Here is something aimed primarily at consumers, but could easily be of equal interest to small business users. It is what some have termed a `private cloud server’ that can bring together the data storage capabilities of online services like DropBox, Google Drive, and the Apple iCloud into one service.
Why would you want to do that? Well, many users are taken with the capabilities of such services because they are free – up to a point. Get beyond that capacity limit, however, and they naturally start to charge money. The option, therefore, is often to open multiple accounts, each with a different login and password to remember, and with no simple way of creating getting the services to directly collaborate, such as having the ability to move data around between them.
That is the target for a US startup company, Lyve Minds. Funded by disk systems giant, Seagate, it is set to offer a free online app that can turn the devices used by a family or small business into a personal cloud capable of beaming data almost instantly from one device to another.
In addition to the app there will be a 2 Terabyte companion hard drive, and the pairing will be launched at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. It is expected to be on sale by April.
In operation, Lyve’s app will allow users to share data widely. For example, photos taken using an iPhone can be made available in a matter of seconds on the screens of Android tablets and other devices, such as TVs. For now, the company will only be charging for the home server, but it is expected that future revenue could come from licencing the technology to other vendors.
Seagate’s funding of Lyve is part of a trend amongst disk drive vendors as sales of attached drives sags alongside the decline in PC sales. Seagate’s big rival, Western Digital, is also expanding into similar areas as sales of drives to the PC sector dwindle. The company recently began selling a storage device called MyCloud that is similar to Lyve’s hard drive.
