Although we’re all familiar with traditional, centralized cloud storage, the emerging decentralized cloud model continues to make its way into traditional, Web3 and edge-based app stacks. Decentralized cloud storage—a trustless architecture where data is encrypted and stored across thousands of geographically diverse nodes—has become a viable disruptor to today’s centralized hyperscalers.
When you switch to decentralized cloud storage, significant security, performance and economic benefits can be realized, including:
- Built-in end-to-end encryption for data and metadata at the edge
- Minimized risk for tampering, negligence, bit rot and ransomware
- Multi–layered parallelism for super-fast uploads and downloads
- Automatic file redundancy, audit and repair
- Significantly reduced cost and TCO
Build on Storj DCS and you’ll get all these benefits—and more. Our innovative approach to file management also simplifies things on your end: the S3 backwards compatibility of our GatewayMT means integrating and managing your files with Storj DCS couldn’t be easier—or more intuitive and fast. In fact, Storj DCS GatewayMT is integrated with some of the best file management tools in the market today—including FileZilla Pro, CyberDuck and Netsdk’s S3 Browser. All three have valuable features to support easy upload, download, management and sharing of files you store on Storj DCS.
Let’s explore the advantages of each of these popular file managers so you can decide which option might work best for you.
Simplifying File Management With FileZilla Pro
FileZilla is a fast and reliable cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X) FTP, FTPS and SFTP client that supports connections, file transfers and file structure browsing for many of today’s cloud data storage services, including Storj.
It is available in a free option known as FileZilla Standard and a pro/upgraded version known as FileZilla Pro. FileZilla Pro contains all of the functionality of FileZilla Standard, plus it supports connections, file transfers, and file structure browsing for many of today’s centralized cloud data storage services, as well as with Storj DCS—using the GatewayMT.
FileZilla Pro Advantages
- Free open-source FTP client program:
- Capability to manage FTP over TLS, SFTP protocols, and more.
- Windows, Mac, and Linux support
Find out how to integrate FileZilla Pro with Storj DCS here.
Managing Files with CyberDuck and Storj DCS
CyberDuck is a free open-source libreserver (a small server system that enables you to run your own internet services independently) and cloud storage browser for both Windows, Mac and Linux that supports FTP and SFTP, WebDAV. Like FileZilla Pro, CyberDuck supports a variety of cloud storage solutions—including Storj DCS.
You can leverage the Cyberduck services via the user interface (GUI) or CLI, including file transfer by drag and drop and notifications via Growl. It is also able to open some files in external text editors.
One of the prominent features we discussed in the analysis of FileZilla is the support that FileZilla Pro provides for a hosted S3 gateway. Well, with CyberDuck, users have the same support for a hosted S3 gateway via the free version. Cool, right? We thought so, too.
So, while FileZilla/FileZilla Pro may command the majority of the market share for file managers, by all accounts in the analysis CyberDuck offers all of the same features, for free!
CyberDuck Advantages:
- Windows, Mac & Linux support
- CyberDuck supports both Windows and Mac whereas other prominent file managers only support Windows
- Intuitive dashboard
- CyberDucks is very easy to get up and running, and dashboard views such as **Transfers** give users an easy insight into how their transfers are processing
Find out how to integrate Cyberduck with Storj DCS here.
Now Let’s Meet Netsdk’s S3 Browser File Manager
Since everything is better in threes, we gave Netsdk’s S3 Browser a look as well. S3 Browser is a very simple file manager that is designed to support both S3 and AWS CloudFront.
For the user who doesn’t need a lot of functionality and is looking for a quick-and-dirty file manager to get the job done, S3 Browser can be a great option. Plus, managing files is super simplistic with a very intuitive and straightforward dashboard.
S3 Browser is free for personal use only; however, users who wish to use the S3 Browser in commercial, business, government or military institutions, or for any other profit activity must purchase a Pro license. The price to move to S3 Browser Pro is $29.99, which is more expensive than any other paid file manager we’ve explored.
S3 Browser Advantages
- Free version is comprehensive
- The free version of S3 Browser accepts any S3-compatible API endpoint, meaning a hosted gateway solution will integrate seamlessly.
Find out how to integrate the S3 Browser with Storj DCS here.
It’s Easy to Get Started
Get started for free and see for yourself how decentralized storage is more secure, private, cost-effective and sustainable than traditional cloud storage. Start building on the decentralized cloud today.
