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Win An Ipad

VPS.Net are giving away an Ipad.

For you chance to win all you have to do is send them a postcard (presumably a local one). We believe this competition is open to everyone from all countries. It is also open to users that do not currently use VPS.Net.

Not only that you will get $10 off your next hosting bill (or $10 off your first month if you are a new customer).

The Rules Are:

• The post card MUST be post marked by June 4th.
• It has to feature a location or land mark.
• Your email address must be on the post card.
• Only one email address can be on each post card.
• One $10 discount per client.

For more information click here.

We have searched the Internet to show you that a range of sites can use Cloud Files whatever the content is.

Homeoogle

Homeoogle Screenshot

Homeoogle allows you to customize your Google™ homepage with wallpapers. All the wallpapers appear to use Rackspace Cloud Files.

homeoogle.com

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Tweetmeme

tweetmeme.com Screenshot

TweetMeme is a service which aggregates all the popular links on Twitter to determine which links are popular. Tweetmeme seems to be using a mixture of Amazon s3 and Rackspace Cloud Files.

tweetmeme.com

We are having trouble finding more examples of CDN Files Clouds. Do you own a site that uses a CDN Files Cloud? Let us know and we’ll put your site up here! Contact us below:

Rackspace Cloud Logo

You may have seen our previous blog post here for uploading files to Rackspace Cloud using the PHP API. Despite the relatively easy script it wasn’t plain sailing for us and we had to troubleshoot a number of errors. We wanted to share our fixes with you as we couldn’t find any resolutions on Google.

The first error we got was;

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'InvalidResponseException' with message 'Unexpected response (): ' in /home/uname/public_html/rackspaceupload/cloudapi/cloudfiles.php:206 Stack trace: #0 /home/uname/public_html/rackspaceupload/upload.php(12): CF_Authentication->authenticate() #1 {main} thrown in /home/uname/public_html/rackspaceupload/cloudapi/cloudfiles.php on line 206

Now from the error message you would assume that it has something to do with your username or API key due to it mentioning the authentication function. Although if it was an issue with authentication you would probably see ‘AuthenticationException’ as the exception. In this case we found that Curl Open SSL was not installed despite having Curl installed. So ask your server administrator to install it for you if you receive this error.

Another big error we got was;

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'BadContentTypeException' with message 'Required Content-Type not set' in /home/uname/public_html/rackspaceupload/cloudapi/cloudfiles.php:1645 Stack trace: #0 /home/uname/public_html/rackspaceupload/cloudapi/cloudfiles.php(1962): CF_Object->_guess_content_type('/tmp/phpyese5G') #1 /home/uname/public_html/rackspaceupload/upload.php(19): CF_Object->load_from_filename('/tmp/phpyese5G') #2 {main} thrown in /home/uname/public_html/rackspaceupload/cloudapi/cloudfiles.php  on line 1645

This error took us a very long time to figure out, with some help from Rackspace Support we finally reached a resoltuion. We solved this by doing two things, first we installed the PECL Fileinfo Module, this module is to get file information, we the needed to install the PHP module ‘mod_mime_magic’. This then solved this issue and we can now upload to Rackspace Cloud.

Got another error? Having trouble resolving these errors? Fell free to leave a comment below and we will offer you any advice that we can.

Rackspace Cloud Logo

Uploading Files to Rackspace Cloud using PHP (Aka Mosso)

Uploading files directly from a PHP script to Rackspace Cloud is actually easier than you might think although there are not many tutorials for this kind of script, so we thought we’d share the information. We have also included the source code for this tutorial.

1. First you will need a Rackspace Cloud Account, if you don’t have one, sign up here.
2. Once you have a Rackspace Cloud Account you will need to download the Rackspace Cloud API, these are available here. For this tutorial you will need to download the PHP API.
3. Extract and upload the folder and rename it to something sensible, we will rename it to “cloudapi”.
4. Next we need a simple upload script, written in HTML:

<form action="upload.php" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="POST">
File: <input name="uploadfile" type="file" />
<input name="submit" type="submit" value="Upload" />
</form>

1. Now we have the upload script we need the upload.php code:

<?php
// include the Cloud API.
require('cloudapi/cloudfiles.php');

//Required username and API key found in your account
$username = ""; //Username
$key = ""; //API key

//Connecting to Rackspace Cloud
$auth = new CF_Authentication($username, $key);
$auth->authenticate();
$conn = new CF_Connection($auth);

//Set the Container you want to use
$container = $conn->get_container('INSERTCONTAINERNAME');

//Temp store the file
$localfile = $_FILES['uploadfile']['tmp_name'];
$filename = $_FILES['uploadfile']['name'];

//Uploading to Rackspace Cloud
$object = $container->create_object($filename);
$object->load_from_filename($localfile);

//Completion Message
echo "Your file has been uploaded";
?>

1. We will now run through the above code;

• Line 03- ensure this file exists and the path is correct.
• Line 06 & 07 – You will need to enter your Rackspace Cloud API key, this can be found in your account at Your Account -> API Access.
• Line 15 – Insert your container name here, case may matter, so keep and eye out for your Capital Letters.

Download the Source Code Here.

Getting errors? Keep an eye out for our new blog post over the next couple of days where we will discuss errors and issues we had when trying to run this script and how you can solve them.

Edit

Tip:

For those folks with UK Rackspace accounts, you’ll need to use the following call when creating the $auth object:

$auth = new CF_Authentication($username, $key, NULL, UK_AUTHURL);

(as of v.1.7.9)

The reason being is that there are two different authentication URL’s for each client base.

Thanks to Anh for this tip.

Rackspace Cloud Logo

We here at Clloud, have heard a rumour that Rackspace Cloud will soon we releasing a revamped version of their control panel, probably within the next couple of months, which is suggested could include long awaited features such as CNAME support.

We are unsure at the moment if the revamped control panel will be for both Cloud Server and Cloud Files users, or if it will just affect Cloud Files users. We expect that it will be both with hopefully a wide range of new features.

When we find out more information we will update you all.

Happy Clloud’ing!

Rackspace Cloud IPhone Application Review

The Rackspace Cloud Iphone Application is Free of charge and is available from the App store.The Application allows you to connect to your account to manage your Cloud Servers and Cloud Files. We will be testing the Cloud Files part of the app in this blog post. You will need a Rackspace Cloud Account BEFORE using this App.

You will need to get your username and API key from your Rackspace Cloud Account, this is available in ‘Your Account -> API Access’. When you load up the app you will be asked to input these details. (The API is very long unfortunately, happy typing). Once you’ve done that it will authenticate your account…

Rackspace Cloud App Authenticating

Once you’ve logged in it will show you your Cloud Servers, if you have any, but we will continue to Cloud Files using the button in the bottom right. You will then see all your containers, for this example we will create a new container called ‘test’.

Rackspace Cloud App Containers

If we go into the container at the moment it will obviously have no files. With the Rackspace Cloud App you are able to upload images from your gallery or straight from your camera.

Rackspace Cloud App Upload

We will upload an image that we took earlier..

Rackspace Cloud App Uploading

Usually it will complete quickly depending on if you are connected to Wifi or not. We were connected to Wifi at this time so it uploaded within 10 seconds, although if you are only on 3G it will take longer. Once it has uploaded you can view it straight from the App.

Rackspace Cloud App Uploaded File

Our Review

The Rackspace Cloud App is a great addition to Rackspace’s current line up, with a lot of the features that the online control panel has. We would like to see a few more statistics in there (usage etc) and perhaps billing but you can’t complain, it’s free. Well worth the download.

Remember to check out our review of Rackspace Cloud Files!

http://c1126332.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/rscloudapp4.png

Rackspace Cloud App Uploading

CloudLayer Storage Review

General Information

“CloudLayer Storage data is safely stored to SoftLayer’s advanced StorageLayer^TM solution, which integrates industry-leading technologies-including FTP/NAS, iSCSI, EVault, and others-into a unified storage environment for the ultimate level of security and reliability.”

Prices

Our Usage

Because of reasons below we decided to test out CloudLayer by using it as more of a download service rather than a file resource for our site.

Our Review

At the time of writing, CloudLayer require you to sign up to a monthly plan, then, after the first month you can move to a Pay As You Go plan. As we were unsure of our usage we decided to switch to Pay As You Go at $0.25/GB Storage and $0.10/GB Bandwidth. The bandwidth charged on CloudLayer is good in comparison to Rackspace and Amazon, although Storage is slightly on the higher side. The question is: Is it worth it?

We had issues signing up to the service, although we believe this was due to a techincal error on the sign up system. There was also an issue receiving their emails which we believe was a one off and that the problem should now be resolved. The Sales team on Live Chat were fantastic although this was shortlived bu the disappointing lack of technical support with no reply to our email query after 2 days (using a different email to the one that was having issues receiving their emails), for this reason we have marked them down.

There are a few main differences between CloudLayer Storage and other Cloud Files services. The first one is that, at the moment, there are no tools (eg Firefox Extensions) available so the only option you have for managing your service is through the CloudLayer Storage Control Panel. The Control Panel is good, and may take a bit of searching at first to find out all the options, but I believe there is a user manual available.

There is one downside (a big one in our opinion) which is that you have to select individual files to ‘Make Public’ rather than having a public container like you do with Rackspace or Amazon. This becomes an issue if you wanted to automatically share all files in a folder or if you upload a large amount of files. So for this reason we were forced to use this storage cloud in a slightly different way than we tested the others and we used it as a download resourse rather than a file resource.

Speed wise CloudLayer appears to be quick and we haven’t experienced any downtime at the time of writing. Speed seems to be very similar to other cloud hosting companies, although have have found uploading via the control panel can be a little slow at times.

The Iphone App – We have also tested the Iphone App and it works a lot like the Control Panel allowing you to upload files straight from your Iphone. You can also view/edit/delete other files you currently have in your account.

More Information

Click here to visit CloudLayer Storage

Screenshots

Layersoft Cloud Storage Screenshot 1

Layersoft Cloud Storage Screenshot 2

Amazon Storage Cloud (Amazon S3) Review

General Information

“Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers.”

Prices

Our Usage

We tested Amazon S3 Storage Cloud with similar stats as we tested Rackspace Cloud Files.

Our Review

We found that Amazon S3 has a tendancy to leave you in the dark when you originally sign up. A sign up is needed first for an Amazon Web Services account, to then be followed by another account needing opened for the Amazon S3 account. Once the sign up is confirmed, you will not be told anything else, you just confirm your details leave it at that. There is also no control panel, however, they do provide you with documentation.

We chose the S3Fox Organizer FireFox add-on to manage our Amazon S3 account, which is very similar to the tools used with other Cloud Storage providers, but first, to enable the FireFox Plugin to talk to Amazon S3, you will need to get hold of your API key and secret key. This proved to be a large task as we spent at least 5 minutes trying to locate it. Eventually we found it in Account -> Security Credentials -> Access Keys. Once we connected the account up everything seemed okay and very similar to using similar tools with other providers.

Prices vary depending on how much you are storing, but for the majority of people, and us, we will be using less than 50TB of data, therefore comes in at the same price as Rackspace’s Cloud Files $0.15/GB, but it does have one of the lower data transfer rates also at $0.15/GB.

Although we haven’t used Amazon Technical Support due to a lack of problems, we can see that they do not offer free direct technical support. They have a service called AWS Premium Support which would leave you at least $100 out of pocket and unless you are on the $400+ plan (Gold Plan) you do not even get 24 x 7 x 365 support which would be free from other Cloud service providers. Free support only includes a Resource Center, Service Health Dashboard, Technical FAQs, and Developer Forums. This is certainly where other Cloud Storage providers have the upper hand on Amazon S3.

The speed seems parrallel to other storage clouds and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them on a normal internet connection.

More Information

Click here to go to Amazon S3

Screenshots

Amazon S3 Screenshot 1

Rackspace Cloud Files Review

General Information

“Rackspace Cloud Files offers:

• Use as much or as little storage as you want and pay as you grow
• Store files as small as a few bytes or as large as 5 GB
• High performance, redundant online storage starting at 15 cents a GB
• Serve media to your users around the globe – fast!
• Utilize CDN bandwidth starting at only 22 cents a GB
• Sign up with no minimum commitments or contracts”

Prices

Our Usage

Remember for this test we have only tested Rackspace’s Cloud Files not Rackpaces Cloud Servers. For our tests we were using around 16GB/month on Cloud Files on one of our more popular sites where a large number of images are stored, currently around 66,000 requests a month with nearly 4000 files coming in at 0.40GB total in size.

Our Review

For the above statistics we were charged a total of around $5. The cost taking into account how much a dedicated server would cost is very little so we can then host the rest of our site on very low powered Shared Hosting Account, VPS or dedicated server with little bandwidth or hard drive space. Therefore it is a financially viable way to host your files.

In relation to speed, Rackspace Cloud Files appear to load as quick as, if not quicker than, images of an equal size elsewhere. We will carry out proper speed tests in due course.

Rackspace support respond to their support tickets promptly, usually within ‘working hours’, and responses are generally very informative. They also have a live chat support feature which allows access to instant support. (This has currently been untested by ourselves, meaning we are unable to comment on this so far, however, when we use this facility, our thoughts will be reported on here)

We quite like that Rackspace Cloud File comes with a control panel to allow you to manage your files, unlike Amazon’s S3 that throws you in at the deep end so-to-speak and expects you to find your own tools. We found that fireuploader (firefox plugin) is a great tool to use with Rackspace Cloud Files.

Unfortunately at the moment Rackspace Cloud Files does not support Cname, for more detailed information on Cname use a reliable search engine, but for now it basically means that you are unable to to make the file ‘appear’ to come from your domain. After talking with Rackspace Support, they have informed me that this feature is due to be implemented in Q2 of 2010. We will keep you updated on this.

Update – We have just tested the Rackspace Cloud Iphone App. You can see the review here.

More Information

Click here to go to Rackspace Cloud

Screenshots