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When to use Amazon S3?

by MMMe
11 replies
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Hi,

I don't want to buy another hard disk, so am looking into a different solutiion.
I've noticed that a lot of people use Amazon S3. I looked at their website, and a lot of it souds good and a lot of it sounds too techy for me. So hopefully you could help me out.

I was wondering if Amazon S3 can be used to:

- full back up of your computer
- store any files on Amazon S3 instead of your computer

If yes, is this all safe?

Also, what would be "normal" usage per month? I know this may be difficult to answer, but the website of Amazon S3 is too Techy for me.

What is your experience? Any disadvantages?

Thanks for your help!
#amazon #amazon s3
  • Profile picture of the author M Thompson
    Why not use dropbox? I think you can get 8gb for free.

    S3 is great but it can be a bit techy.. I just use it for streaming stuff



    Originally Posted by MMMe View Post

    Hi,

    I don't want to buy another hard disk, so am looking into a different solutiion.
    I've noticed that a lot of people use Amazon S3. I looked at their website, and a lot of it souds good and a lot of it sounds too techy for me. So hopefully you could help me out.

    I was wondering if Amazon S3 can be used to:

    - full back up of your computer
    - store any files on Amazon S3 instead of your computer

    If yes, is this all safe?

    Also, what would be "normal" usage per month? I know this may be difficult to answer, but the website of Amazon S3 is too Techy for me.

    What is your experience? Any disadvantages?

    Thanks for your help!
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    • Profile picture of the author Bofu2U
      Originally Posted by M Thompson View Post

      Why not use dropbox? I think you can get 8gb for free.

      S3 is great but it can be a bit techy.. I just use it for streaming stuff
      This.

      Dropbox is a lot more economical solution especially because you don't have to mess with being proactive and worrying about how things will specifically work. Dropbox is more of a hands off solution. It has it's draw backs, but for being able to not only backup but also quickly sync files between systems (supports multiple systems logging into the same account) it's a no-brainer.

      Well, that and it's free for the first 2 GB (+ tweaks and promos to get up to 10+ GB for also free, just takes a little effort like posting to FB, or doing the new image uploading trick).
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  • Profile picture of the author MarketingChad
    I don't know how many people use Amazon S3 as a backup service for their computers...I believe there are probably better solutions out there for that purpose.

    The real purpose of S3 is to allow storage of media in a place where it can be accessed quickly for users to your site. This is why most people use it for video. By self-hosting video yourself, if you have a typically low-quality host (paying under $10 a month), the speed of download/upload is going to be pretty poor because you're typically sharing it with a ton of other people.

    S3 allows you to upload your media and use Amazon's crazy fast servers to download or stream that media incredibly fast. This will make the user experience on your site better, and increase your conversions.

    The pricing on S3 just lowered I think and you're not going to spend a whole lot unless you have massive amounts of video being streamed by tons of people each month.

    As far as backing up your computer/loading files. I use carbonite for backups and for files I use dropbox (which is free up to a certain amount of space).

    Hopefully that helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author mookinman
    I use dropbox. If somebody stole my MacBook Air today, it wouldn't be the end of the world. All my important stuff is on dropbox.
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  • Profile picture of the author lukedidit
    S3 is overkill for a PC backup.

    Use dropbox.

    S3 is an elasticity based cloud service, whereby it scales resources as you use them.

    For example if you upload a podcast or a video which goes viral, then you have no fear of the host provider being caught out and having the server die under the load. S3 will scale up resources (Memory,CPU,Disk Space Cache Bandwith) and you will 'pay as you grow'.

    So as soon the as traffic storm passes you are back to paying just a few cents again.
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  • Profile picture of the author lukemeister
    I vote for dropbox too for backups, it just works great
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  • Profile picture of the author MMMe
    Hi Guys,

    Thank you all for the quick responses. I will look into dropbox!

    Thanx!
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  • Profile picture of the author rashamba
    Is there any security for dropbox if your links get shared?
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    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by rashamba View Post

      Is there any security for dropbox if your links get shared?
      Dropbox is managed like a LAN share, not a public share. You select the people you share your stuff with. It's auto-synchronised.
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      • Profile picture of the author capitalalchemy
        OK, let's put it this way...I am currently trying to integrate S3 with JW player. I have spent a whole week on this and it's still not working. I am using the tutorials that both JW and the S3 website suggest, which are completely opposite each other.

        It is a pain in the butt. I cannot get help here, and I cannot get assistance on their forums, so I am wasting money. If it REALLY stands for "simple", it should not take this long to accomplish one simple task.

        If you are considering using S3, and you like having complicated documentation, a website with horrible navigation, and poorly explained tutorials. Go for it.

        I have never experience such poor customer service or instructions in my life. The JW website and the S3 site's instructions for how to integrate should be the same, and yet they are not. I have never seen anything that was so ridiculous in my life. I can't even begin to explain to you the enormous headache that I have gotten or the experiences that I have had -- avoid at all costs.
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  • Profile picture of the author skyyisthelimit
    Can you guys tell me about bee cloud

    is it like dropbox for 512 gb?
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