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online storage service
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online storage service

Hi,

Not sure if this should go in "requests" or perhaps "help" section, maybe some admin feel like moving it. anyhow, here we go:

I'm looking for storage and bandwidth for a online storage service. In broad terms, lets just say I'm building a dropbox kind of service, I need unlimited storage (not sold as unlimited, but not a vps/ded with a set gb drive, but unlimited growth) .

I have looked around, and perhaps using backblaze b2 at the back and then a CDN such as bunny or beluga to distribute the files would be a good solution (their storage prices are way higher than b2).

I'm not sure how the tech would work on this, hence why I'm asking here if someone knows and could recommend and/or could offer such service.

thank in advance!

Comments

  • TheLinuxBugTheLinuxBug Member
    edited July 2020

    How do you plan to make money on a service like this if you are not supporting your product on your own platform -- this sounds like a recipe to end up with wildly escalating costs because you won't have a limit and when your users start pouring in data and you unexpectedly start using more bandwidth and data than you expect or budgeted for, how will you pay that back?

    If you are going to make a platform to store and share files you should do it in an environment where you can slowly build up and know what your costs are going to be (building out a 100TB storage platform of your own, then as you grow closer to filling it, look at you budget and see if what you make will even cover expansion). Using some service as a storage backend has the ability for prices to change randomly or usage to spiral outside your control and end up costing you a bunch of money unexpectedly.

    Not saying you can't do it, but it sounds like to me you need to step back and build an actual plan for what your doing instead of just buying a few VPS and storage services and slapping a site up allowing people to move large amounts of data around at no cost or little cost. Then, purchase and build out your resources you need based on your plan and a budget so you don't end up having your dream service bankrupt you in the end.

    my 2 cents.

    Cheers!

  • maxwell_maxwell_ Member
    edited July 2020

    Thank you for your reply TheLinuxBug. I fully agree with everything you said, I must have explained myself very badly.

    Im not planning to offer anything unlimited, i just meant for growth on my part, such as using backblaze B2, where I cant run out of space, as I could on a VPS for example.

    The costing/pricing is why I posted this thread, I need to figure out what my costs for storage and delivery would be, so I can figure out if its viable business model or would end up being too expensive for my customers, making this a no go project.

  • Why not just go with a dedi? Aside from the more options you have with an actual server, you can (from some providers) just add more HDD’s

  • You need proper storage cluster, that allows your to go as you grow. If you want to take the “cheaper” route, build your own solution.

  • how about cloudflare stream? any experience?
    https://www.cloudflare.com/products/cloudflare-stream/

  • @PineappleBox said:
    Why not just go with a dedi? Aside from the more options you have with an actual server, you can (from some providers) just add more HDD’s

    No. This is definitely not what he's asking for. He is asking for seamless scaling up. Dedicated servers have limited ports and drive slots and upgrading drives requires copying data. He just wants an endless pool, which is not a dedicated server solution.

    @maxwell_
    Without knowing the use case, the bandwidth needs are unknown are therefore you're not going to get great responses.

    Generally, you start from an existing working service position, state your costs and know what resource you need and will cost the most. It doesn't matter if it's the cheapest solution if it's slow as fuck and customers don't want it.

  • thanks everyone for your replies!

  • There are lots of script which will help you to achieve.

    So, you dont have to go for large dedicated server with powerful cpu or RAM. Goto hetzner and pick a server that can have as many HDD or SSD in RAID 10.

    Since you provide cloud storage services, you need to have RAID10 to ensure data are safe.

    And in the script, you can add as many server you want as you scale.

  • alwyzonalwyzon Member, Host Rep
    edited July 2020

    @maxwell_ said:
    In broad terms, lets just say I'm building a dropbox kind of service, I need unlimited storage (not sold as unlimited, but not a vps/ded with a set gb drive, but unlimited growth) .

    Well, if you want to build something like Dropbox then you would need to build some software to seamlessly distribute the stored files over multiple servers and hard disks. If you expect others to provide you with such a storage services, I highly doubt that you can earn any profit by just adding a few features and resell that as your storage solution. The profit will mainly arise from the software that distributes the data over multiple physical servers.

    But, maybe I just miss-understood what exactly you are trying to build. Maybe all you are looking for is something like Amazon S3? Because there would exist open source replicas for that (see MinIO). Or, maybe you actually look for a self-hosted Dropbox? Then look at ownCloud, which also can be setup as a cluster consisting of multiple physical servers.

  • @alwyzon you got it, something like MinIO and S3 storage is what i am looking for.
    im not delusional, not cloning dropbox business, just used it as an example.

    figured it out though, going with backblaze b2 i think.

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