G&G Computers, based in Truro, Nova Scotia, is a leading custom PC builder, and service provider who supports and manages many SMB’s network infrastructure in within Colchester County.
Traditionally, G&G Computers used an American based Cloud backup solution for their clients that required them to purchase large blocks of storage upfront. This solution lacked elasticity and didn’t scale well with the demand for their services, also the fact that their clients’ data was being backed up to an American data centre was an issue for their customers who have concerns about privacy, like the doctors offices, law offices and other SBMs G&G Computers supports.
G&G Computers made the switch to Cloud-A as their offsite cloud backup for their client environments, utilizing Cloud-A Bulk Storage, powered by OpenStack Swift and their own branded backup solution. Moving to Cloud-A has allowed G&G to grow their cloud storage needs on their terms, with no need to buy huge blocks of storage space up front, or export their client’s data to an unknown data centre in the USA. G&G was also happy to work with a fellow Nova Scotian tech company.
The new backup solution has resulted in 30% cost savings in their backup costs, which has allowed them to pass costs savings on to their customers. G&G can now assure their clients that their backup data is close to home in Cloud-A’s primary data centre facility in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
A couple of months ago we posted about CloudBerry explorer and some basics on how to set it up with Cloud-A Bulk Storage. Since then we have announced our partnership with CloudBerry after months of rigorous testing to ensure that CloudBerry’s OpenStack products integrate seamlessly with our Bulk Storage.
Check out our latest video tutorial on how to use CloudBerry Explorer with Cloud-A Bulk Storage. This solution provides a very simple interface for your Bulk Storage containers, allowing even non-technical end users to copy and move files from their local systems to the cloud.
Cloudberry Lab is a company that makes backup and file management software for hybrid cloud environments, allowing users to backup or sync files from their local systems to the public cloud. While Cloudberry has paid products for backing up Windows servers and applications, they offer a piece of freeware called Cloudberry Explorer, which is a file manager that allows you to sync files from your Windows system to a number of public cloud options including OpenStack.
Create Cloud-A Bulk Volume Container
CloudBerry Explorer for OpenStack is built on OpenStack Swift technology, which means that users can use it with Cloud-A’s Bulk Storage ($0.075 per GB per month). You will need to create at least one Bulk Storage container by navigating to the storage tab in the Cloud-A dashboard and selecting “New Container.” Appropriately name your container and you are ready to download Cloudberry Explorer.
Tip: To keep your cloud-synced files organized, we recommend creating multiple Bulk Storage containers and treat them as if they were a folder directory on your local system.
Simply follow the steps to completed the installation wizard program.
Authenticate to your Bulk Storage Container
Once CloudBerry Explorer has launched you will notice that the left side of the screen represents your local systems folder directory and the right represents cloud storage. On the cloud storage side click the source drop down menu and select: <New Storage Account>
Now Select “Test Connection” to ensure that the system has accepted your credentials.
If Test Connection fails, ensure that you have entered your credentials correctly. If you have entered your credentials correctly but are still receiving a “Connection Failed” error message, ensure that you have the correct ports open for Bulk Storage. Those ports are: 80, 443, 8443 and 8444.
If your credentials were entered correctly, the Bulk Storage container you created in the first step will appear in the file directory on the right side of the screen. To test the connection, select a test file from your local system, and select “Copy.” A transfer status message will appear briefly at the bottom of the screen and the file will copy from the left side of the screen and appear in your cloud storage container on the right.
To prove this concept, log into your Cloud-A dashboard and navigate to your new Bulk Storage container. You should see your test file.
Functional Use Cases:
Upload very large files, like 4K HD videos, disk images, or backup archives, in multiple pieces efficiently and have them downloaded / served as a single file using an Object Manifest to glue the data back together.
Archive data from old projects taking up unnecessary space on your production storage (CAD files, BIM files, PSD files.)
Use with Cloud-A Windows instances and move infrequently used, non-mission critical data of off high performing SSD volume storage.
Next Steps:
CloudBerry Explorer is a great way to manually sync files to Cloud-A, and a great introduction into hybrid cloud solutions. Check out some of CloudBerry Lab’s other products for more advanced features like scheduled backups and encrypting files.
