Cloud-based File Storage

ownCloud

SIAT provides a Dropbox-like service with the added benefit of storing your files on our local, hosted-in-Canada, on-campus server. That service is called OwnCloud.

https://owncloud.iat.sfu.ca

FAQ

Big deal - I already use DropBox.

For personal use, Dropbox is fine. But for research work, SFU has a stated position that no SFU business or documents (including email, calendars) should be sync'd to non-Canadian cloud services:

http://www.sfu.ca/itservices/info_security/cloud-computing-faq.html

I want to access all my stuff on all my devices.

ownCloud is great for seamlessly integrating field-work with lab-work and office-work! Clients are available for Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS and Blackberry.

http://owncloud.org/install/

Rather than using a client, is there another way to work with my ownCloud share?

Sure - WebDAV! Here are some guidelines if you want to try WebDAV: http://doc.owncloud.org/server/5.0/user_manual/files/files.html

Can I share my stuff selectively with other SIAT Researchers?

Yes, ownCloud can share individual files with system-users.

Can I selectively share stuff with non-SIAT folks?

Yes, you can share a really, really long link (tough to stumble across), and you can even password-protect your shared information. Perfect for collaboration. You can turn off sharing at any time.

What do I need to begin using ownCloud?

Log in, using your SIAT research-computing-credentials: http://owncloud.iat.sfu.ca Try logging in with a web-browser first, then set up the desktop/mobile clients.

Is my data safe?

Probably; let's look at three aspects of "safe":

1. The hardware is the "best" we've put together in SIAT - in the interests of not losing data from hard-drives, we've employed RAID-6, which allows for two drive-failures without data-loss, and on top of that we have already-spinning "hot-spare" drives ready to step in and auto-replace any failed drive. We DO NOT have tape-backups, nor off-site storage/replication of data.
2. Your data is encrypted when communicating with the server. We use the same cryptographic quality that DropBox does (AES-256 encryption with RSA 2048-bit keys).
3. Your data IS NOT ENCRYPTED on the server. This was a deliberate decision to faciliate collaboration and file-sharing. Please use your own file-encryption utility if this is important to you, and be aware that collaboration becomes much more difficult.

Does syncing consume lots of bandwidth?

It can, if you have lots of data (either a large number of files, or a few files which are themselves large). You can help reduce bandwidth consumption by selectively-syncing.

How much storage space can I use?

50GB. Obviously, we have a finite amount of storage and 50GB has been estimated to be a useful amount of space.