Category Archives: Cloud Storage
Canary Pro Is The Ultimate Set Up And Forget Home Security Camera – Forbes
The Canary Pro can blend in one any shelf or mantelpiece and keeps an eye on a room, looking ... [+] movement and uploading video to the cloud while notifying the householder via the Canary smartphone app.
Keeping your home and family protected is a basic instinct in most of us. We want our home to be safe as possible and we want the things we have worked hard to acquire to be protected. More importantly, we want our loved ones to be safe and secure. Finally, we want this security to work when we are at home or away.
Fortunately, Wi-Fi technology has made protecting our homes and loved ones a lot easier. The days of installing cumbersome security alarms with expensive wired sensors are long gone. With wireless networking, we can set up security cameras around the home so that if someone does intrude, theres an off-site video recording and the relevant authorities are informed straight away.
The first thing you need to know when buying a security camera system like Canary Pro that I am reviewing here is that without a monthly subscription, these devices are not much use. If you dont want to pay for a subscription, then you could buy a cheaper Wi-Fi camera with a memory card slot that can record video of any intruders and hopefully ping you on your smartphone to let you know someone has broken in.
With its 147-degree angle of view., the Canary Pro can cover an entire if positioned correctly. The ... [+] 1080P camera uploads video whenever it detects movements and sends a message to your phone.
The alternative is to opt for a deluxe system like the Canary Pro. This stylish-looking security camera has an elegant cylinder format and is available in black or white finishes. It looks a little like a small flower vase. The Canary Pro has a 1080P video camera offering a super-wide 147-degree angle of view that can cover most of a room. The device connects to a home network over Wi-Fi or Ethernet. It feels well-made and wont stick out like a sore thumb when placed on a mantelpiece or bookshelf.
Setting up the Canary Pro was a slightly fraught experience as I had to create a Canary account and register the camera. The Canary website was misbehaving, but I put that down to an Internet glitch. I tried again the next day and the process appeared to be straightforward.
You can have multiple Canary cameras on a home network, but the subscription is charged on a per-device basis. The Canary Pro includes a movement sensor and has an AI algorithm that Canary says can detect the difference between humans and pets. I didnt get the chance to try the feature as my cat simply refused to cooperate.
The Canary app works with a range of smart devices and can even be used to view live images and ... [+] offers two-way talk as well as a 90dB siren to scare of intruders.
The Canary smartphone app is used to control the Canary Pro and uses the phones location function to detect when youre at home. The app can be set to disarm the camera when its not needed and, when you go out, it can switch the Canary Pro to Away Mode and then the camera is effectively armed and ready.
The Canary Pro is powered by a universal voltage adapter that uses a Micro USB cable. Theres no battery backup on offer so if power is cut to the home, the camera will stop working until power is restored. The device can monitor air quality in the home alongside temperature and humidity levels.
The home health data is stored in the cloud and can build into a useful long-term record of your homes living environment. Theres even a function to trigger a notification if the temperature, humidity or air quality moves outside preset parameters. This could be useful for installing in an elderly relatives home, so you get a notification when the temperature drops or increases too much.
The Canary Pro has sensors for measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. This is stored in ... [+] the cloud and can trace the changes in the home environment.
As well as the Home and Away Modes, the Canary Pro also has a Night Mode. All three of the modes can also be modified to suit the users preferences or the system can simply be set to Auto which then activates the camera based on the users location. The only flaw I can see with the system is that if you were to leave your smartphone at home, the Canary Pro wouldnt be activated.
When any movement is detected, the camera starts recording and will upload a color HD video stream to Canarys servers. The movement also triggers a notification on your smartphone to let you know that movement has been detected. Canarys Premium service stores video clips online for up to 30 days so you can go back and check from anywhere in the world.
As well as recording video, there is a Live View mode that can be accessed at any time. This could be useful for checking on a child and theres even a two-way talk function so that you can speak through the Canarys built-in speaker as well as being able to hear the person in the room. I noticed a certain amount of background interference with the volume levels turned up high, but Im assured by Canarys tech support that this issue, which is caused by interference from the Wi-Fi chip, has been ironed out on the latest Canary Pro models.
With the Premium Pro subscription, you can log in live to see what's going on at home.
In addition to the monitoring ability, which can be further customized with the ignore pet mode and masking of the activity zone, the Canary Pro also features a Panic Mode. If youre ever unfortunate enough to find yourself under threat in your own home, the Noonlight emergency response feature will alert the police. The camera also has a 90dB alarm that can be triggered and will hopefully scare off any intruders or alert neighbors that there is a problem. The Noonlight Mode is only available with Canarys Premium cloud storage plan, which costs $99 per year. Finally, if youre a smart home type, the Canary Pro can integrate with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
Verdict: The image quality of the Canary Pro camera is very good and theres also a night vision mode. The angle of view is extremely wide and a whole room can be covered with one camera. The motion detection works well and its useful to be able to access the Live View feature from anywhere in the world. If you have a pet at home, you could use that feature to check up on them and even reassure them by speaking to them when youre at work. The system works well and although it can be used without taking out the Premium subscription, the Canary Pros usefulness is limited. There are cheaper security cameras with local memory card storage, as well as other security cameras like Amazons Ring, which offer cheaper subscription services. The beauty of the Canary System is that its a setup and forget system. The security camera just works even when youre asleep or away from home. The Premium subscription is worth the money, especially the Noonlight panic feature and notifying first responders. One Canary Pro is enough for most small apartments or houses, but you can add extra cameras if required.
Pricing & Availability: Canary Pro camera $169 / 159 / 169. Canary Pro with Premium subscription: $12.99 (camera free). Canary Pro and one year of Premium subscription 238 / 268. Monthly Premium subscription if buying Canary Pro: 79 / 99 annually.
More info: http://www.canary.is
Tech Specs:
The Live Watch system enables the user to check in on pets if they are on their own during the day.
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Canary Pro Is The Ultimate Set Up And Forget Home Security Camera - Forbes
VAST links arms with Vertica for fast analytics Blocks and Files – Blocks and Files
All-flash scale-out file and objector storage supplier VAST Data is using Verticas analytics software with the aim of wrangling data from VASTs array at high speed.
Micro Focus-owned Vertica provides its Unified Analytics Platform as SaaS across all major public clouds and on-premises datacenters, and integrates data in cloud object storage.
Now with VAST and Vertica, customers get to use a single system for both data warehouse and data lake. Jeff Denworth, VAST Data co-founder and CMO, said: VASTs entry into the Vertica ecosystem allows customers of both companies to benefit from hyperscale flash storage and industry-leading data reduction, unlocking greater operational efficiency and faster performance to implement advanced analytics at a fraction of the cost of the public cloud.
Verticas SQL-based Unified Analytics Platform has a massively scalable architecture andanalytical functions spanning event and time series, pattern matching, geospatial, and end-to-end in-database machine learning. VAST Universal Storage has a disaggregated shared everything (DASE) architecture with a single tier of flash storage for all data
The VAST and Vertica alliance supports the fusing of the data lake and data warehouse architectures so providing a one-stop shop for customers structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. The companies said customers get to benefit from real-time storage performance for all their use-cases: data-warehouse analytics, ad-hoc queries, and complex data science jobs. And they get simplified management from eliminating the data warehouse and data lake separation.
As Verticas Eon Mode separates compute from storage functions, each can scale independently and achieve workload isolation for different types of analytics.
The two also claim that their combination delivers 3x faster database queries than legacy all-flash NAS (meaning, we guess, PowerScale/Isilon), 2x better datacenter density at lower cost, and consistent quality of service without performance degradation or resource contention.
VAST and Vertica are providing an on-premises offering. The pair have published a joint technical validation guide and a solution brief.
Vertica also partnered with NetApp in November last year to have its cloud-native analytics software run on NetApp StorageGRID object storage.
At the time, parent Micro Focus said Vertica with StorageGRID has a fast multi-site, active-active architecture and can perform queries 10-25 times faster than conventional databases. It also claimed that the separation of Verticas compute and storage architecture in Eon Mode allowed admin staff to use StorageGRID as the main data warehouse repository or as a data lake.
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VAST links arms with Vertica for fast analytics Blocks and Files - Blocks and Files
Want to Disable Onedrive on Windows 11? These 5 Options Will Help You! – NerdsChalk
OneDrive is the cloud storage offering from Microsoft that comes bundled with Windows 11 by default. Like Microsoft Edge, bundling OneDrive has also faced harsh criticism from users as many look for ways to remove it from their PCs. If youre in the same boat and would like to remove OneDrive, then heres all you need to know about it.
Disabling OneDrive has its advantages and disadvantages. Heres what happens when you disable OneDrive on your system.
Yes, you can officially remove OneDrive from Windows 11 by using the uninstall option (see option 5 below). This, however, leaves remnants of OneDrive on your PC so that it can be easily recovered.
If you wish to remove OneDrive permanently, then you will have to opt for a more robust solution like removing it using a .bat script, CMD commands, a third-party uninstaller, and more. You will find guides for all these methods in Option 5 below.
Related: 14 Ways to clear Windows 11 cache
Here are all how you can disable OneDrive on Windows 11. Follow either of the sections below to temporarily or permanently disable OneDrive on your system depending on your preference.
FYI, among the five options below, while options 1 to 4 are about disabling OneDrive on your PC, Option 5 is about uninstalling it.
You can start by pausing OneDrive sync if you wish to disable it temporarily. This will pause all OneDrive activities and services running in the background. This is the recommended way if you wish to get rid of OneDrive temporarily.
You will get to choose a time period for which OneDrive will be disabled on your device. Upon its completion, OneDrive will automatically begin syncing on your device again.
Use the guide below to help you along with the process.
Click theOneDriveicon in your taskbar.
Select Settings in the top right corner.
Now, click Pause syncing.
Click the drop-down arrow and select one of the following options depending on your preference.
You will now have paused OneDrive sync on your device for the selected period.
Related: How to Disable Windows 11 Alert Sounds
This option is for users that wish to remove their OneDrive account from a particular PC while retaining local files. Your OneDrive account will be unlinked from the current PC and your files will no longer be synced to the cloud.
OneDrive only files will be deleted from your local storage, while retaining other files. Use the guide below to help you along with the process.
Click the OneDrive icon in your taskbar.
Click the icon in the top right corner.
Select Settings.
A small window will appear and by default, the Account tab will be selected. Click Unlink this PC under the same.
Click Unlink account to confirm your choice.
Related: How to Clean Registry on Windows 11 [4 Ways]
You can also stop OneDrive from opening on startup to prevent it from automatically launching. This way you can use the app only when needed on your system without having it constantly running in the background.
This is the recommended solution if you use OneDrive occasionally and would like it turned off when not in use.Follow the steps below to help you along with the process.
Click on the OneDrive cloud icon in the taskbar.
Click the icon in the top right corner.
Select Settings from the dropdown menu.
Click and switch to the Settingstab.
Uncheck all the boxes under General.
Click OK.
Related: How to add WinRAR or 7Zip to Windows 11 Context Menu
You can also hide OneDrive from your system if you wish to temporarily part from it. While this wont remove or disable OneDrive sync, it will remove the OneDrive listing from your File Explorer.
This is an ideal solution for users that wish to keep their online files away from prying eyes while still having access to them whenever needed. OneDrive will keep working in the background as intended.Use the steps below to help you along with the process.
Open File Explorer and right-click on OneDrive.
SelectProperties.
Check the box for Hidden under Attributes.
This will hide OneDrive from the File Explorer. ClickOK once done. SelectApply changes to this folder only.
ClickOK.
Click the OneDirve icon in your taskbar and selectthe icon.
ClickClose OneDrive.
Confirm your choice by clicking on the same.
OneDrive will now quit and will be hidden from your taskbar. We recommend you follow the guide above to prevent it from launching at startup to disable it temporarily on your PC.
Related: Windows 11 Taskbar Not Showing? How to Fix
If youre looking for a more permanent solution then we recommend you remove OneDrive from your system completely. If you would like to keep some setup files and background services so that it can be easier to set up the same for other users, then you can use the Settings app to remove OneDrive.
However, if you wish to remove OneDrive permanently, then we recommend you use one of the other solutions mentioned below. Follow the relevant section below to help you along with the process.
Press Windows + i on your keyboard and selectApps & features.
ClickInstalled apps.
Find Microsoft OneDrive in the list and click the iconbeside it.
SelectUninstall.
ClickUninstallagain to confirm your choice.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process and OneDrive should now have been removed from your system.
Command Prompt can help you more permanently remove Microsoft OneDrive. Follow the steps below to help you along with the process.
Press Windows + R and type in the following. Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter on your keyboard once done.
Confirm the UAC prompt and then type in the following commands one by one and execute them by pressing Enter on your keyboard.
%Systemroot%SysWOW64OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
%Systemroot%System32OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
Use the following command to close the command prompt.
exit
And thats it! You will now have removed OneDrive from your PC.
Press Windows + R, type in the following, and press Enter.
gpedit.msc
Navigate to the following path using the left sidebar.
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive
Double click onPrevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage value on your right.
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Want to Disable Onedrive on Windows 11? These 5 Options Will Help You! - NerdsChalk
Area9 guides Tourism Top End to the cloud – ARNnet
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin-based IT services provider Area9 has played a pivotal role in helping not-for-profit organisation Tourism Top End adopt Microsoft 365 and Azure Files.
Tourism Top End operates the Northern Territorys largest tourism and information centre, representing more than 550 businesses, including regional and remote tourist destinations, across the Top End.
The organisation, which doesnt house a dedicated IT team, were facing a predicament in either updating its ageing server equipment or migrating to a new cloud storage service. A request for tender was put out in its quest to find a suitable solution and ongoing IT support.
IT can be a daunting process and creates a lot of anxiety for a business when its changing or not going right," saidTourism Top End general manager Glen Hingley.
"Area9 was competitive on all levels, especially when they came to understanding who we were. They offered a range of solutions our team could manage and explained them clearly which we really appreciated.
For the project, Area9 proposed moving to the public cloud using Microsoft 365 and Azure Files, which was compatible with its existing work structure and data.
The project also included migrating all users to Azure AD and implementing Area9s Cloud Backup Service for Microsoft 365. A new router was also wired in to cater for the greater internet demand.
Microsoft 365 ticked all the boxes within our organisation, while giving us the ability to work remotely. Speed and efficiency gains have been tremendous and we are able to connect with each other and our booking partners more seamlessly, Hingley said.
We know were not experts in IT and we really appreciate that Area9 didnt take advantage of that. They were super supportive and transparent in how they worked with us, responding to our needs quickly and really nurtured us through the transition, coming out to our site when needed.
"They brought comfort to Tourism Top End with their years of extensive IT experience, but, also being based in the Northern Territory, they understood our company and what we needed.
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Area9 guides Tourism Top End to the cloud - ARNnet
2022 NAB Show: Liqid Delivers Maximum GPU Flexibility and the World’s Fastest Storage for M&E – Latest Digital Transformation Trends | Cloud News -…
Add 16 NVIDIA A100 GPUs per Single Server via Software, Get up to 4-million IOPS per SSD, Save Production Costs and Give Time Back to Creators
LAS VEGAS(BUSINESS WIRE)#ArtificialIntelligenceLiqid, the worlds leading software company delivering data center composability, today announced it is bringing its adaptive GPU platform and the worlds fastest NVMe storage1 to Media & Entertainment (M&E) professionals at the 2022 NAB Show (booth W2603). Liqids software-defined approach to resource management accelerates time-to-results for challenging workflows across the production pipeline, while maximizing resource utilization for a more efficient infrastructure footprint. For content creators, video editors, producers, streaming platform providers, and others working in the M&E space, solutions based on Liqid Matrix software enable users to deploy previously impossible amounts of GPU and NVMe storage in minutes, versus having to physically alter hardware configurations. Software-defined solutions from Liqid also enable these and other accelerator resources to be portioned out via Liqid Matrix in exact amounts via a simple pane-of-glass GUI, significantly increasing utilization and system performance while reducing overall costs for the most efficient content production against demanding deadlines.
Whether youre a mega-studio or a small VFX shop, youre facing some of the same hardware challenges youve been up against for the last 20 years. The most advanced GPU servers and disk-based storage solutions are limited by their form factor, trapped and underutilized, said Nader Soudah, Vice President, Global Channel, Liqid. Liqid Matrix-based solutions remove those physical limitations with breakthrough software that delivers significant cost savings and time-to-value for producers, but just as importantly, give time back to creators and crews, whether theyre rendering dailies on set, building the next VFX marvel at a workstation, or working magic in an editing bay.
Modern M&E projects are extremely data-intensive, and capturing, rendering and producing content on traditional, disk-based storage systems and static GPU infrastructures wastes valuable time which consumes already tight budgets and threatens already tight deadlines. With the rate of data only continuing to grow, M&E pros need a new way to manage data that accelerates time to value. Solutions based on Liqid Matrix software enable users to:
A wide variety of solutions based on Liqid Matrix software are available to suit todays requirements for data performance, while offering a way to grow infrastructure on demand, as required. With Liqid Matrix-based solutions, users can architect a digital production system that delivers:
In the age of high resolution media creation, studios, producers, 3D and video artists understand that content must be created faster than ever and distribution must be free of interruption for a seamless audience experience, whether its at a massive sports arena, a state-of-the-art IMAX or on the screen of a handheld device, said David Bitton, Global Director, M&E, Hypertec, a global IT solution and services provider and Liqid channel partner, with specialization in vertical markets such as M&E, finance, and service provider.
As consumer habits change, this is only more urgently relevant, which is why software-defined solutions like those provided by Liqid are becoming essential to todays production facilities, accelerating creative tools for artists while improving performance of everything from video editing on multiple 4K streams, rendering dailies to streaming content, Bitton said.
To learn how the University of Illinois at Chicago built the Liqid Matrix CDI platform into the core of its state-of-the-art visual computing lab, download this case study. Go here to schedule an appointment with an authorized Liqid representative or reach out at sales@liqid.com. Follow Liqid on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest Liqid news and industry insights.
About Liqid
Liqids composable infrastructure software platform, Liqid Matrix, unlocks cloud-like speed and flexibility plus higher efficiency from data center infrastructure. Now IT can configure, deploy, and scale physical, bare-metal servers in seconds, then reallocate valuable accelerator and storage resources via software as needs evolve. Dynamically provision previously impossible systems or scale existing investments, and then redeploy resources where needed in real-time. Unlock cloud-like datacenter agility at any scale and experience new levels of resource and operational efficiency with Liqid.
1Source: Storage Newsletter, Fastest SSDs, at More Than 7GB/s Read Transfer Rate, April 2022
Contacts
Robert Brumfield
Sr. Director, Communications
Liqid
917 224 7769
Google Cloud Storage Options: Object, Block, and File Storage
Alongside compute and network, storage is one of the fundamental resources required in todays technological systems and software development. Regardless if your systems are on-premises, in the cloud, or both, you always rely on storage components to persist your data. However, if you are used to the world of data centers, like Google Cloud Storage with SAN, NAS, and local hard drivesand are starting to venture into public cloud, the concept of cloud-based storage and the different services available for it might prove tricky.
In this article, we are going to provide some clarity about the different storage options in the Google Cloud Platform.
Google Cloud provides three main services for different types of storage: Persistent Disks for block storage, Filestore for network file storage, and Cloud Storage for object storage. These services are at the core of the platform and act as building blocks for the majority of the Google Cloud services and, by extension, to the systems you build on top of it.
Since NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is now available in the Google Cloud, NetApp users can easily take advantage of this growing cloud platform. Lets take a closer look at each of these Google Cloud storage services, what they were designed for, and what use cases they are each best suited to handle.
Block storage is the traditional storage type, both in the cloud and in on-premises systems. A Google Cloud Persistent Disk provides block storage and it is used by all virtual machines in Google Cloud (Google Cloud Compute Engine). The easiest way to understand it is by imagining those Persistent Disks as mere USB drives. They can be attached or detached from virtual machines and enable you to build, as the name suggests, data persistence for your services whenever virtual machines are started, stopped, or terminated.
In addition to Google Cloud Compute Engine virtual machines, these Persistent Disks are also used to power the Google Kubernetes Engine service.
Very much like a virtual disk in your local machine, a Google Cloud Persistent Disk can either be HDD or SSD, the latter for high I/O performance. In addition, there is also the ability to choose where they are located and what type of availability is needed: they can be Regional, Zonal, or Local. While local disks are not, in theory, part of the Google Cloud Persistent Disk service, it is important to mention them. These local disks are only available in the hardware where the virtual machine is running and, while providing the best I/O performance, they are not often recommended due to the low availability and redundancy. On the other hand, if you require high availability, Regional disks will offer you that out-of-the-box, with your disks being replicated behind the scenes in different zones within a region. A more moderate (and less-expensive) approach are Zonal disks, which are storage disks that are also highly available, but only within a single zone.
Other lesser known, yet great features of Google Cloud Persistent Disks are automatic encryption, flexibility to resize while-in-use, and a snapshot capability which can be used for both backup and virtual machine image creation.
Filestore is the fully managed Google Cloud service that provides network file storage. Network file storage is not a new cloud concept and very much like block storage it also exists in your typical on-premises data center. If youre used to working with NAS (Network Attached Storage) the concept should be familiar to you.
While you could argue that network file storage is technically block storage (it is!), there is a very clear distinction here. A network file storage, as the name suggests, provides a disk storage over the network. This enables the development of systems with multiple parallel services that has the ability to read and write files from the same disk storage mounted over the network.
However, the advantages this gives require some caution in its use. Compared with the usual block or object storage, the performance of file storage is, as you might expect, substantially inferior. This might lead to issues with concurrency and file permissions. Therefore, while designing cloud-native systems, you should only use this solution after careful evaluation to solve these challenges.
You can read more about Google Cloud Filestore here.
Google Cloud Storage is the object storage service offered by Google Cloud. It provides some very interesting out-of-the-box features such as object versioning or fine-grain permissions (per object or bucket), that can make development easy and help reduce operational overheads. Google Cloud Storage serves as the foundation of several different services.
What kind of benefits does this storage type have? The concept of object storage is not that easy to grasp. In typical on-premises systems where capacity is more limited and connectivity fast and exclusive, having this type of storage is not at all common. The way that object storage works, however, is beautifully simple to the end user. In simple terms, its value-proposition is such that you can get and put any file you want via a REST APIand this can expand indefinitely with each object growing up to the terabyte scale. Interesting, right? In Cloud Storage, different objects are grouped in unique namespaces called buckets. A bucket can hold multiple objects yet, a single object will belong to only one bucket.
This model for storage is widely popular in cloud-native systems due to its low cost (cents per GB) combined with the serverless approach and simplicity. The heavy work of data replication, availability, integrity, capacity planning, etc. is then left to the cloud provider. The drawback of object storage is that there is no other way to access the data besides the REST API; therefore, the typical approach for designing systems, managing data, and structuring a filesystem-type of access doesnt work.
Perhaps some of the most underrated functionalities of Google Cloud Storage are the different storage classes and putting Lifecycle Management Rules into use for the data buckets. Using these features can make a huge difference in terms of cost and the running operational expenses.
In Google Cloud Storage, you are required to select one storage class for your buckets: Standard (which can be either Regional or Multi-Regional), Nearline, or Coldline. The usual approach is to select Standard, where you can opt to have your bucket in a specific single Google Cloud Region or stored across multiple Regions. This works really well in different scenarios since you get a highly performant and highly available storage.
However, there are several cases where the data is not meant to be accessed frequently and having reduced availability is perfectly ok. In these cases, the Nearline and Coldline storage classes are options that can and should be explored. They can easily reduce the cost in >50% compared with the standard storage class.
The Nearline storage class is designed for data that is accessed less than once per month. One example use case is data that will only be used to produce an aggregate monthly report. Coldline storage, on the other hand, is designed for data that is accessed even less frequentlythink, once per year or less. This storage class is therefore particularly useful for archival storage. One use case is to use the Coldline storage class to keep a copy of data that the business requires to be retained for a long period of time (e.g. 10 years) due to compliance with different regulatory requirements.
One of the challenges of properly leveraging storage classes (and other Cloud Storage features) is that the same type of data (i.e., data in the same bucket) might require different treatment over the course of its lifetime. For example, if you use Google Cloud Storage buckets to store your application logs, you might require high availability for the data during the first month (including versioning each object as a safeguard for data tampering), and perhaps less availability (without versioning) for the next six months, and eventually retain a copy of those logs for the following five plus years due to compliance obligations.
For these types of scenarios, you can enable Google Cloud Storage Lifecycle Management rules. This is a really great built-in feature of Google Cloud Storage that enables you to define business logic rules per bucket without much effort. With these rules you can define actions such as automatically transitioning objects between different storage classes, disable versioning, or even delete objects after certain defined periods of time. Leveraging these features and having lifecycle rules in place can translate into real and tangible cost savings at the end of the month.
In this article, we explored the different storage building blocks in the cloud and provided a good overview of the different storage services available in Google Cloud. They are quite straightforward to grasp and provide a huge amount of flexibility to develop different types of systems in the Cloud.
While designing and architecting your system is then important to understand the pros and cons of each storage type and the costs associated with them. What will likely appeal to current NetApp users trying to find out how to use Google Cloud storage is that Cloud Volumes ONTAP is now available for use with Google Cloud. NetApps groundbreaking cloud data management platform that has been a huge success for enterprises in AWS and Azure, can finally start to leverage the benefits of Google Cloud.
Google Cloud & Microservices: How to Use Google Cloud Storage with Microservices
With microservices, organizations are able to break out of the monolithic IT architectures, allowing for smaller, more flexible service options. When using microservices on Google Cloud, there is an important role that Google Cloud Storage can play.
This blog will go into more detail about how microservices work and provide a working step-by-step guide on how to implement one with a same architecture using Google Cloud Storage.
Read more in Google Cloud & Microservices: How to Use Google Cloud Storage with Microservices.
Cloud File Sharing Services: Google Cloud FilestoreWhen it comes to using a cloud file service, cloud admins have a lot of challenges on their plate. These include ensuring data is accessible to all clients no matter the type of operating systems they use, managing backup and archive data, and making sure costs dont go through the roof even when storing large volumes of data. Google Filestore is the newest file service on the market. How does this new offering stack up to some of the more mature options out there?
This post takes a deep dive into Cloud Filestore, Google Clouds fully managed file share service, and examines whether it has all the required features youll need in a cloud file share service, such as multi-zone availability, point-in-time snapshots and data protection. The article also takes a look at NetApps Cloud Volumes ONTAP, now available on Google Cloud file storage.
Read more: Cloud File Sharing Services: Google Cloud Filestore
How to Add and Manage Lifecycle Rules in Google Cloud Storage BucketsManaging your data lifecycle can be very challenging when dealing with unpredictable amounts of data. Luckily, Google Cloud Storage comes with a built-in Object Lifecycle Management feature which makes things much easier. Although the pricing for this feature is low, if improperly configured, expenses can rise significantly when using big data volumes or multiple API operations.
This post introduces Google Clouds lifecycle management feature and shows you how to create automated lifecycle rules, taking full advantage of Google Clouds out-of-the-box capabilities. The article also gives you a step-by-step walkthrough on how to create a Google Cloud Storage bucket and set up lifecycle rules to automatically delete data as well as change your storage class.
Read more: How to Add and Manage Lifecycle Rules in Google Cloud Storage Buckets
Google Cloud Website Hosting with Google Cloud StorageThere are many benefits to hosting a static website on Google Cloud Storage that often go overlooked. Hosting a website on Google Cloud is actually incredibly simple and offers multiple advanced capabilities and services, for those who know how to take advantage of them.
In this post we explain from A to Z how to host your website on Google Cloud Storage. This will include instructions on hosting the website files in Google Storage buckets, enabling and configuring the Google Cloud Storage static website as well as validation in the browser and advanced settings.
Read more: Google Cloud Website Hosting with Google Cloud Storage
Cloud Storage Encryption: Key Management in Google CloudClient-side encryption, in which clients locally encrypt data with their own keys, provides users with more control over encryption but also necessitates careful key management, auditing, and frequent rotations. One way to bypass these challenges is to use one of Google Clouds SSE options. Each option has its unique set of advantages and disadvantages.
This post introduces the different SSE options - GMEK, CSEK and CMEK, discussing which is the easiest to use, which is designed for sensitive data, and other considerations such as auditing, rotation and storage. It then provides a step-by-step guide on how to use CSEK on Google Cloud Platform storage.
Read more: Cloud Storage Encryption: Key Management in Google Cloud
How To Resize Google Cloud Persistent Disk Attached to a Linux InstanceGoogle Cloud Persistent Disks function as reliable and high-performance block storage for your Google Compute Virtual Machine instances. Getting to know their functionality, as well as learning to perform online resizing, will provide you with a greater degree of flexibility over your deployment and ensure business continuity.
In this post we introduce Google Cloud Persistent Disks, take a look at some of its built-in features and explain how to resize them. Well also show you how NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP can offer you even more capabilities for maximum flexibility.
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How to Switch Between Classes in Google Storage ServiceGoogle Cloud Storage comes with several distinct storage classes and availability types, each tailored to fit your datas usage patterns. Leveraging these options properly can have a huge impact on cost and performance.
This post gives an overview of Google Storage Service, focusing on the various storage classes and their respective availability types. It also provides a step by step guide to create a Google Cloud Storage bucket, add and remove data, and switching between storage classes.
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How to Use the gsutil Command-Line Tool for Google Cloud StorageObject storage is very easy to use, operates in a pay-as-you-go pricing model, and has low operational overhead, all of which make it the popular choice in cloud computing. To get started with this type of storage, its important to get to know your options for interacting with Google Cloud Storage. This will also be helpful for anyone setting up NetApps Cloud Volumes ONTAP for Google Cloud.
This post explains different ways to communicate with Google Cloud Storage: Google Cloud Console, SDKs and the Command-line tool. The article explains, step by step, how to use the gsutil command-line to install and authenticate Google Cloud using your machine terminal, how to create or destroy a bucket, and how to add and remove objects from that bucket. The gsutil tool is especially handy when transferring large volumes of data and for automating tasks without recurring to the UI.
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Google Cloud Persistent Disk: How to Create a Google Cloud Virtual ImageKnowing how to create a custom virtual image is a significant step in making the most of what the public cloud has to offer. If you are using Google Cloud Compute Engine Instances, this feature is a definite must-have to leverage when designing your system.
This post provides an explanation of virtual images and details how to create them from Google Cloud Persistent Disks. This will accelerate the bootstrap process in applications running in Google Cloud Engine and can significantly augment your deployment of Cloud Volumes ONTAP on Google Cloud.
Read more: Google Cloud Persistent Disk: How to Create a Google Cloud Virtual Image
Google Cloud Containers: Top 3 Options for Containers on GCPGoogle provides several technologies you can use to run containers in Google Cloud environments. Learn about the top three services that can help you run containerized applications on the Google Cloud Platform - Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Google Anthos, and Google Cloud Run.
We have authored in-depth guides on several other topics that can also be useful as you explore the world of cloud storage.
S3 Storage
Learn the basics of storing data in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazons first cloud service and still one of its most popular.
Learn about storage solutions in the Microsoft Azure cloud, including object storage, block storage, and file storage solutions.
Multicloud strategies are becoming more popular as organizations seek to optimize their cloud services and deployments. These strategies can help you prevent vendor lock-in, increase your flexibility, and help you optimize costs.
This guide explains what multicloud storage is, how it works, what its used for, the core requirements for this storage, and how Cloud Volumes ONTAP supports it.
See top articles in our multicloud storage guide:
AWS offers a range of database services and support to try and meet all its clients needs. Many of these services are fully managed to help reduce your IT workload and enable you to store and use data as simply as possible.
This guide explains what AWS database support is available, what database services are available, and how you can migrate your databases to AWS.
See top articles in our AWS database services guide:
Snapshots are a common method for natively backing up cloud data and services. This method enables you to save point in time backups which can be restored when needed.
This guide explains what types of storage snapshots are available, what AWS snapshots are, and how to use AWS snapshots.
See top articles in our AWS snapshots guide:
Storing file data in Azure is simple through Azure File Storage service. This service enables you to store files across cloud and on-premises resources, enabling you to flexibly and securely share data and workflows.
This guide explains what Azure File Storage is, common use cases for Files, management concepts and components of the service, how data is accessed and the architecture of the service, and some best practices for securing your data.
See top articles in our Azure file storage guide:
Google Cloud offers a variety of storage options for you to choose from. These services form the base of many other services in the cloud and understanding what your options are can help you manage your cloud more efficiently.
This guide explains what Google Cloud Storage options exist and their common uses.
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Google Clouds specialty is flexibility and integration of services and this extends to its database services. In Google Cloud you have a wide variety of database deployments, models, and support to choose from.
This guide explains your options for deploying databases in the cloud, what Google Cloud database services are available, and how to choose the right service for you.
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Software developers and DevOps engineers are packaging applications into lightweight units called containers. Kubernetes helps manage and scale containers across clusters of physical machines.
In this environment, Kubernetes storage becomes a significant challenge. By default, containers are ephemeral, meaning that any transient data on the container is lost when it shuts down. However, Kubernetes provides several options for persistent storage.
See top articles in our Kubernetes guide:
Learn the basics of storing data in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazons first cloud service and still one of its most popular.
File shares support some of the most important workloads that enterprise businesses rely on, and the resources of the public cloud have created interesting new possibilities. Every major public cloud provider now offers its own cloud file sharing service, each with its own target workloads and considerations. But not every enterprise will find what theyre looking for in a fully managed, all-cloud service.
See top articles in our cloud file sharing guide:
Snapshots are a common method for natively backing up cloud data and services. This method enables you to save point in time backups which can be restored when needed.
This guide explains what types of storage snapshots are available, what AWS snapshots are, and how to use AWS snapshots.
See top articles in our AWS snapshots guide:
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Google Cloud Storage Options: Object, Block, and File Storage
The Five Easiest Ways to Take a Complete Backup of Your Mac – Lifehacker
Photo: Kaspars Grinvalds (Shutterstock)
No one wants to be the person who accidentally spills coffee on their MacBook and ends up losing all their data. The laptop can be easily replaced, but if you dont have a backup, you face the uninviting prospect of permanent data loss. Luckily, backing up your Mac right now is effortless and cheap, and there are multiple ways to get it done.
Before you start, a few things to keep in mind: While one backup is better than none, its a good idea to store at least two copies of your computers data in different locations. This could be as simple as backing up your entire computer to an external hard drive and saving all your photos on a cloud storage service. That way, the data thats most important to you is saved in two locations, so if one of the backups gets corrupted or lost, you have a second copy to fall back on.
Secondly, there is a difference between cloud sync services and true backup services. A sync service, such as iCloud or Google Drive, isnt always the best choiceif you accidentally delete a file from your computer, it gets deleted from the servers of sync services too, putting you at risk of losing it forever. The better choice is a dedicated online backup service provider.
Here are five of the easiestbackup solutions for your Mac, with the best options listed first.
Time Machine ships with macOS, and its the most convenient backup solution for most people. You can get started by going to System Preferences > Time Machine and selecting a backup disk. This can be a second hard drive on your computer, an external hard disk, or even an SD card or a pen drive. Or choose a more expensive, robust solution like NAS (network-attached storage).
Time Machine takes an hourly backup of your computer every day and retains a daily backup for each day of the month. If your computer crashes, you should be able to pick the most recent backup, or an older version if you wish to. This feature works best when the backup disk is permanently connected to your computer, so you should buy a good external drive to store Time Machine backups.
For most people, an external hard disk is good enough, but it gets inconvenient to permanently block off a USB port, especially on MacBooks that might only have two open slots, so consider a network-connected hard drive such as the WD My Cloud Home. It costs around $160 for 2TB but provides a huge advantage for the money: As long as its plugged in and connected to the same wifi network as your computer, itll keep storing your Time Machine backups automatically.
If youre looking for a more advanced solution, a dedicated network-attached storage device is an option. These devices can be paired with a dedicated hard disk to back up all the devices in your house, and often can run apps allowing you to stream stored media or act as a web server. Many people use a NAS with double-digit terabytes of hard drive space as a home server to access all their data. If you only need to back up one computer, an NAS is obviously overkill.
Time Machine is great for most people, but its biggest problem is that its slow. If you want a faster backup solution, consider using a dedicated backup app such as SuperDuper! ($30) or Carbon Copy Cloner ($40). Both apps offer a free trial to let you check out features without committing.
With these apps, creating your backups take much less time, and youll also be able to create bootable copies of your computer. That ways if your machine crashes and you cant even boot into the system, you can plug in your backup hard disk to your computer and use it to boot the computer, making the recovery process a lot faster.
Your next option is an online backup service such as Backblaze or Carbonite. Both cost less than $10 a month and offer a complete online backup of your computer. If your computer dies, you can download files off their servers or request your data be copied to a hard disk and shipped to you. This courier service is available on both Backblaze and Carbonite, but with different terms and conditions, so be sure to check out the fine print before signing up.
Online backup services are ideally offsite backup solutions, as in case of a disastrous event such as a hurricane or a forest fire, keeping your backups inside your house could be catastrophic. If your data is valuable to you, a secondary offsite backup is essential.
If you try to download all your data from one of these services, it could take a lot of time, depending on your internet speeds and the server loads at the backup services data center. Thats why its not ideal to use an online backup service as your primary backup option. However, its still a better choice than no backup at all.
You can back up most of the files stored on your Mac to iCloud. This feature, like Time Machine, is built into macOS. You can turn it on by going to System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud and checking all the options in the right pane.
This setting will start syncing your Macs files to your iCloud account, but dont consider it a substitute for a true backup service. If you delete files on your Mac, theyre also deleted on iCloud, which isnt always what you want from a backup service. iCloud can also be frustratingly slow at times, even if your internet speed is fast. You may be able to recover large files quickly, but smaller ones may take forever to download. This unreliability, coupled with iClouds measly 5GB of free storage space, makes it hard to recommend as a primary backup solution.
You can also use the computer backup features provided by cloud storage services such as OneDrive and Google Drive. This works best if youre already paying for cloud storage and want an online copy of your data. OneDrive and Google Drive are also sync services, so you should be doubly sure about deleting anything synced to these services.
The backup apps designed by these cloud storage providers often clunky and slow. If thats getting to you, Arq Backup ($50) is a faster alternative. It can back up your data to multiple cloud storage services and even external hard disks or your NAS. To address privacy concerns, the app encrypts your data before uploading it to cloud storage services.
The only negative of using Arq Backup is that youll need to use the app to restore your backups. If the app isnt installed on the computer youre trying to restore (or it wont boot, so you cant open the app), you wont be able to restore your data.
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The Five Easiest Ways to Take a Complete Backup of Your Mac - Lifehacker
Adobe brings its Frame.io acquisition to its Creative Cloud – TechCrunch
Last August, Adobe acquired Frame.io, an online video review and collaboration platform for creative professionals, for $1.275 billion in cash. At the time Adobe signaled that it would build out deeper integrations between its existing Premiere Pro and After Effects video tools and Frame.io, so its maybe no surprise that today, shortly before the annual NAB show, it is announcing what this integration is going to look like. Starting today, as part of the existing Creative Cloud package, Adobes customers using the latest versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects will get access to the Frame.io extension as part of their existing subscription. They will also be able to log into Frame.io with their Adobe ID.
Its our first step in building an end-to-end cloud-based video platform thats seamlessly integrated with Premiere Pro and the rest of the tools our customers use, Paul Saccone, Adobes VP of Marketing for Frame.io, explained in a press briefing ahead of todays announcement. With more video content being created than ever before and remote work becoming the new norm, Frame.io for Creative Cloud will enable editors and key stakeholders like producers, agencies and clients to seamlessly collaborate and get to that final approval faster.
Image Credits: Adobe
Frame.io for Creative Cloud will include free sharing, with an unlimited number of external reviewers, accelerated file transfers and 100 GB of dedicated Frame.io storage, which will be separate from the existing Creative Cloud storage plan. Creatives will have the ability to work on five different projects concurrently and the plan will support up to two users who can collaborate on a project in real time.
For the most part, Frame.io for Creative Cloud sits somewhere between Frame.ios free plan and its most affordable $15/month/user paid plan (which features camera to cloud support, up to 10 users, 250 GB of active storage and 4K playback).
The service will also include Frame.ios camera-to-cloud feature, which allows remote editors to start editing their videos while the rest of the crew is still shooting. Its an automated workflow that uploads files from cameras to the cloud, making them available to editors in Premiere Pro just a few moments later, Saccone explained. It takes that traditionally linear process of production and post-production and makes them parallel so that everybody can work together at the same time.
Adobes new AI-powered color correction tool for Premiere Pro. Image Credits: Adobe
Adobes Premiere Pro is also getting a number of updates; most importantly it now features an AI-powered first-pass color correction tool that will hopefully make one of the more tedious parts of the video editing process a bit easier. The tool will automatically apply color corrections to video clips and then leave it to the video editor to work on details like skin tone or the color of the sky. The idea here isnt to do away with LUTs but to help creatives with the next step after they apply their favorite LUTs.
There is also a new header bar that aims to make navigating Premiere Pro a bit easier and a new export mode that will give users a more streamlined experience for when they want to post their videos to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
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Adobe brings its Frame.io acquisition to its Creative Cloud - TechCrunch
Windows 11 is getting an upgrade that will save you a ton of time – Tom’s Guide
Microsoft is taking steps to better integrate its OneDrive cloud storage with the File Explorer in Windows 11.
As spotted by Windows Latest, Windows Insider Build 22593 lets you set OneDrive as the default File Explorer folder, which will give you easy access to files stored in the cloud. This means youll no longer need to add a OneDrive folder to the Windows sidebar to access the cloud.
TechRadar notes that File Explorer has always opened into a homepage that allowed quick access to items stored on the local drive. Instead, you can now have the homepage launch OneDrive.
Theres also a new OneDrive icon located in the top right-hand corner of the File Explorer window. Clicking it opens a dropdown menu that shows information like your file syncing progress and storage capacity. You can use this menu to launch OneDrive in the web browser to adjust settings.
Last week, Microsoft announced a slew of upcoming Windows 11 updates, with a redesigned File Explorer being among them. The new Home page option from this latest Windows 11 preview build is tied with the recent File Explorer update. As we now know, there will be multiple pages you can set as the default Home page, including OneDrive.
Integrating File Explorer and OneDrive is a smart move. While accessing OneDrive wasnt particularly difficult in the past, being able to launch right into it will further streamline your work routine. This is especially true if you're a hybrid worker, as youll no longer have to worry about which files are stored on your work or home computer. You'll have peace of mind knowing all your files reside in OneDrive.
This feature is currently rolling out to members of the Windows Insider program. As such, we cant say when or if it will release as a standard Windows 11 feature for the public.
Still, it's clear that Microsoft is continuing its efforts to integrate Windows 11 with the cloud. Just last week, the Redmond-based tech giant announced it would integrate Windows 365 into Windows 11 using the operating systems virtual desktop feature. Though said feature is aimed at businesses and office workers, being able to access ones work via the cloud is something everyone can benefit from.
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Windows 11 is getting an upgrade that will save you a ton of time - Tom's Guide
Box thinks it may have cracked online collaboration at last – TechRadar
The cloud storage provider Box has unveiled a new virtual whiteboarding and online collaboration tool called Box Canvas that is designed for organizations that have adopted a hybrid work model.
With Box Canvas, hybrid teams can securely connect online and brainstorm, ideate and create together from anywhere. The new visual whiteboard tool will be available to all Box users at no additional charge later this year and the company plans to showcase it at its upcoming Box Content Cloud Summit.
Chief product officer at Box, Diego Dugatkin explained in a press release how Box Canvas is the ideal collaboration tool for hybrid work, saying:
With approximately 70 percent of companies in the U.S. and Europe planning to establish a hybrid work environment, its clear that the future of work is here. This new way of working requires tools that extend beyond static document types and traditional communication styles to be more dynamic and fluid. Box is taking collaboration to the next level with Box Canvas. Our goal is to unleash the power of creativity so teams can solve complex problems, nurture fresh ideas, and create new ways of working together from anywhere.
While just over two thirds (67%) of Fortune 500 companies already use Box Content Cloud to manage, share, secure and collaborate on content both internally and externally with customers and partners, Box Canvas will provide organizations with a new, visual collaboration tool built-in to Boxs platform.
Box Canvas makes it easy to get started quickly with premade templates and the ability to alert collaborators in real time with both notifications and @mentions. Internal and external collaborators will also have access to an unlimited number of Canvases to brainstorm regardless of their location or time zone.
When it comes to brainstorming in Box Canvas, users will be able to work the way they want with free-form drawing and text, diagrams, wireframes and process flows using visual elements such as shapes and connectors. However, theyll even be able to create slides and run meetings and workshops directly from the new tool.
Possible use cases for Box Canvas include marketing teams conducting interactive workshops for their next campaign, product teams mapping out and visualizing each step of a logic flow for a new app or product, user experience teams storyboarding a user onboarding experience, sales teams creating sales dashboards, presentations and interactive account plans and HR teams running hands-on training and onboarding sessions that are more engaging.
Box Canvas is expected to be generally available for all Box users in the fall of this year and the company also plans to add additional features to its whiteboarding and collaboration tool going forward.
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Box thinks it may have cracked online collaboration at last - TechRadar