*SubCloud, Jungle Disk, Elastic Drive and PersistanFS shine through.
Using Amazon S3 cloud storage is easier due to four file system services and software from SubCloud, Jungle Disk, Elastic Drive and PersistanFS.
SubCloud is the latest file system for S3 to emerge. Designed for Linux users, SubCloud is a commercially pre-compiled and enhanced file-based software that is based on the open source s3fs. Founded by developer Randy Rizun, SubCloud was released in the middle of last year.
The SubCloud software lets IT admins backup their local file systems to Amazon S3 just as if it was a local drive and for users to collaborate on files stored in the S3 cloud. The software features encryption and compression of data and is priced at $129 for a license that covers one processor. Thus, if you are protecting a physical server with six virtual machines, you would pay for each virtual machine or 6 x $129. The license is perpetual.
Jungle Disk Desktop Edition on the other hand works with both Rackspace and Amazon S3. The software and service works just like a network drive, letting users backup their files into the cloud for as little as $.15 per gigabyte. Like SubCloud, files are encrypted as they are backed up.
Jungle Disk is also available in a Workgroup Edition, which backups multiple users and lets them share files, and a Windows Home Server Edition, which lets you back up your Windows Home Server. Unlike SubCloud, Jungle Disk supports Windows, Linux and Mac users.
ElasticDrive, like Jungle Disk, is a block-based system, that supports ext2, reiser, FAT, JFS XFS
file systems and uses Amazon S3. Unlike either SubCloud or Jungle Disk, ElasticDrive also works with Nirvanix’ cloud offering.
PersistenFS works with Amazon S3 and on Linux computers. Like the other software, it allows the cloud to appear as local storage. It relies on rsync to backup data.
