wheresitworking?

Jungle Disk versus ZumoDrive for iTunes and More

Late last year I had a realization: all my stuff (i.e. data) should be on the cloud. An extension of this realization: so I can rebuild or duplicate a “machine” easily without external drives and other hardware. If you’re unfamiliar with all the products below, they basically function like this: you install an app that monitors usage of the storage space, and then you can use your storage space just as if it was a directory (Dropbox) or a drive (ZumoDrive and Jungle Disk) on your machine.

So, I now use Dropbox for all my files (except music and video) and I actually imported all my old emails into Gmail. That basically means: if you steal my laptop, no big deal, I can rebuild the thing in about 8 hours and not miss a beat. But one thing I couldn’t quite dial in was music and video, because the files take up so much storage. I got around to dealing with this final hurdle in the last month, and here are my findings.

My first thought was whether Dropbox could handle this amount of data. I think Dropbox (current limit of 100GB) will be well into the 1/4 TB (250 GB) level soon, but that wasn’t my problem. Dropbox syncs with files on your machine, so you have to have comparable storage on your HD. My MacBook has 150GB – not enough to store my video and music and all the other stuff I need on my machine.

Enter Jungle Disk. I thought Jungle Disk would be the answer to my problems – it stores all your files on Amazon’s servers, and allows you access through Finder/Explorer. But I ran into several problems with Jungle Disk, mostly related to how it worked when I limited its ability to cache files locally on my machine. Jungle Disk is super convenient for backing up your machine, and I’ll end up using it for backups and other needs in the future, but it wasn’t terribly user-friendly for general file usage. This was an issue because ultimately I intend to share many of these files with “less savvy” users. Ultimately though, the pricing structure of Jungle Disk didn’t seem conducive to my needs. I didn’t want to pay for data being uploaded and downloaded, I just wanted a flat monthly rate for a set amount of storage – like Dropbox.

Enter ZumoDrive. ZumoDrive is very similar to Jungle Disk in terms of functionality, but it is a bit more user friendly. I also feel that ZumoDrive handles large upload processes cleaner.

ZumoDrive runs much better when you provide it with a cache that is equivalent to the amount of storage you’re using. In other words, if you store 25 GB of music on ZumoDrive, you give up 25 GB on your local hard drive for the cache. That obviously didn’t work for me, or else I’d have stuck with Dropbox. Once you limit your cache, you see slowness accessing files, but I can deal with that.

One of the best things about ZumoDrive for my purposes was the iPhone app. It essentially allows you to access all of your music from anywhere, and play it on your iPhone (or iPod Touch). It’s hard to say how much this influenced my decision to use ZumoDrive, but it was major.

I ended up with the 100 GB account on ZumoDrive. With Dropbox, this brings my monthly storage fees up to about $30 a month. A steep price to pay on a yearly basis, but a small price to pay for piece of mind, not having to deal with backups of critical files anymore, and shared music and photos for my family. I’d be curious to hear how others have dealt with similar needs, and their experiences with respective products.

Tags: cloud storage, Dropbox, iPhone applications, iTunes, Jungle Disk, Zumo Drive