Hostway Launches Cloud Drive and Cloud Backup

Hostway has introduced its new Cloud Drive and Cloud Backup services

Web hosting provider Hostway announced on Tuesday it has introduced its new Cloud Drive and Cloud Backup services which enable small businesses to store, access, share and protect their private business data across any device with cloud solutions.

The announcement comes a week after Hostway partnered with Parallels to offer APS integration of its flagship public cloud hosting suite, FlexCloud Server.

Seamlessly integrated as part of Hostway’s portfolio of applications, Cloud Drive and Cloud Backup simplifies the management of online services for small businesses.

Using these new applications, small businesses will be able to manage their web and email hosting, marketing, file storage, backup and recovery within a single solution.

All of Hostway’s Cloud Drive and Cloud Backup data resides within the company’s own data centers in the U.S. and Canada, ensuring greater security and reliability.

“There’s a lot of buzz about the cloud, but for many small businesses, it’s hard for them to make the benefits of cloud applicable to their business,” said Melissa Mangan, senior director of product management with Hostway. “To close that gap, these products include an extremely user-friendly interface that makes it simple for anyone to store, stream and backup data in the cloud. Plus, integrating these cloud tools with your website hosting streamlines all of a business’s online needs into one cohesive system accessible through a single, common interface.”

Using Cloud Drive and Cloud Backup, small businesses can manage their entire hosting, storage and backup through a single Hostway account interface, with combined billing and 24-hour technical support provided by Hostway.

New and existing FlexCloud Pro customers are initially provided with 1GB of free storage. Both products can be added to any hosting plan, while additional users and storage can always be added.

With the built-in music and video players and photo slide show, users can stream any media content stored in Cloud Drive on any device.

Additionally, users can share files with others with the “Get a Link” URL generator that creates a secure link for sharing files via email or social media.

Files can be password protected for security, and users can easily open, edit and move files in the cloud.

Cloud Backup’s automation ensures that users can schedule routine backups to run at any interval or use real-time backup to immediately sync saved changes in any file automatically to the cloud, making it more secure and reliable than conventional, single on-site hard drive backups.

In October, Hostway launched its new Vancouver Cloud hosting environment, expanding the company’s public cloud environment for complete coast-to-coast access in North America.

Talk back: Are you planning on using the new Cloud Drive and Cloud Backup products? Do you think these new products will help drive Hostway as a cloud services leader? Let us know in a comment.

About Justin Lee

Justin Lee has been a staff analyst with theWHIR since 2004. He writes about a range of web hosting and IT-related issues facing the industry on the WHIR website, as well the print version of the WHIR magazine. Follow him on Twitter @Justin_theWHIR.