Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Following a brief preview at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in January, LaCie today announced the availability of the Windows Home Server-powered 5big Backup Server, a 5-bay appliance targeted at the small business market, offering centralised file-sharing, backup and restore for up to 10 PCs and 25 Apple Macs."

This beast which comes with 5TB or 10TB of storage is firmly aimed at the small business market, but can quite easily be used for the home if you want. It has LaCie's own backup software rather than relying on the WHS inbuilt backup, and this also includes the unusual feature of Apple Mac Time Machine backups for up to 25 Mac machines. Prices are in the range of small businesses rather than the home with a 5TB option including 3 year warranty costing $1,199.99 (US) or €1074.99.

"Wuala is definitely one of the most under-reported start-ups, and there's no good reason for that. It takes the best features out of both Dropbox and Mozy to create a must-have online file storage service for anyone with a computer. Developed by Dominik Grolimund and Luzius Meisser, the technology behind Wuala is truly amazing. By using a ‘grid' algorithm, Wuala can take advantage of unused disk space across its network of users in addition to data-centre storage."

Wuala presents an interesting option for online backup, storage, and file sharing, and the reviewer for Makeuseof.com certainly is impressed with the service, which is available for Windows (XP, Vista & 7), Mac (OS X 10.4 or higher), and Linux systems. As with many online backup services, users are allocated a small amount of "Free" storage space (1 GB for Wuala), and have the option to purchase additional storage if needed. Wuala, however, adds two additional - and optional - ways to gain storage, as indicated in the above screen shot: 1) you can "trade" space on your computer, which will then be used by the Wuala Cloud to store other user's files, and 2) you can be awarded space by inviting others to join the service. Be certain to read both the linked review, as well as Wuala's own website, for additional features - some of which are apparently reserved for "Pro Users" (those that Buy and/or Trade for additional storage).