Cloud storage and file synchronization is becoming increasingly important as users access the Internet and their data via a plethora of devices – desktop computers with large hard drives, laptops with smaller drives, and netbooks and mobile devices with relatively small internal storage. There are a lot of online storage/syncing startups and products out there to choose from, ranging from Microsoft Foldershare, dropbox and Sharpcast to pure online storage services like Wuala, box.net and drop.io.
Newcomer Zumodrive, from Y Combinator startup Zecter, enters this space with an interesting twist. Like other syncing services, Zumodrive creates a drive on your device that is synced to the cloud. But instead of syncing those files with all of your other devices, Zumodrive tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them.
That’s not such a big deal when in comes to PC-to-PC syncing where hard drive storage isn’t an issue. But I have far more music files than will fit on even my laptop. Zumodrive lets me access them (even via iTunes) in a way that makes them appear local. And when it comes to netbooks and mobile devices with very limited hard drive space, Zumodrive is a Godsend. It just appears to make your hard drive limitless in size.
One other thing Zumodrive does that’s smart is it actually syncs files you use a lot across all your devices. That way you’ll have access to those important files when you’re offline. You can right click on any file to make it local on that machine. The service also makes guesses as to other files that should be synced locally.
The product is launching into private beta today. If you’d like to try it out, we have 1,000 invitations, just use the invite code ireadtc or click here.
And that’s not all. Zumodrive will soon have an iPhone application to allow users to access files from that device. If you are interested in testing out an early private version of the iPhone app, you can sign up here once you have registered for Zumodrive.
The Zecter guys previously launch a product called Versionate, an office-wiki product, that we first covered in July 2007. We wrote about them again a year ago. Work on the product is on hold for now as the founders focus on Zumodrive, but they say they may develop it further in the future.
Zecter has raised a total of about $1 million and is based in San Mateo, California.
I was shaking my head “No, No, No” on this until I read :
” One other thing Zumodrive does that’s smart is it actually syncs files you use a lot across all your devices.”
Unless I have local copies, I wouldn’t want this service. So, the smart syncing is nice. However, I like DropBox more for this. Everything is synced so you have backups one multiple computers and the cloud. You also save on bandwidth this way. I have caps and have to be cautious about streaming iTunes from the cloud multiple times.
Still, an interesting option.
SugarSync is the only product today that allows you to fully sync folders among many computers (that is the only mode that Dropbox supports) and also allows you to smart sync folders with the cloud for remote access from anywhere including the iPhone and WinMo
You really need both modes depending on what you are doing:
- full sync when you want to have local copies to work on documents on the road for example.
- smart sync to store and maintain in sync files that you normally do not change or need local copies all the time. The perfect example is your music library or a large photo collection. If you use this mode for documents you can still make edits to the documents remotely if you wish with SugarSync. Those edits are propagated back to the source computer.
Syncplicity also does this. And it actually works, unlike Sugarsync.
The only one? No it isn’t!
Live Mesh has been doing that for a while now!
http://mesh.com
This ZumoDrive home page even looks quite a lot like the Mesh one.
Better than Dropbox, for sure.
I only hope they have a decent business plan so we can see them live for a bit more than normal. They’re probably going to charge extra for priority access or something. I can’t think of any other ways for them to generate revenue.
Oh yeah, and for storage. I thought they had unlimited storage. (The video preview is deceiving.)
Hi Prad,
David from ZumoDrive here. Sorry for the confusion with the video. ZumoDrive gives you 1GB for free, and allows you to upgrade it to larger capacities for a fee.
Whats the storage limit on this? is it unlimited?
It’s cool.
You guys do the same thing in the introduction sequence (once you install the software).
Just change it sometime soon.
Great post mike,
but…
Copy an Apple business model and logo (http://www.apple.com/mobileme/) and make Techcrunch?
And I thought innovation was in for 2009.
this is very different from mobileme
How so?
This is also identical to that Microsoft’s vaporware service.
Hello Michael and to the rest of the great writers here at tech crunch…i am a long time reader.
Today we are soft launching The Daily Bail, a bailout news, opinion & analysis site.
In more detail we are a news aggregation source for all stories related in any way to the institutionally dysfunctional, painfully inept and completely counter-productive taxpayer bailout of failed people, ideas, businesses, pensions, municipalities, states and ultimately, we fear, of our federal government.
The site is not complete but is functional and so we have decided to soft launch now given the strong bailout news flow.
For those interested, click the URL next to my name or go to http://www.thed...squarespace.com
In a few days we will lose the ‘.squarespace’ tag.
Thanks again for allowing us to post and I hope tech crunch readers will take the time to check us out.
dailybail
Hmm, I couldn’t figure out where to sync my local and network files on your site. Maybe you need more QA …?
This sounds amazing, will I be able to play a folder of music from my iphone with their application?
This is what MobileMe should have been like in my opinion.
Ankit,
You will be able to do that on your iPhone, and more. We’ll post details about it soon.
You can do this TODAY with Sugarsync in production http://www.sugarsync.com
the prices are a bit insane though as you increase it, its hardly “unlimited”
They use S3, but charge double what Amazon would for 200gb. It doesnt cost them more at that point, so why not just add an extra 10-20% rather than double!
Also, for just a drive in the clouds use JungleDisk, it doesnt add to any of the cost.
You seem to be forgetting that bandwidth isn’t free.
Isn’t storage $.10/gb and bandwidth $.10/gb also?
And, they have to pay their employees, keep their offices in working condition, and account for the people who pay nothing, yet enjoy up to 1 gb of space.
Their “double” prices seem a bit cheap now don’t you think?
So using this to sync my music collection across multiple computers and devices will cost me only $41.99 a month, or $500 a year! No thanks.
It doesn’t support outside countries? I’m from Guatemala and it told me ZumoDrive is not available on my country.
Which countries does it support?
Unfortunately, ONLY 1 GB of free space. Even Dropbox, Syncplicity, Skydrive, etc. offer more space for free.
Ok, i am not sure if anyone notice that for DropBox, you get less space once you start sharing your files with other Dropboxers.
I wonder why so? anyway, i use DB and still loving it despite what is mentioned here. bandwidth and space problem? I dun really care….
http://www.phokki.com – Get your photo styled into Art
no linux? why bother….
Just because 99% of the people do NOT use Linux!
Linux users are smart. They can backup their stuff via rsync and cron.
hmm
“Unlimited” hahha.. laughable. It’s like that “unlimited bandwidth/storage” scam that ISPs are peddling.
You’ll be paying through the nose for this.. if you’re crazy enough to adopt it and get stuck with it.
That’s just damn misleading, to give them a fluffy writeup and *completely forget* to mention their crazy pricing. -1 for TC cred.
Here’s the scheme for anyone else interested:
1. You visit the zumodrive site, where there’s no mention of pricing, and trials are all private… but you have a invite code, courtesy of TC. You feel sooo cool.
2. You download the ~7mb installer and start creating an account.
3. You fill in your personal info and accept the TOC — *still before seeing any pricing mentioned*.
4. You finally see this pricelist on the 3rd page of sign-in/account setup:
1GB – Free; 10GB – $2.99/mo; 20GB – $5.99/mo … and so on: For each addl 10gb, you pay $3 more per month … up to 200gb, $59.99/mo.
At which point you realize you’re already happy with the 2GB Dropbox gives for free (or 50GB for $9.99/mo instead of zumodrive’s $14.99).
Uninstall / Delete / Rant about the whole thing on TC’s comments.
agree that they should put the pricing right up front on the first sign up page or home page.
Mike,
You should update the article.
Dave
“up to 200gb, $59.99/mo”
What a major rip-off compared with the simplicity, speed and privacy of doing your own external storage!
It amazes me that anyone in this day and age would want to use an online service to backup or store their personal files anyways, especially when downloading them is much slower than using any direct-connected hard drive …
External USB hard drives are ridiculously cheap these days. I just bought a Buffalo 250 GB USB drive for only $80. It’s small, only the size of two decks of playing cards so it’s ridiculously easy to carry around. Not only that, but it is lightweight and QUIET and runs cool — and for the cost of 6 weeks of zumodrive storage I get my own private hard drive with a 3 year manufacturer’s warranty — and I can access all the files on this drive while I’m offline!
So … let’s add up the numbers here, shall we? Assuming my new drive craps out on me after three years I’ll end up paying $2.22 per month instead of $59.99/mo at zumodrive. That’s a savings of more than $2000 … and I don’t know about you but I have better things to spend $2000 on than a service like zumodrive, especially when you consider …
THE ZUMODRIVE NEGATIVES:
1- Costs $2000 more than if I simply “do it myself” over the next three years, even if I buy 2 external USB drives so I can backup my backups;
2- Forces me to trust my private files to an unknown entity that may ’screw up’ and release my data to others, or perhaps just lose it, or maybe the business will simply shut down without warning;
3- Limits me to relatively slow download speeds compared with accessing my data directly from my own external USB drive;
4- Forces me to be online every time I want to access my files, thus preventing me from using my own files whenever I might want to.
Is there a more ridiculous way to waste my time and money than by going with a service like zumodrive? If so, I cannot think of one!
Ok genius…your two external drives burn up in a fire next to your computer. Now what?
Or the drives get stolen. Now what?
Or your ex comes back and sticks a drill through them (oh wait — thats probably just me).
You are paying for access AND backup/security.
Pricing is another issue – but then most people on the Internet expect everything for nothing. I would encourage them to ignore the cheapskates as they would be a drain on the them anyway with pirated movies and music.
I know these guys. Great guys, but unfortunately in a very crowded market and will be clobbered due to lack of business leadership in the company.
Times are very tough.
Later
So you know them and you’re dead-pooling them right out of gates?!
OUCH!
I am not deadpooling them in anyway. I don’t have that power, just stating facts. Isn’t that what real blogging is about, state owns opinion and be honest as much as possible
An interesting service but seems pricey and the free option (1GB) is pretty piddly.
Also it really is a drive – it adds a new drive to your machine where files are stored. There’s no LiveMesh-style way of having different folders in different locations.
As it stands you’d be better off spending $30 on a fat USB drive for your keychain,
I dunno. There are days where I want to kill my Flash drive and love the idea of a cloud based solution. The sync feature in Windows is horrible and on Mac -nonexistent-.
Somewhere I’d like to be able to backup/sync and access seamlessly and without having to think about it.
I like that Zumo doesn’t try to sync the world, but cost seems awfully high.
I’ve no idea what you’re talking about – LiveMesh syncing has worked flawlessly for me on both Windows & Mac for the past 4-5 months.
(and yes, I had early access to the Mac client).
The sync on demand stuff in Zumo looks nice, but in all other respects there are better services.
Regarding “Zumodrive tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them”…..
This is something that SugarSync does today in production. I keep my complete photo and music library automatically in sync between my Mac and the cloud and can access it remotely (without copying all the files) from other computers, the web, and the iPhone. This includes streaming to the iPhone my whole iTunes library from the cloud.
I dont think SugarSync can load my entire music library into itunes without downloading it.
On my newly acquired Dell Mini that has just 8G of storage Zumodrive (if it works) will be awesome.
If sugarsync can do this can someone tell me how?
I have about 16GB of Music.
Right now Sugursync does this for your iphone (in that you can access songs that get streamed). But you’re right, it would have to load your library to the machine to play it via iTunes.
The question is would you pay $72/year for your music on that Dell Mini.
It is bit steep, but IF it works I will pay. I am loading it up to see if it does.
The way I look at it – at SugarSync I pay $50 and just get the iphone. Here I pay $72/year but get both.
Agree. $72 a year isn’t that much if you just think about you are paying only 20 cents a day.
I would say $0.20 a day to get my music everywhere is cheap (IF it works.)
I’m trying the free plan first
You do not need to load the full library, just use the SugarSync built in media player to play the music that is streamed from the SugarSync servers. See http://www.suga...s-music-player/
Best part about this? There’s an actual business model. You have to *pay* to use the service. As a result, your files might actually be around in a few years
WTG Zecter!
Heh, you should know better. Ever heard of Xdrive or Mozy horror stories?
Great in theory, not so in practice.
BTW, anyone noticed how they completely ripped off Apple’s Me.com icon???
Just watch as DMCA starts flying in!
My curiosity was piqued, because I’m currently using other syncing solutions, but then I still have more content on a wirelessly connected external drive (i.e. time capsule used for regular storage, not back-up), that of course can’t be synced to the cloud (that I know of).
So I thought maybe do away with that and just put it in the cloud with ‘unlimited storage’ (for a fixed price, I assumed).
BUT, that pricing is way to extreme, I think. It’s $59.99 for 200GB (if what’s mentioned above is true), while Sugarsync has a 250GB option for $24.99 a month (less for a yearly commitment).
I understand what they are offering is a bit different, with the streaming and such, but I’m not quite sure how that’s worth more than double the price unless you critically need access to all your files seamlessly on a device that has less than 200GB storage. Though they’re out there, I imagine it’s a pretty small group.
I think they need to adjust their pricing more inline with Sugarsync and Dropbox ($9.99 for 50GB), and then they can tout their features as a competitive advantage. Though I have seen the Amazon S3 pricing and it doesn’t seem cheap.
- Chris
Not available in India… sniff…
Great product, but I have to agree with most of the posts about the expensive pricing, and the misleading video.
The value of this on the media side is clearly significant, and is one that they really promote, but there’s no way I’m paying those prices to sync 80GB of music and 250GB of movies.
If I could have some software that let me access my hard drive connected to an Airport Base Station in a similar manner, that would be great, and eliminate a lot of the cost.
Wow. I just don’t get this one. A crowded market,
modest product, and a high relative price point?
- Curtis
http://ShipItOnTheSide.com – Build a software startup as a side job.
Why would you not use FilesAnywhere.com, They offer 100% free 1GB accounts which allow streaming of media as well as direct document editing.
more invites here:
http://www.zumo...invite/ireadtc2
I’m interested in knowing what feature exactly prohibits the usage for some countries? I was nicely welcomed to the site saying it’s not available for India.
Secondly, nice way to advertise about “unlimited” storage in the video, but charge $60/m for 200gb of storage. I’m not saying it should be free. But how exactly is that unlimited?
On a similar note, I’d actually be willing to pay for a service that incorporates the features of the major services, but lets me use and pay for my own storage off Amazon S3 or Mosso Cloudfiles. JungleDisk and similar apps are great for mapping your storage as your drive. So I’d gladly pay if there’s a service that adds more feature to these and is sold without storage charges.
Hi,
Great insights. Nice Video…
You have nicely described.
Thanks for the post…
I was just posting about this in a blog. Then I scrolled down the comments and it seems everyone came to the same conclusions as me, its too expensive and it is hardly unlimited. I happen to have quite a lot of music files and even the 200 gb is not enough. I wonder how paying for this much storage/month can compete considering you could buy an equivalent external storage solution for that price?
today Live Mesh (that product from little known Microsoft that won a Crunchie!) gives me a lot of this for free.
Alternativly I could use something like Gladinet (http://www.gladinet.com/) and the free 25GB in Microsoft SkyDrive
It’s nice to see some more options in this space but what we really need to see are some innovations that will help push forward secure, reliable, safe, ubiquitous, efficient data access
with so many doc sync applications available, it makes no sense to create such a big hype over small minor features. there’s already enough players in the “cloud” sync apps and how many are actually useful? to the proportion of people, especially in the developing countries where internet bandwidth is limited. techcrunch should focus on new way of computing, such as real time collaborative computing or internet hibernation. tools like hibernater.com brings computing to another level.
Trust your life with a Startup!!! Later…
1st Timeline:
20080919 10:54:16 Gigaom
20090116 13:20:18 TechCrunch
20090116 13:52:20 Feedup
20090116 14:18:23 HackerNews
20090116 14:22:23 Twitter-TechFeed
20090116 15:12:55 Wikio-Tech
20090117 12:21:15 SmsTextNews
20090117 12:45:53 Techmeme-firehose
Sorry, ZumoDrive is currently not available for: Iceland
the site seems to have crashed
Isn’t there an app we could buy to do this using our own S3 account? S3 is already encrypted. Why should it cost double to bounce through another set of servers instead of going direct? If there is not an app currently, given the comments here, there is obviously a market for one.
As others have mentioned yo can just use JungleDisk.
https://www.jungledisk.com/
Services like these are going to only be around until someone out there makes an PTP app that allows you to access your own hard drive or external drive as an FTP server or file server… Wait there already is such a device for about 60 bucks
http://addonics...s/nas/nasu2.asp
Can you say webdav? Even Oracle has had this facility for years. XDrive did it too. Whats the new new thing here?
Tricking the local file system into thinking remote files are local is not a new trick.
Please. This site has nothing new at all. Tech guy is right. http://www.filesanywhere.com has ten times the features. Startup? FA’s been around since 1999.
I’ve used FA for 3 yearsand no problems. On my macbook, vista at work, iphone – backup files from my home drives using their automated backup sw and then I access anywhere. their streaming rocks. we use FA at our company to send folder links to guests who can zip download entire folders or just view files directly online. connect any way you want – web, webdav, ftp, sftp, ssh, Outlook, desktop app, iphone, mobile etc. Synch, online file editing, fax, digital signatures, albums, on and on. Love it.
The only way these new sites will get my business is if they offer something unique. FA has the best mix of features plus they always add new tools so for now they are keeping my business. I challenge you guys to come up with a better online storage.
Many people are nitpicking features and complaining about pricing. They’re in beta. Somehow I doubt they’ve polished their marketing strategy and pricing schemes.
Sure, there’s no way I’d pay those prices, but it’s better for them right now than overselling (or giving away) too much space/bandwidth/whatever to a point that they drown.
if they haven polished their marketing strategy and pricing schemes, then why would techcrunch feature them on the home page? seriously think the folks at techcrunch need to review their system and not publishing unworthly startups here and then.
Why is different from the idisk (from me.com) ? I am under the impression I have the exact same thing for about 2 or 3 years already
I am a Dropbox user by chance. I had no idea there were so many suppliers out there. I would wish someone would set up a comparison chart. It seems to me that they are all the same (for syncing and backing computers which is all I need), but the best priced seems to be Jungle Disk. Am I wrong?
Cool. Like the GMaill Shell Drive Extension (free) — It converts your GMail account (as many as you want) into local drives you can map: http://www.goog...ail+shell+drive
A challenge for you Michael….
http://www.clou...because-you-can
Currently, ZumoDrive doesn’t have the iphone application available. This IMO is the only thing that really sets them apart from the competition. If they can in fact put out their iphone app, and it does what they say, I will defiantly be purchasing some extra storage from them.
I use Google docs for all my sharing needs. Everything else is just fluff.