Cloud Storage for Teams

Holding The SkyIn a team environment, what are some of the basic requirements when it comes to cloud storage use cases? As we look below, the requirements are very similar to the old Windows File Server requirements, with some new Cloud Storage twists.

Requirement A – User Home Directory

Every team member needs a private space that he or she can store work related folders and files.  Many companies used active directory to map a drive to user’s home directory on a Windows File Server.  User can roam from PC to PC inside the company and always connected to his/her own home directory.
This is the same requirement for cloud storage for teams. Each user needs to have a home directory. This requirement is served by the new Gladinet Cloud for Teams. Each user will have his own home directory.
With the cloud storage, the new requirement is that the user home directory needs to be accessible anywhere user goes, from company office to home to on the road.

Requirement B – Shared Team Folder

For easy collaboration purpose, there are places that all the team users or groups of team users have access to. These are shared team folders. In the windows world, administrator can right click a folder sitting on a Windows File Server and share the folder. After that, each user can do a drive mapping to the shared team folder.
This is one of the primary use case for cloud storage – making it easy for users to share data.
In Gladinet Cloud for Teams, administrator can take any of his/her directory and turn it into a shared team folder.

Requirement C – Easy Central Administration

In Windows, administrator has access to the Windows File Server and the Active Directory behind it. That is the central place for admin to setup the user’s home directories and the shared team folders.
In the Cloud Storage world, the central place is just the web services that power the admin portal inside web browser. All the administration can be done from web browser.
In Gladinet Cloud, the central admin is done from web browser too.
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Requirement D – Easy Share of Local Folder

This requirement is new to cloud storage. For small and medium sized businesses, they may not have a file server. They may already move email service to Google Apps, moved sales automation to SalesForce.com. All that they have locally could be just laptops. In a sense, the laptops and the files on them need to be shared on demand.
In Gladinet Cloud, there is an easy way to attach local folders to the Gladinet Cloud and making them instantly accessible to the admin himself. Also the folder can be published as shared team folder.

Requirement E – Web Based File Explorer Access

This requirement is also new to the cloud computing era, as compared to the old Windows Server world. The latest AJAX/CSS technology is making web browser more and more powerful to do traditional Windows Explorer tasks.
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Requirement F – Native Desktop Client

It is nice to have a web based file explorer client. It will be nicer to have a native desktop client. The local applications such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop can only modify files locally on the hard drive or on a mapped network drive. It is important to have a native desktop client that makes it easy to interoperate with locally installed applications.
Gladinet Cloud has a native desktop client such as Gladinet Cloud Desktop for Teams. it present users with a mapped network drive, allowing them to use cloud storage as a network drive.

Requirement G – Native File Server Volume Integration

It will be nice to have  cloud storage integrated as a file server volume. For the companies that still heavily depend on Windows File Server and Active Directory, the easiest way to work with folders and files are still through File Server. The ability to present cloud storage as a file system volume is key for these customers.
Gladinet Cloud has Gladinet Cloud Server that integrate Gladinet Cloud with a File Server such as Windows Server 2008.

Requirement H – Mobile Device Support

iPhone and iPad are making mobile platform more and more popular. A growing portion of the work force is going mobile with the iPad or Android tablet devices. Having mobile device support will help these users well.
Gladinet Cloud will have mobile support by the end of 2011.

Related Posts

Backup, Access, Sync and Share with Gladinet Cloud
Seamless Migration to the Cloud Storage
Introducing Gladinet Cloud Server
YouTube HD Demo – Gladinet Cloud Server
YouTube HD Demo – Gladinet Cloud for Teams

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