Strato offers 500GB 'cloud hard drive'

Hosting firm Strato has unveiled an online storage service offering 500GB of capacity for £19 per month which can be accessed as easily as a local hard drive, the company claims.

Available immediately, HiDrive provides storage that can be mapped as a drive letter to any Windows PC, but which can also be accessed by Macs, Linux PCs or even mobile devices such as smartphones.

Strato also offers a secure connection option, and provides a backup service for all data held on a customer's HiDrive.

The service is aimed at tech-savvy consumers and businesses looking for a low-cost option for shared storage that can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.

Strato chief technology officer René Wienholtz said that HiDrive requires no extra software to operate, and supports a number of access protocols for cross-platform compatibility.

These include HTTP, FTP, WebDAV, and rsync, but it is Server Message Block (SMB), also known as Common Internet File System (CIFS), compatibility for Windows that is expected to be the most significant.

"We're the first provider to introduce SMB/CIFS connectivity to online storage," said Wienholtz, adding that accessing HiDrive this way is " just like using a local area network share".

However, because the SMB/CIFS protocol was not meant to be operated across the open internet, Strato has put an open VPN server in place that provides a secure connection between customers and Strato's datacentre.

HiDrive also creates an automatic daily snapshot of a user's file space, which can be used to retrieve deleted or old versions of files for "two or three months, or even up to a year", Wienholtz said.

HiDrive can also be used as a backup target for one or more computers, and is compatible with Apple's Time Machine on the Mac.

A web-based console is used to configure settings, including usernames and passwords for multiple users, each of whom gets access to a private folder and a shared 'workgroup' folder open to all users.

Germany-based Strato said that it is an ideal host for customer information because the firm is certified to ISO 27001 for security and " Germany has the strictest data privacy laws in the world", Wienholtz said.

However, customers can also encrypt files on their HiDrive, using tools such as TrueCrypt or Microsoft's BitLocker "just like it was a hard drive attached to your computer".

As always, performance of the HiDrive will depend on the bandwidth of the user's internet connection. Wienholtz specifically warned that broadband services typically offer a much higher download speed than uploading back out to the internet.

HiDrive is available now, with an introductory offer of £9 for the first six months, after which customers will be charged £19 per month.