There are many competing file storage solutions, most of them with an initial “free” amount. It’s easy to meet these limits pretty quickly though.
S3 File storage is probably cheaper. How cheap? Around 2 cents a Gigabyte a month. Take a look – https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/
To get your files into the cloud, most providers give you client software, some of which can be very heavy-weight. Alternately you can use a web UI, but this can be awkward and limiting.
If you go with S3 however, there is only a Web UI and an API.
There are 3rd Party solutions such as CloudBerry CloudDrive and S3Browser (http://s3browser.com/amazon-s3-folder-sync.aspx) which seem reasonable. These can put unknown loads on your computer though.
Roll your own Dropbox
If you’re like me and would like to “roll your own Dropbox” with S3, you’ll find it’s ridiculously easy.
All you need to do is create a bucket in AWS, install the amazingly poweful “aws” commandline tool and schedule a simple batch file.
Steps
1. Sign up for AWS
2. Create an S3 Bucket
Quite easy. Here’s how to do it:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/UG/CreatingaBucket.html
3.Install the AWS Commandline interface
http://s3browser.com/amazon-s3-folder-sync.aspx
4. Get some AWS Credentials
To do this, login to the AWS console and get your access key id and secret access key.
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-set-up.html
5. Set credentials
Type “aws configure” and enter your credentials
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-started.html#cli-quick-configuration
6. Create a batch file
We want to sync something to our bucket. For now, lets do it like the other cloud providers do and specify a top level folder. In this case, “MyDropbox” in the profile folder.
Create a batchfile “syncmydropbox.bat”:
@echo off set BUCKET=tutorialbucket.acloud.guru set DROPBOXDIR=%USERPROFILE%\MyDropBox rem Copy to S3 IF exist %DROPBOXDIR% ( aws s3 sync --delete %DROPBOXDIR% s3://%BUCKET%/MyDropBox ) rem Copy from S3 aws s3 sync s3://%BUCKET%/MyDropBox %DROPBOXDIR%
7. Schedule with Windows Scheduler
When you are happy how it’s working, schedule it in the Windows Scheduler.
Yes!
What you now have is the most economical (both $ and CPU) cloud storage backup solution possible! Well done.
