Cloud Computing for Education Workshop 2012 Copyright REZA CURTMOLA, NJIT Why Should You Learn This? Learn some useful software and services Backup and sync your materials for teaching Data reliability Convenience Preserve the version history of your data Easily recover a previous version or restore the deleted data Share your teaching materials with students and your colleagues Convenience Access control 2 1
Introduction of Popular Sync Softwares We introduce three popular sync software Dropbox Sugarsync Google Drive 3 Dropbox Overview Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. It offers a free account of 2 GB, paid accounts of 50 GB, 100 GB, and a team account of 1 TB or more Dropbox officially launched at 2008's TechCrunch50, an annual technology conference As of October 2011, Dropbox had more than 50 million users, of which 96% were using a free account In April 2012, Dropbox announced a new feature allowing users to automatically upload photos or videos from camera, tablet, SD card or smartphone. Users will be given up to 3 GB extra space for their photos and videos collection 4 2
Features of Dropbox Simple design and ease of use Praised by many publications: The Economist, The New York Times, PC Magazine, and The Washington Post Support almost all the platforms Dropbox provides client software for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, ios, and BlackBerry OS Support version control The version history is by default kept for 30 days, with an unlimited version called "Pack-Rat" available for purchase 5 Disadvantages of Dropbox High price It offers just 2GB of storage for free (5GB after April 2012). Extra storage is very expensive: 100GB of storage for $19.99/month, while Google Drive offers the same amount of storage for $4.99/ month Cannot sync any folder in the computer Dropbox forces you to keep everything you need synced inside of just one folder (though you can pick which folders you want synced within your Dropbox) 6 3
BACKUP&SYNC with Dropbox The Dropbox client enables users to drag and drop any file into a designated folder that is then synced with Dropbox's Internet service and to any other of the user's computers and devices with the Dropbox client View and update your data instantly in other devices The desktop client has no restriction on individual file size Users may also upload files manually through a web browser (drag and drop) example Files uploaded via the web site are limited to no more than 300 MB per file 7 Version control in Dropbox Recover an old file version By the Dropbox client By the web browser Restore a deleted file By the web browser Recover an old file version by the client Restore a deleted file Recover an old file version by the browser 8 4
Security for Dropbox Server side: Data at rest are stored encrypted (AES-256 bit encryption) Client side: No encryption Communication: SSL (Secure Socket Layer) In May 2011, a complaint was filed with the US FTC alleging Dropbox misled users about the privacy and security of their files The files stored in Dropbox are encrypted by the keys known to Dropbox, any intruder (as well as Dropbox employee) who gets the keys could decrypt any file How to protect the privacy of your sensitive data stored in Dropbox? 9 Security for Dropbox (cont.) A solution for protecting the privacy of your data stored in Dropbox: Use third party encryption software truecrypt How to use truecrypt with Dropbox (Will show the process during the lecture) Install truecrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads) See tutorials on how to use it to encrypt and decrypt files http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=tutorial 10 5
How to Share Data with Dropbox Share public links File/Folder Both client-based and browser-based Public links are unsearchable ( https://www.dropbox.com/ s/cvlsakz5gvagkfq/ touxiang1.jpg). Only the people who get the links can access the shared file Sign in not required Read only Client-based Browser-based 11 How to Share Data with Dropbox (cont.) Remove public links If you don t want to share the links any more, you can remove them, browser-based only Remove public links 12 6
How to Share Data with Dropbox (cont.) Share folders with other collaborators Browser-based only No fine-grained access control (all the collaborators can add/delete/modify files in this share folder) Send an invitation to the collaborators Sign in required Step1 Step3 Step2 13 How to Share Data with Dropbox (cont.) Administration Rights Anyone invited to a folder by the creator can also invite others to join the folder Only the creator of the shared folder can remove people from the folder 14 7
SugarSync Overview SugarSync is a service that actively syncs files across computers and other devices. It is operated by SugarSync, Inc. SugarSync offers a free account of 5 GB, paid accounts of 30GB, 60 GB, 100 GB, 250GB, and 500GB In September 2011, Gizmodo reviewed SugarSync and 10 other competitors (including Dropbox, Apple's icloud, Box.net, etc.) and named SugarSync the Best Cloud Service 15 Features of SugarSync Support all the known platforms except Linux SugarSync is available for Windows and Mac OS X. For mobile devices, SugarSync has an app for ios (iphone, ipad, ipod Touch), Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices, and a Windows Phone 7 app is in development Support multiple-folder syncing Compared to Dropbox, which only supports single-folder syncing, SugarSync can support syncing any folder in the computer Version control The version history is kept for 5 days Can restore deleted files and recover the old file versions More free storage compared to Dropbox 5GB VS 2GB 16 8
Security for SugarSync Server side: Data at rest are stored encrypted (AES-128 bit encryption) Client side: No encryption Communication: TLS (Transport Layer Security) To protect the privacy of your sensitive data stored in SugarSync, we still need to integrate third-party encryption tools 17 BACKUP&SYNC with SugarSync Can backup and sync any folder in your computer Rather than single files How to backup and sync One simple right click, very convenient Sync with the SugarSync client Sync in the web brower One right-click sync Sync in the web browser Sync with SugarSync client 18 9
How to Share Data with SugarSync Share public links File only Both client-based and browser-based tools Public links are unsearchable (https:// www.sugarsync.com/pf/ D8778312_67688477_670 58). Only the people who get the links can access the shared file Sign in not required Read only Client-based Browser-based 19 How to Share Data with SugarSync (cont.) Remove public links If you don t want to share the links any more, you can remove them only from the web browser Remove public links, browser-based only 20 10
How to Share Data with SugarSync (cont.) Share folders with other collaborators Web browser-based only Can set fine-grained access control Read only Read/add/edit Password protected files Send an invitation to the collaborators Sign in required Step1 Step2 21 How to Share Data with SugarSync (cont.) Administration Rights Anyone invited to a folder by the creator is not allowed to invite others to join the folder Only the creator of the shared folder can remove people from the folder 22 11
Google Drive Overview Google Drive is a file storage and sync service by Google that was released on April 24, 2012 Google Drive is an extension of Google Docs, allowing users to store all types of files on the Google servers Google Drive provides 5GB free storage. Current monthly rates for increased storage are: $2.49 for 25 GB, $4.99 for 100 GB, and additional tiers up to 16 TB at roughly $0.05 per GB 23 Features of Google Drive Offer perfect functionalities to support online working and collaboration Google Drive gives you instant access to Google Docs, a suite of editing tools that make working together better Online document editing (document, presentation, spreadsheet, form, drawing, etc.) Competitive price 5GB free storage 100GB: Dropbox $19.99/month, SugarSync $14.99/month, Google Drive $4.99/month Support version control The version history is kept for 30 days Can recover the old file versions and restore the deleted files Additional functionalities Preview 24 12
Disadvantages of Google Drive Support only a few platforms and provide limited functionalities in the client Windows, Mac OS X Lion, Android, ios 3.0+ Cannot sync any folder in the computer Similar to Dropbox, one folder only 25 Security for Google Drive Server side: It is not clear whether the data are stored encrypted or not Some articles claim that the data are stored encrypted in Google Drive, but no confirmation is found in Google s official website Client side: No encryption Transfer: Not clear 26 13
BACKUP&SYNC with Google Drive An uploaded file can be up to 10GB Two ways for backup and sync (similar to Dropbox) Client-based: Drag and drop Browser-based: Manually upload. Drag-and-drop feature is available only in the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox 27 Share Data with Google Drive Share files/folders Browser-based only Share options Public on the web: Anyone on the Internet can find and access. No sign-in required Anyone with the link: Anyone has the link can access. No sign-in required Private: Only people explicitly granted permission can access. Sign-in required Access options Can view: Read only Can comment: Read and add comments Can edit: Read, add comments, and edit 28 14
Share Data with Google Drive (cont.) Privately share Can grant fine-grained access permissions to different people 29 Some other functionalities Preview Can preview some file types (pdf, image, vedio, doc, etc.) 30 15
Hands-on tasks Preliminary Go to Dropbox official website (http://www.dropbox.com) and get a free Dropbox account; Download and install Dropbox client in your own computer; Run Dropbox client and bind your Dropbox account with your Dropbox client Video http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=yqf_asr8mza&feature=player_embedded Basic exercises Backup and sync your data with Dropbox Recover the old file version and restore the deleted file in Dropbox Protect the privacy of your data by using truecrypt with Dropbox Share data with Dropbox (share public links, remove the shared public links, share folders with your collaborators) 31 Hands-on tasks (cont.) More exercises (if we have time) Go to www.sugarsync.com, install SugarSync Backup and sync your data with SugarSync (sync any folder in your computer) Recover the old file versions and restore the deleted files in SugarSync Share data with SugarSync (password protected, access control) 32 16