(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Personal clouds let you take control of your own data

There is a lack of trust in the traditional cloud, says Peacock. The current cloud storage model is a "temporary situation", agrees Richard Mortier at the University of Nottingham, UK, who is designing next-generation personal clouds. He wants to let people control their data so they can choose whether or not to opt into a relationship with a company like Google, which makes money from user data. "At the moment it's too asymmetrical," he says.

While early examples of personal web services exist, they have been hard to manage for non-specialists. Space Monkey should make personal clouds more accessible for the average user.

"Even if you know what you're doing it's a pain," says Mortier. A system like Space Monkey that works out of the box is a big help. "But you're going to be hosting other people's data," he says. Your stuff could also be distributed across international legal jurisdictions. "The liabilities are unclear," he says.

pace Monkey claims that its cloud will give users upload and download speeds that are 12 times as fast as those offered by existing services – and as the network of subscribers grows the rate could be 60 times faster. "Each new user adds bandwidth," says co-founder Alen Peacock.