Application Idea: Virtualize Cloud Storage
I have a Dropbox Pro account with 107.5GB of storage, an iCloud account with 15GB of storage, and free accounts with Box (50GB), SpiderOak (2GB), GDrive (5GB), SkyDrive (7GB), ASUS WebStorage (8.5GB), Cubby (5GB), and UbuntuOne (5GB). I have plenty of cloud storage space. What I don’t have is a good way to manage that space.
Each of those cloud storage options operates as an island. Most create a directory in my home folder that its daemon syncs to the cloud. I can set preferences on my various devices for what gets synced inside that folder, but that folder is its own beast. If I want to save something to the cloud, I have to decide which cloud service to sync to and either save to that directory or otherwise upload to that service.
I got to thinking: what about an app that virtualized all that storage into a single virtual drive? This app would take care of managing which service to save files to, depending on file sizes and free space, and could even replicate files across services for my peace of mind. Sounds fun to build and definitely useful.
As I thought about it, though, I realized this app would have two issues:
- It doesn’t seem very sporting. These cloud services need paid customers to stay afloat. My proposed app could entice people to never pay for any cloud services, mooch the free services, and let the app take care of never running out of space.
- The primary target audience would be the people mentioned in objection #1, and they’re cheapskates. Not only wouldn’t they pay for cloud storage, they also wouldn’t pay me for the app, either.
i dont think #2 is a problem. Cheapskates routinely pay for things that they think save them money. “i just buy this one app and then it makes sure i never pay for space i dont need…”
Yes, the tools to do this have been out for ages–provided you’re using Linux. I wrote a proof of concept software RAID for network-based file systems 5 years ago: http://motoma.io/network-raid-storage-proof-of-concept/
A similar technique could easily be used for your disparate storage services in a JBOD array, with the one caveat being that your final storage acts as a block level storage device, not like individual files. Depending on the implementation details of the synchronization clients, you may end up resending your entire disk every time you make a change.
Worth a try though–if you’re interesting in pursuing I’d be happy to help out.