CloudBerry Box Review
A group of IT professionals founded CloudBerry Lab in 2008. The motivation was to create software that would permit individuals and SMBs data backup and restore capabilities that would normally be beyond their skills. CloudBerry has recently brought out CloudBerry Box that enables end users to store data in the cloud as well as locally and keep the two storages synchronized. CloudBerry Box can be installed on any number of devices and multiple users can collaborate and work together from different locations.
Users can work offline and save their work to the synchronized folder. As soon as connectivity is established, CloudBerry Box will upload the changed files to all devices that are sharing the same connection.
Features
CloudBerry Box is different because it allows you to select the cloud service provider you want to use. This differentiates it from the rest because they restrict you to a cloud service provider of their choice. You do not know the pedigree or the reliability of the storage provider and are forced to take whatever is given.
CloudBerry Box uses any standard cloud storage service you choose (from a list that includes Amazon S3, Google Cloud, MS Azure and others). If you are running a small or medium business, you could already have an account with these for your backups and you can simply create an additional bucket there to use with CloudBerry Box.
If you use multiple cloud storage providers, you can change your cloud storage provider with ease. A drop down list allows you to select the service provider. Simply enter your account information and you get connected.
In any given account, you can select the storage bucket you want to use. This allows you to segregate files relating to different projects to different buckets and work with multiple teams handling multiple projects. We do not think that this capability exists with any other similar service provider.
Just because it is licensed, CloudBerry Box does not bind you to a single computer. You can install it on up to 3 different computer as well as simply release the license from the computer you are currently using and take it to another computer. There are no complications. This ensures that when you change or upgrade your hardware, you do not have to worry about setting up CloudBerry Box on the new machines.
Ease of Use
Some knowledge of how cloud based storage works is required while setting up CloudBerry Box. Unlike many other tools that use their own storage, you specify which cloud storage to use and your log in parameters there. While this may sound complicated to some, the advantages are tremendous. You know the cloud storage company that handles your data and the terms and conditions of their services. With other service providers, you simply have no clue and are forced to work blind.
Pricing
You are required to activate your CloudBerry Box license after the free trial period. The license costs $29.99 and can be installed on three computers.
Bear in mind that there will be charges for the data storage service you use. These are about 3 cents per GB for standard storage to 1 cent per GB for storage with slightly greater latency (e.g. Google Nearline). CloudBerry Box can connect to either kind of storage.
Security
While your data is in storage, it is obviously held secure by your cloud service provider. However, while using CloudBerry Box, you can ensure that the data is secure even during transit. You have the option of securing your data in transit by using SSL to protect it. You can also encrypt data with your own password.
Customer Support
CloudBerry Box comes with an in built help file that should suffice for most queries. Extensive online help is available on the CloudBerry website. If your query does not get resolved through any of these, you can open a support ticket with the CloudBerry customer support staff.
Summary
While there are a number of products that provide functionality somewhat similar to CloudBerry Box, the one critical difference lies in CloudBerry Box being able to work with the cloud service provider you choose. This one attribute takes CloudBerry Box out of the list of usual remote storage providers. By integrating with your chosen storage solution, CloudBerry Box raises bi-directional synchronization to a professional level.
