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A lot of businesses can replace their file server(s) with this setup. No backup worries. Can get to it from anywhere. Files are automatically sync'd. The local

A lot of businesses can replace their file server(s) with this setup. No backup worries. Can get to it from anywhere. Files are automatically sync'd. The local server is archaic. Server in the cloud!

bruceboughton 16y ago
I'm pretty sure you'd still want a local backup if you're going to use this for business data.
- swombat 16y ago
  You have a local backup. Every team member has a local backup. That's the way Dropbox works.
  - mveldthuis 16y ago
    Except that you don't. If Dropbox screws up, and the service deems your files gone, the clients delete their copies too. At that point, you have to hope that somewhere, at Dropbox, the file still exists, or that some client was disconnected from the network, and still has your files. It protects you against the unavailability of Dropbox. Not against screwups on their side.
    - Dylan16807 16y ago
      Dropbox does keep a cache of recent file versions. So a server-side screwup won't entirely ruin your local files. Still, you're right that more backups are needed to avoid a single failure point.
arethuza 16y ago
"No backup worries" If I used this for critical data I would still have a local backup and at least one completely separate online backup. [Edit: No criticism of Dropbox implied - it's a great service]
- eli 16y ago
  Well, you should probably be backing up your whole drive anyway. Even if you managed to put all your data in Dropbox (unlikely), nobody wants the pain of having to reinstall the OS and all their apps.
tomstuart 16y ago
Well, for a small office (e.g. 30 people) this would cost $3920 per year. Local server may well be archaic but with this kind of pricing it's still much cheaper.
- Huppie 16y ago
  Even with a local server, you still want offsite backups. Guess what? If you stay under 1TB, this is probably the cheapest offsite backup solution for servers.
dagw 16y ago
Dropbox's network performance is still pretty mediocre even at the best of times. I don't know if it works better in the US, but here in Sweden it is a good 10 times slower than using our ftp site hosted a few towns over. Copying a few gigs from my computer to my coworkers computers via dropbox takes close to forever, esp when compared to doing the same task via a local fileserver over a 100 MBit or GigaBit network. Don't get me wrong though I love my dropbox account and even think that this new product would be great for where I work (if possibly a bit too pricey), but we are far away from dropbox replacing local file servers.

A lot of businesses can replace their file server(s) with this setup. No backup worries. Can get to it from anywhere. Files are automatically sync'd. The local server is archaic. Server in the cloud!

bruceboughton 16y ago

I'm pretty sure you'd still want a local backup if you're going to use this for business data.

swombat 16y ago
You have a local backup. Every team member has a local backup. That's the way Dropbox works.
- mveldthuis 16y ago
  Except that you don't. If Dropbox screws up, and the service deems your files gone, the clients delete their copies too. At that point, you have to hope that somewhere, at Dropbox, the file still exists, or that some client was disconnected from the network, and still has your files. It protects you against the unavailability of Dropbox. Not against screwups on their side.
  - Dylan16807 16y ago
    Dropbox does keep a cache of recent file versions. So a server-side screwup won't entirely ruin your local files. Still, you're right that more backups are needed to avoid a single failure point.

arethuza 16y ago

"No backup worries" If I used this for critical data I would still have a local backup and at least one completely separate online backup. [Edit: No criticism of Dropbox implied - it's a great service]

eli 16y ago
Well, you should probably be backing up your whole drive anyway. Even if you managed to put all your data in Dropbox (unlikely), nobody wants the pain of having to reinstall the OS and all their apps.

tomstuart 16y ago

Well, for a small office (e.g. 30 people) this would cost $3920 per year. Local server may well be archaic but with this kind of pricing it's still much cheaper.

Huppie 16y ago
Even with a local server, you still want offsite backups. Guess what? If you stay under 1TB, this is probably the cheapest offsite backup solution for servers.

dagw 16y ago

Dropbox's network performance is still pretty mediocre even at the best of times. I don't know if it works better in the US, but here in Sweden it is a good 10 times slower than using our ftp site hosted a few towns over. Copying a few gigs from my computer to my coworkers computers via dropbox takes close to forever, esp when compared to doing the same task via a local fileserver over a 100 MBit or GigaBit network. Don't get me wrong though I love my dropbox account and even think that this new product would be great for where I work (if possibly a bit too pricey), but we are far away from dropbox replacing local file servers.