Making your IT work for you

Creating your own cloud…

After revelations released by BBC news last week that All USB devices are ‘critically flawed’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28701124, it points the way towards using a web-based solution for file sharing as a essential alternative for transferring files.

Dropbox has become an incredibly useful tool, enabling you to easily share files across multiple devices.

Clearly it’s suffered bad press over the years after a number of security hacks, but in essence the idea is brilliant. There are alternative solutions available, which can reduce concerns about the security of the data, and put you in control.

OwnCloudOne such solution is OwnCloud. This Open Source software effectively allows you to create your own DropBox equivalent service installed on your own server. It also provides the apps for your PC, MAC and mobile devices to synchronise files with the server. These work silently in the background watching specific folders, and synchronising files between your device and the server.

There is a certain amount of technical knowledge you will need to setup your Own Cloud, mainly installation on a server and setting up of a secure HTTPS site to encrypt data between your device and the server. However, it will keep you in totally control of your data. We’ve recently configured such a service to act as a secure ‘drop-off point’, where large, confidential files can be exchanged between parties without sending via email.

In an age when we need to send larger files and email systems begin to groan under the weight of increasing file sizes, creating a place to upload and share your files in a secure location, really makes sense…