apps User, you will say there are storage in the Google Apps Gmail and Google Docs too. If you have attended the Google I/O event, you will say there is Google Storage for Developers too! Basically there are 3 kinds of Google Storage.

Google has different storage options before the announcement of the Google Storage for Developers . You can store file attachments in GMail, pictures in Picasa and documents in Google Docs. With the announcement of the Google Storage for Developers as a generic Google storage, now it is possible to build applications around the Google Storage and have secure backup functionality on top of the cloud storage. Gladinet software has the AES-256 support since version 2.0. With the recent support of the Google Storage for Developers Tech Preview, Gladinet has an answer for you to backup files securely with the Google Storage. The system encrypts your files before saving them on the Google servers in their encrypted form.

Google Storage for Developers is Google’s  cloud storage offering with a RESTful API over HTTP/HTTPS. It allows developers to build applications around the Google’s cloud storage offering.  Gladinet is building applications around the cloud storage, allowing you to access and backup to the cloud storage through a mapped network drive. With the version 2.2.378 , you can preview the features with the Google Storage on a network drive.

Yesterday we saw the announcement of Google Storage for Developer from the Google I/O event. A closer look at the Google Storage API revealed that it is similar to Amazon S3’s API. This means direct competition between Google Storage and Amazon S3. Year 2010 is already interesting for the Cloud Storage wars. S3 is still enjoying a commanding lead. Windows Azure came full release. EMC Atmos came full release too at the EMC World earlier this month. Now seven days later the Google Storage came.

 So what exactly is the Google Storage for Developers (GSD)? We have been waiting to see since the news hit TechCrunch yesterday about the launch at the Google I/O 2010 event today. From an S3 developer’s perspective, it looks almost exactly like S3’s RESTful API, with several twists. From a Google Data API developer’s perspective, it looks different from the existing Google Docs APIs. Here is a quote from the Google Storage for Developers site : Interoperability Google Storage is interoperable with a large number of cloud storage tools and libraries that work with services such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Eucalyptus Systems, Inc. To use these tools and libraries, all you have to do is change the request endpoint (URI) that the tool or library uses so it points to the Google Storage URI, and configure the tool or library to use your Google Storage developer keys .

As the Google I/O conference gets underway, Google Storage seems to be a major focal point. For example, according to TechCrunch, “Google will be announcing a new service that is a direct competitor with Amazon’s S3 cloud storage. Google’s service will be called Google Storage for Developers, or ‘GS’. We also hear that the service will be positioned to make it very easy for existing S3 customers to make the switch to Google Storage.” This may be true, but the service will be geared towards developers who are able to leverage it using a REST API. This is great news for Gladinet customers, especially those who are interested in commercial IT applications. Gladinet specializes in effective integration with storage service providers through their REST APIs, so you won’t have to be a developer or hire developers to leverage Google Storage when it is released. Those who are familiar with Gladinet Cloud Desktop are undoubtedly aware of its existing ability to map Google Docs as a network dr...

Late last year, Google cut its storage pricing for its Picasa and Gmail applications, offering 200GB of storage for $50 per year (25c/GB/year). The pricing was fantastic for online storage. The downside is that it was limited to Picasa and Gmail.

Earlier this year, Google Docs rolled out support for any file type support. Since then you can upload and store any files in the cloud with Google Docs . With Gladinet, you could easily upload files to Google Docs from your Windows Explorer directly. Perhaps you have considered backing up your data to Google Docs, but wondered what assurance you have that your data will be secure when backed up online? With the introduction of AES 128-bit encryption for files backed up to Google Docs, Gladinet has an answer for you: The system encrypts your files before saving them on the Google Docs servers in their encrypted form. By default, Google Docs has the capability of converting .doc, .xls and .ppt kind of files to Google Docs format. The benefit of converting is that you could later share and collaborate on the converted documents with your team members and friends. In our use case yet, we are encrypting files before uploading to Google Docs, so we must disable the conversion feature: ...

In the IT departments of many companies around the world, data volume is growing exponentially. Every day, companies gather more and more data to meet business and regulatory requirements. This challenge is often met with the  purchase of more and more servers with more and more disks. This creates a data management nightmare which is not only unwieldy but expensive. It is also unsustainable. Fortunately, there are solutions in the cloud. With the introduction of support for any file type in Google Storage, it is now possible to satisfy the storage needs of your IT department with Google Storage. Sounds good, but it introduces another problem: it may not be so easy to upload your existing data which may be stored on FTP servers, WebDav servers, and a variety of other file servers. There may even be data stored in other cloud storage services that may be cheaper to house in Google Storage given its industry leading low cost of $.25 per gigabyte per year. More good news: Gladine...

Gladinet Cloud Desktop provides a mapped network drive interface to Google Docs making GDrive accessible through a local drive letter, like G: or any other one that is available. This enables users to access and manage files in Google Storage exactly as they would on their desktop. And with Google Docs new any file type support, any file can be easily transferred (or backed up) to Google Docs. To mount Google Docs, first launch the mounting wizard from the systray menu for Gladinet Cloud Desktop: This launches the wizard. Select Google Docs from the drop down list box on the first page: Choose a name for the virtual directory. This is the name for the folder that will appear under “My Gladinet Drive (Z:)” on your desktop. Click next and enter your credentials: Click next, verify the information and click Finish: Now Google Docs storage is attached to your local drive: Now you can transfer an entire drive to Google Docs with a single d...