I have been a great proponent of the online cloud storage service Dropbox. Recently, Dropbox had some negative publicity when they updated their terms of service.
So, I started looking for Dropbox alternatives.
A long time blogging friend of mine, Mark Sierra commented about a service he has used for quite a bit – Mimedia.
With this cue, I checked out this service and here is what I found.
MiMedia Cloud Storage
MiMedia is a competent online storage provider and has an instant appeal with free 7GB storage offer. This is all most people need to access content anywhere and have it backed up online.
Once you sign up for the free service, you can download the desktop application, set up your backup rules and let MiMedia start your backup. If you have a slow internet connection, they even ship you a free shuttle drive so you can copy and send your data for easy upload.
What sets Mimedia apart from the rest is that it is geared towards giving you access to your media files – pictures, music and movies on the go from anywhere you have an Internet connection.
On their online interface, Mimedia organizes your content intuitively based on media type. You can listen to your music online, watch videos, share photos, etc.
It can literally take your media files and put it on the cloud. This is the space Amazon and Google has just entered with their free cloud music offerings. Mimedia works for music, photos and videos. Apple is supposed to reveal similar features in their upcoming iCloud offering.
MiMedia also has iPhone, iPad and Android apps so you can have your media anywhere you have your device.
Mimedia Security
Since the main reason I started looking for a complementary backup solution to Dropbox was security of the data, lets take a look at MiMedia’s security.
Mimedia encrypts your data and transmits to Mimedia server over SSL. This makes sure your data cannot be eavesdropped while on transit. Their Geo-redundant storage ensures you have a solid connection to their data centers and is protected against failures.
That’s all you can glean from their features and how it works pages. But, if you wanted to know the details you had to look at their Privacy page. (emphasis mine)
Security. By registering and using MiMedia, you acknowledge that your files will be stored on MiMedia’s servers. During the upload process, your files will be encrypted using SSL technology. Your files are not encrypted in storage on our servers, however. While MiMedia has implemented physical, technical, and administrative policies and procedures designed to help safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information. Only those employees/contractors/agents that need access to perform their job are authorized to access your personal information and they are bound by confidentiality agreements that prohibit misuse of that information.
MiMedia takes commercially reasonable steps to verify the identity of users before they are permitted to access stored information and to change user information (for example, your password or user name). You are responsible for the safekeeping of your username and password.
The MiMedia web site may contain external links and external sites may also contain links to the MiMedia site. MiMedia does not control the privacy or security practices of any linked sites and we encourage you to read and understand the privacy policies posted on those sites.
Our data is not stored encrypted in their servers. Our data is not stored encrypted in their servers. Our data is not stored encrypted in their servers.
That repetition was intentional. I think the free 7GB storage is great for storing casual files you want cloud access to. But, I wouldn’t store anything remotely confidential – financial, personal documents, etc. In fact, Dropbox fares better in security in this area but SpiderOak trumps both in security.
In Mimedia’s defense it seems like the service was built with giving online access to your media in mind. Encrypting music, photos and videos won’t make sense for such a service.
So, MiMedia is great for storing media and accessing it from the Internet and 7GB can nicely augment your other online cloud storage service accounts.
What is your favorite online cloud storage service?
