Hello,

 

A friend asked me the other day "If I wanted to provide a web service within which users would be able to store potentially large files, how would I do that?"

 

Now, if you have a small user base and could limit their uploads to a relatively low size, you may wish to just buy enough server space to host both your website and peoples content. But what about a large, or unknown size user base where you offered every user, let's say... between 5GB and 10GB of space, what are your options then? I'd like to hear all options regardless of how much technical knowledge each requires (from no technical knowledge to super-genius).

 

There must be some form of cloud service that allows you to integrate cloud storage on your website, is there?

And I know you could buy servers or server space, but I don't know about specific options?

 

Thanks,

Ian.

 

P.S I didn't really know where to post this, sorry if it's in the wrong section.

 

EDIT: It seems I can't edit the post title, sorry it's a little vague!

Edited June 12, 201313 yr by I An Web

You might want to have a little look at Amazon EC2 http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/

There are other options on their that might fit your needs more but hopefully this will get you in the right direction.

 

If you wanted to order in your own hardware for the storage then you would need some sort of SAN drive connected to a cluster of servers which you can expand on when your storage requirements become more and more. I think 'OnApp' has some form of storage system for people wanting to sell storage on their cluster/cloud servers.

 

Hope this helps

You might want to have a little look at Amazon EC2 http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/

There are other options on their that might fit your needs more but hopefully this will get you in the right direction.

 

If you wanted to order in your own hardware for the storage then you would need some sort of SAN drive connected to a cluster of servers which you can expand on when your storage requirements become more and more. I think 'OnApp' has some form of storage system for people wanting to sell storage on their cluster/cloud servers.

 

Hope this helps

 

Hey, thanks for replying

 

I presume the Amazon one is maintained by Amazon? So my mate wouldn't have to do any maintenance himself? What's it like to install? Also, is it reliable? I mean, I know it's Amazon, so it's not going to be terrible! But, is it as reliable as having your own servers?

I will look into it myself too in just a moment, but people's opinions are helpful and often easier to understand than official documentation.

 

I've been looking into buying the hardware, but it's all going over my head a little to be honest (always been way better with software than hardware), and seems like it would be too difficult for him to maintain and run himself. Though, I suppose there are plenty of people out there he could pay to do that for him if that option was cheaper than a service like Amazon.

 

(I have forgotten to mention we are in the UK)

 

EDIT: I've also been looking at CDN's, things like Akamai, Internap & NetDNA... would those be a suitable solution do you think?

 

Thanks,

Ian.

Edited June 13, 201313 yr by I An Web

Yes that's managed by Amazon. Basically it's a cloud storage service on a pay per use basis - eg the more you use the more you pay. http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ is similar but for storage and retrieval only and is a similar thing to a CDN, with S3 you just write to and retrieve files to and from there via your public facing site.

Hey, thanks for replying

 

I presume the Amazon one is maintained by Amazon? So my mate wouldn't have to do any maintenance himself? What's it like to install? Also, is it reliable? I mean, I know it's Amazon, so it's not going to be terrible! But, is it as reliable as having your own servers?

I will look into it myself too in just a moment, but people's opinions are helpful and often easier to understand than official documentation.

 

I've been looking into buying the hardware, but it's all going over my head a little to be honest (always been way better with software than hardware), and seems like it would be too difficult for him to maintain and run himself. Though, I suppose there are plenty of people out there he could pay to do that for him if that option was cheaper than a service like Amazon.

 

(I have forgotten to mention we are in the UK)

 

EDIT: I've also been looking at CDN's, things like Akamai, Internap & NetDNA... would those be a suitable solution do you think?

 

Thanks,

Ian.

 

The Amazon service is very reliable and many people are using it but it can become expensive very quickly but as many use it for small projects people find it pretty cheap.

 

The S3 option as @BlueDreamer suggested could also be a possible Amazon solution, but can handle your needs just depends what is going to be done with files.

 

You can easily get a hosting company that does managed hosting to do all the work for you and setup a clustered setup. Some of our clients who have the same sort of requirements run multiply low end CPU servers with very large RAID harddrives and then the front end (plus admin area) of the website manages the file locations. For instance fileserver1.yourdomain.com / fileserver2.yourdomain.com and so on. Just an idea for you as this might work out easier to develop for and might also be a cheaper option.

 

With CDN's large files are harder to work with on a true CDN network as you need large amounts of disk space in multiply countries. If you went with the low CPU servers you could get servers in the US and some in UK/EU and mirror between them.

 

Hope I have helped but let me know if you have any questions and I will be more than assist

The Amazon service is very reliable and many people are using it but it can become expensive very quickly but as many use it for small projects people find it pretty cheap.

 

The S3 option as @BlueDreamer suggested could also be a possible Amazon solution, but can handle your needs just depends what is going to be done with files.

 

You can easily get a hosting company that does managed hosting to do all the work for you and setup a clustered setup. Some of our clients who have the same sort of requirements run multiply low end CPU servers with very large RAID harddrives and then the front end (plus admin area) of the website manages the file locations. For instance fileserver1.yourdomain.com / fileserver2.yourdomain.com and so on. Just an idea for you as this might work out easier to develop for and might also be a cheaper option.

 

With CDN's large files are harder to work with on a true CDN network as you need large amounts of disk space in multiply countries. If you went with the low CPU servers you could get servers in the US and some in UK/EU and mirror between them.

 

Hope I have helped but let me know if you have any questions and I will be more than assist

 

Is that why I sometimes see websites using things like www2.domain.com and www3.domain.com etc...? or is that something else completely.

You have been very informative, thank you very much. I'm sure I will have questions, when I do, I shall return.

 

Thank you

 

Ian

Is that why I sometimes see websites using things like www2.domain.com and www3.domain.com etc...? or is that something else completely.

You have been very informative, thank you very much. I'm sure I will have questions, when I do, I shall return.

 

Thank you

 

Ian

 

When you see sites with www2 www3 etc are sort of the same thing and normally for different locations. Here is wikipedia link explaining it in more detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWW2

 

You are most welcome Feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

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