Would You Be Interested In Unlimited Cloud Storage?????

I read about a new company with a very intriguing concept about five months ago. Bitcasa has caught the eye of major tech journals including PC World and TechCrunch at their recent Disrupt Conference (where Bitcasa was a finalist). Bitcasa's business model is innovative and candidly somewhat perplexing.... Unlimited (yes, unlimited, not in the sense of AT&T and Verizon's now defunct, "unlimited" data plans which really are capped no matter what terminology may be on your current bill), but unlimited in the sense that Bitcasa offers to store ALL of your data in completely safe, encrypted, storage for $10/month. 

Not some of your data, not just your data, everything! There are lots of cloud based back up companies with  seasoned track records. I have used Mozy and Carbonite over the years and these companies  provide real, secure, storage solutions for individuals and companies. Music Row Tech offers secure off site storage along with Hosted Exchange and other small business services. Dropbox isn't intended to be a comprehensive backup solution, but its "available anywhere" model also directly competes with BitCasa's ubiquitous data vision. BitCasa  intends for its customers to access their data anywhere in addition to having secure backup.

However, all of these established companies focus on storing your encrypted data-- what most of us think of as documents; photos; music files and related personal files-- at a price per unit of storage. The tools provided to automate the storing and recovery of data vary as to some of the particular packages offered, but the prevailing business model is the same, "we will store your personal information in an encrypted form on our servers so it is safely back up" for a price per XX units of storage.

After all, even with the falling prices of hard drive space, storage is not free.  You can buy a 3 Terabyte drive today from Western Digital for $200 through Amazon! This is a great, energy efficient, drive at a price per megabyte that would have been unthinkable just a year or two ago (the very idea of a consumer grade, three terabyte, drive at any price was a fantasy ten years ago!). I am an advocate of having three copies of all data-- your "working, or live, copy," a local back up (perhaps on a NAS device using this kind of eco friendly drive) or a stand alone drive such as this Western Digital Unit with its own "cloud storage" component which allows accessing your files remotely, even from an iPhone or similar device. AND a third, off site, backup! If you doubt the value of  this "final step" read about my father's harrowing decision when his home caught fire in this post. If you don't have your data stored in three places, it isn't truly safe. Period.

So what makes Bitcasa's approach different?  Bitcasa takes advantage of a technique called convergent encryption, along with  other techniques, to make the price value equation work. There is no really simplistic explanation for this process, but there has been a great deal written on the subject. Perhaps the most concise explanation I have read comes from a comment thread from a TechCrunch article:

Jon Zobrist · Subscribe · Works at Inthinc Technology Solutions, Inc.

The explanation is they use a method for determining the key for each individual file that is reproducible on all clients. That is the same unencrypted file (cleartext) will produce the exact same encrypted file (cyphertext) for all clients. Instead of more traditional methods of encryption, where the client uses a key that is specific to them (such as my own private/public keypair). This means that any time anyone encrypts the exact file the text post-encryption is the same. It's secure since they don't have the key to the original file, and it's easy to match the same files once they are encrypted so that they can be deduplicated.

So if you and I save encrypted copies of Windows 7 Operating system files (as an example) on the Bitcasa server, the vast majority of these system files will be identical  encrypted files which do not need to be redundantly stored and thus save Bitcasa vast amounts of space while still preserving the files' encrypted, private, state. By saving only the subset of files which are truly unique, for  instance my photos from my vacation last year and your unique beef strogonaff recipe handed down by your great grandmother,  much more data can be stored in the same space.

Looked at another way, your Microsoft Office Programs are virtually identical to mine (assuming we are using the same version) with the exception of a very few files which store preferences unique to each user. After all, the DVD, CD, or ISO download with the actual program files are identical when you and I, and "Aunt Jane," and...., buy them, so why keep duplicate copies of each as backups? This is also similar to what Apple is now attempting to do with their Cloud Music Matching Product. If I have James Taylor's, "Fire and Rain" from Sweet Baby James in my iTunes library and so do 10,000 others, Apple is able to store a single master copy of this song in the cloud and provide every client access to this "master copy" upon request.

There are differences. People are justifiably concerned about securing their personal data with a company; it is personal data..... We want assurances that Bitcasa's magic sauce isn't allowing Bitcasa itself, or anyone else (think RIAA, MPA, or anyone!, to snoop around and explore our data). BitCasa's  business model is predicated on making customers trust that while the data is fully encrypted and unreadable by them (or anyone) they can nevertheless de-duplicate the bits and bytes to conserve space and provide a robust, cloud based, back up and storage solution  at a price which more traditional companies such as Mozy, Carbonite, Dropbox, Music Row Tech, and others simply can't duplicate (pun intended).

So after reading about this company months ago, I went to their site and applied to be part of their beta program. (And yes, even this aspect of the company's business model has been the subject of ridicule by some. They have fostered a sense of scarcity, while encouraging others to spread the word about the company's product. Here is (in part) what I received back in mid-September when I applied to try the program:

Thank you for signing up for the Bitcasa beta. Space is extremely limited and you are at the back of the queue. The more people you get to sign up, the sooner you get Bitcasa. Use the link below to share with friends or post to your social networks.

You can certainly see why this approach could provide fodder to those who are dubious about the company's ability to live up to its promises. However, there are some very savvy, smart, venture capitalists who have invested $1.3 million dollars in the BitCasa "dream." (See TechCrunch.) Some of these same individuals have been part of Facebook, Dropbox, Flixster and other high profile tech startups over the past several years.

 I received an invitation to officially join BitCasa's beta group today and I intend to test the service. I am also able to invite a friend to try the service and this is where you come in. If you Like or Share this article on Google+ or Facebook over the next two days, I will randomly select one reader and invite them to the BitCasa beta program. If the person selected is willing to share feedback with me in the coming weeks, I will add his or her commentary to an upcoming follow up article on this data backup and sharing solution. To be clear, this is a beta product so any formal review of the service will have to wait for BitCasa to open its services to the world. In the meantime, here's your chance to be a part of a new, potentially revolutionary, online service. 

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.....

I currently particpate in the Amazon Associates Program and certain item links included within this post may tie to this affiliate program.

I hold a long position in  $AMZN

Companies:  BitCasa, Carbonite, Dropbox,  Mozy, 

This commentary is not meant as an endorsement of any company or to provide financial advice.  If the author has any financial interest in any company mentioned at the time of this article’s posting, it will be explicitly noted. I welcome feedback and comments. 

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