Kickstarter Campaign: Nanohive - Personal Server and Personal Cloud

Concept is cool, but that is a really ugly looking device...

I'll pass on this one. Yet another me2 product throwing around buzzwords like cloud. Just call it the personal server and leave it at that, don't insult our intelligence.

What we call our "cloud" is as a way to access files stored over the web, with encryption, with yourself and people you create permissions for.  This is different than what is typically called a "web server" for http.  Ultimately everything is stored on a server whether you are storing your information on Box or Nanohive so the difference is semantics.

As far as the exterior shell, remember that we are on Kickstarter to further the development of the product. If you look on our Kickstarter page one of the things we mention with regards to this is redesigning the exterior case. What you see now is what we call a "sketch model" in the design world.

Thanks!

What we call our "cloud" is as a way to access files stored over the web, with encryption, with yourself and people you create permissions for.  This is different than what is typically called a "web server" for http.  Ultimately everything is stored on a server whether you are storing your information on Box or Nanohive so the difference is semantics.

As far as the exterior shell, remember that we are on Kickstarter to further the development of the product. If you look on our Kickstarter page one of the things we mention with regards to this is redesigning the exterior case. What you see now is what we call a "sketch model" in the design world.

Thanks!

The fact that you think semantics is the difference between a cloud and a server is embarrassing. People like you who get into the tech industry with no understanding of tech are the worst.

A cloud is scalable, you need to have virtualization for it to be a cloud. Since you are in the business of talking down to people, I'll simplify it for you. A cloud grows, a server does not. They both have a way for you to access resources from anywhere. Your product does not grow, therefore you are not a cloud and continue to make me lose respect for you with your tone.

And before you say something ill-informed again...no, having a couple of USB ports does not make a cloud.

I'm rather confused what makes this different from several other commercially available products already on the market.

While the kickstarter cost is less, the others certainly have consumer 'peace of mind' that they have support, proven technology and all the other things associated with commercial devices.

I don't think 8GB is anything to advertise, since I regularly carry a 32GB in my pocket, so without adding an external drive (adding more $) you really have a limited use device.

I'm also very unsure why you use the term 'cloud', since its not in some inaccessible data warehouse, buried in the interweb thingy.

Its just a NAS that (assuming your router allows) will let you access the files while you're not on the home network.

(This also goes for the commercial products I've seen)

The term 'server' used to mean a high powered device that was designed to run 24/7, had plenty of grunt, and various redundancy inbuilt,  to allow multiple users access to programs and data.

Now the lowliest of devices can 'serve' files etc, and IMO this device doesn't appear to much more than that.

I also presume that you will be making the supply prongs suit the various countries, and subjecting it to electrical conformance tests in order to meet the necessary legal requirements for domestic appliances.

This is often why some low volume manufacturers choose external power packs ... it makes their life easier.

Thanks

Mark

I'm amazed if there is any target market for it.

Like you say, a NAS at best (and underperforming with 8GB and no high-speed disk interface), and as a 'server' it is very sub-optimal for serving files or applications in any scaleable and reliable manner for the reasons you describe.

I'd be interested to know out of curiosity, is it really a complete board redesign replacing the Odroid in their prototype? Sounds a significant effort for 1000 devices. The snippet of PCB layout on the kickstarter page doesn't look like state-of-the-art for a single-board-computer. It looks like a bunch of passive components.

Perhaps they are constructing a PCB for (say) the power supply and some ancillary functionality, and reusing a pre-built SBC? Not that it improves the end product, but just curious.

Thanks for your response.

I want to clarify that we do not believe that semantics are the only difference between a cloud a server and in no way intended to speak down or be condescending.

Although we are a start-up, we are not people with no understanding of tech. If you check out our Kickstarter page you can see that our 2 engineers very much a part of the tech world.
Our main engineer and tech guru is a former employee of Intel (among many other things) and is, in part, responsible for some of the most ubiquitous technology found in today's (and tomorrows) computers and processors.

All of the responses that you read go through him prior to posting and are far from ill-informed.

We don't mean to "insult anyone's intelligence" and just want to convey to you that we know what we are doing.

Hi Mark, We're aware of NAS products which offer similar functionality but we've really intended this to be a simple and minimum-cost method of hosting files and websites. We've designed to keep power consumption low and make a device which is small and out of the way.  To keep costs down we've had to stick with 8GB. We do refer to this data as available on the cloud due to its remote accessibility but as you said the term usually implies a separation between the user and the storage medium. 

Thanks

Thanks for your inquiry. 

We don't claim this will replace large web servers but we do see a market for people with lower traffic requirements who would like to avoid hosting fees.  We decided to design the PCB from the start to control cost by enabling us to design in only the features we needed and avoid the mark-up of SBC companies.

Thanks again

Thanks for the response.

And the power regulations bit ??

mark

Yes, we have plans to implement stretch goals that will include worldwide compatibility.

Thank you