[Klug-general] Online file storage (is it a hard drive, is it cloud)

[Alan Buchel]

Hi all...

I have been asked to set up a "cloud" system that will allow an 
organisation to store and access all their data online, accessible from 
a variety of OS's.

Looking at existing services such as ubuntu one and wuala.com (1GB is 
free there BTW) and having tried them, they seem designed more for 
"replicating" your data to an online service. It's a nice interface 
sure, transparent to gnome or windows (drag and drop and open file 
directly), but it seems to keep a copy of everything on the workstation. 
Since the shared data is likely to exceed 1TB this is probably 
inappropriate since some of the clients will be really low spec machines.

The budget justifies getting a dedicated DC server, but even if I did 
this, it's the multi-OS client (interface to the service) that is 
missing. In Linux I just use sshfsmount, but also would need a 
non-technical way of getting doze to mount the shared space...

Have had  dig with a "Cloud Server" (the so named Ubuntu distro) I just 
cant figure out wtf it does really...

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations?

Alan