A Buffalo in the 'cloud'
Today Buffalo Australia have announced a new storage solution which is 'cloud accessible'. Let me help you understand what this means.
Buffalo and storage have gone hand in hand for a long time, storage is one of their big categories and they do it well. They have produced USB and NAS (network attached storage) for a long time. So why is this different? Well, it is a NAS drive which can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Cloud?
This term is a hot topic in the tech world and everyone says 'cloud' to make anything sound more sophisticated.
Ultimately a cloud service is something that is on the internet, not in your home and not physical - to you.
Cloud services have been around for a long time. If you have a Google eMail account then you are using the 'cloud' because it is your email stored and serviced outside of your reach. Services like Picasso and Flickr are cloud based photo storage sites. Youtube is a cloud based video site.
Buffalo and Cloud?
So Buffalo is saying that this new storage drive is cloud accessible and you need to make sure you read the second word there, accessible. The storage is physically in your home or workplace. The files are stored in this physical drive. The point though is that they can now be accessed from anywhere over the internet (cloud).
If you are on the road and want to access your files on the Buffalo you can do this over the internet. The software simply connects you to your home to access these files. It can be done from an Apple device (iPad or iPhone) and also Android devices too.
If your power is not on at home or the device is switched off, or even if your internet at home is not working then your storage device is off the radar. This is where people need to ensure they do not confuse cloud storage (such as Picassa or Windows Live) with cloud accessible.
With all of that said, I must still mention that I actually like this product. I just wanted to clear up how it works. Now here are the benefits:
The Buffalo solution starts from 1TB upwards. Good luck finding 1TB of cloud storage from any of the other services I mentioned.
When you are at home, the drive is accessible on the network rather than over the internet so the speeds will be extremely fast.
Access to this drive is not just for one (like a USB drive), it can be accessed by all your home devices, even an xBox or PS3.
The Buffalo range comes as a single disk or multidisk solution, the multidisk solution has built in redundancy to save your data in the event of one disk failing.
Filled up the Buffalo drive? No worries, you can connect more storage to the device!
The convenience of having a central storage is paramount and you never need to worry about where you are, all you need is an internet connection and your files are at your finger tips. Just remember that it is cloud accessible and not in the cloud and you wont be disappointed.
Pricing and availability Product name: Buffalo CloudStation CS-X (Single drive) Pricing: AU$209 (1TB), AU$259 (2TB) Product name: Buffalo CloudStation Pro Duo CS-WV/R1 (Two drive) Pricing: AU$389 (2TB), AU$639 (4TB) Available in store: 28 November 2011
For more information http://www.buffalo-asia.com/cloudstation/
