Editing files remotely on network storage

[rmatei]

I would love to have a fat RAID drive array sitting somewhere on the Internet, and just use it for media storage -- essentially I want to play and edit files transparently whether I'm at work or at home.

Is this possible? I'm looking at various NAS solutions like ReadyNAS, and while they all tout iTunes streaming and FTP access, I'd like to go a step further and have the files accessible as if they were on a local hard drive - and without local caching like Dropbox, as we're talking about terabytes of media, not a few documents.

 

[Rhyled]

Possible, but expensive

Technically, it's possible to do what you describe.

There are a couple of expensive gotchas in actually implementing such a scheme.

First, to store and edit files on the NAS (Network Attached Storage), you need a substantial upstream speed on your internet connection. Most consumer level ADSL/cable internet connections have download speeds 10-30times faster than uploads. E.g. my cable connection has 6 Mbps downloads, but only 0.25 Mbps uploads.

Anyone who has ever uploaded a video to YouTube is familiar with what this means in practice - uploading a 2 minute video can take > 1 hour, whereas you can download it (watch it) in real time. Editing files (especially the saves) can be frustratingly slow.

Second, bandwidth can get expensive if you're talking terabytes of downloads. Most internet hosting services have monthly download limits (in the TB/month range) for their inexpensive accounts.

Yes, it is possible (think YouTube), but not cheap.