Seagate Personal Hybrid Cloud Drives From 3TB to 8TB

Seagate Technology plc unveiled two storage products for the home, Personal Cloud and Personal Cloud 2-Bay.

Personal Cloud provides the accessibility of cloud storage with the peace of mind that content is stored safely at home. What differentiates these two Personal Cloud drives apart is how easily they can stream content to smartphones, set-top boxes, tablets, PCs or televisions via the Media application. Additionally, when used in conjunction with the Mobile Backup app and Dashboard software, it also serves as a central backup device for PCs, Mac computers, USB drives, iOS and Android mobile devices.

Personal Cloud demystifies the often frustrating process of finding, accessing and enjoying photos, videos and music on the device of your choice. Once connected to a wireless router and after a free download of the Media app, users will be treated to an intuitive, media-rich browsing experience that makes playback of content an effortless experience. With number of compatible platforms, the Media apps support the following devices:

• TVs and Blu-ray players: LG Smart TVs (2012 or later) and Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players (2012 models or later with SmartHub)

• Streaming media players: Roku, Google Chromecast, and Apple TV (via Apple AirPlay)

• Smartphones: iPhone, Android

• Tablets: iPad, Android, Kindle, Windows 8/RT

Personal Cloud can stream directly to DLNA-based devices, including the PlayStation 3 or later, and Xbox 360 or later.

When away from home, users will have the ability to securely retrieve and share content stored on the Personal Cloud drive. By way of the Media app, users can browse and enjoy content directly from their Personal Cloud drive in the same manner they would do when at home.

For those who are comfortable with storing their data in public cloud services, Personal Cloud drives can be configured to complement a public cloud service with two types of applications, backup and synchronization. Personal Cloud drives can be set up to automatically backup to popular providers including Amazon S3, Box, Baidu, DropBox, Google Drive, HiDrive and Yandex.Disk, while delivering an additional level of offsite protection. Alternatively, a synchronization option is available for Baidu, DropBox and Google Drive for those who simply need a secondary copy of their most current data from their service.

“Given the abundance of handheld computing devices there has been a trend of accessing content and content via cloud storage,” said Stephen Baker, VP, industry analysis, NPD Group. “A product like the Seagate Personal Cloud offers a new approach at cloud storage allowing consumers to take advantage of low-cost cloud opportunities while still remaining in control of their content and access it from anywhere.“

Recognizing that storage needs will continue to evolve, Seagate designed Personal Cloud devices with a built-in app manager that enables the ability to install additional features after purchase. An app-store like experience delivers a variety of apps including WordPress, BitTorrent Sync and ElephantDrive. Seagate has also created a software development kit (SDK) for its app manager to enable 3rd party developers to create new use cases.

Personal Cloud is designed to automatically and continuously backup every computer in the home. For Windows-based PCs and Mac computers, the Dashboard software provides a way to protect content. Personal Cloud devices work with Apple Time Machine software.

Personal Cloud 2-Bay
The Personal Cloud 2-bay device is for users that want more than one backup of their content in the unlikely event of a drive failure. The 2-bay-designed with two internal drives-is configured out-of-the-box to automatically duplicate all content stored on one drive to a secondary drive for double protection. Alternatively, for users that are seeking maximum capacity, the Personal Cloud 2-bay product can be re-configured by the user into a single volume of storage.

Personal cloud will be shipping to retailers later this month in 3TB, 4TB, and 5TB capacities. Seagate Personal cloud 2-Bay will be available in 4TB, 6TB and 8TB capacities.