cloudHQ Blog

This weekend we have achieved a very important milestone:

From 1st of Jan 2012 till now, we have backed up and synchronized more than 30 million files (to be exact, 30713491 files).

Thank you for all your support!

Senad

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket…

Ensure that all your data from Basecamp is also in Dropbox, that all your Evernote notes all also in Google Drive, etc.

Protect your data in cloud by syncing with other cloud services.

New Feature: Basecamp Classic Multi-Level Folder Sync!

We’ve recently implemented a feature wherein you can sync Basecamp Classic with multi-level Dropbox or Sugarsync folders, as well as Google Docs collections!

You can keep your folder structures from different services intact and continuously synced with Basecamp projects. You can now sync Dropbox/Sugarsync folders or Google Docs collections with your Basecamp Classic attachments: if your folder or collection contains sub-folders, cloudHQ will automatically create Basecamp categories for those folders too.

So for example, if your folder or collection is set up this way:

For_project/
For_project/Photos/
For_project/Photos/Review_Main_Building/Photo1.jpg
For_project/Photos/Review_Main_Building/Photo2.jpg
For_project/Photos/Review_Outside/
For_project/Photos/Review_Damage/
For_project/Meeting Minutes/
For_project/Meeting Minutes/Staff Meetings/
For_project/Meeting Minutes/Staff Meetings/Metting1.doc
For_project/Meeting Minutes/Staff Meetings/Meeting2.doc
For_project/Meeting Minutes/Design Meetings/Metting3.doc
For_project/Meeting Minutes/Design Meetings/Meeting3.doc

…you can just sync the For_project folder with “Files (attached to Project)” and cloudHQ will do the rest for you: all the needed categories in Basecamp will be automatically created and organized.

What does this mean for you as a user?

So what does this do for you as a user? By maintaining your folder structures in Basecamp Classic, cloudHQ ensures that there is no need to re-create and reorganize your files just be sync’d with Basecamp, allowing you to be more flexible with your work documents across Dropbox, Sugarsync, or Google Docs. What’s more, all sub-folders and files are uploaded and kept continuously sync’d so there’s no need to worry.

How this can be used to improve your offering to your clients?

If you use Basecamp Classic to manage projects, you can use this new feature to improve your offering to your clients.

You can sync your Basecamp projects with your Dropbox and then share Dropbox folders with your clients so they can have access to their Basecamp projects also via Dropbox. This is an excellent way to share movies, videos, or similar. Your clients will think you’re a project management superhero :)

So you just need to setup sync of your Basecamp Classic account with Dropbox (via cloudHQ) and then share Dropbox folders which contains client’s projects (see more info how share here: https://www.dropbox.com/help/19). Thanks to cloudHQ, your Dropbox folders are kept sync’d with Basecamp: so whenever your clients adds or updates anything in Dropbox, it will be automatically sync’s with Basecamp and whatever you do in Basecamp your clients can see it also via Dropbox.

Sign up for cloudHQ today and enjoy this new feature and other benefits of having all your cloud services replicated, backed up, and synchronized in one easy-to-use interface.

cloudHQ - sync your cloud

All your Basecamp, Google Docs, Dropbox, SugarSync (and Box.net and Evernote are coming soon) files can be synchronized and ready for collaboration with cloudHQ. Don’t waste your precious time with coping, moving, uploading, and downloading your files.

Wouldn’t be nice to have your Basecamp TODO in Google Docs spreadsheet? Or all your Basecamp project files in Dropbox? Or Evernote notes in Google Docs?

The cloudHQ extension for Google Chrome has been upgraded to simplify backup and replication setup!

Now, you can setup synchronization and replication of any of your data between your Google Docs, Dropbox, Basecamp and other cloud services, directly from a Google Docs interface.

Easy set up synchronization or replication of your Google Docs files or collections with Dropbox, Basecamp, or SugarSync. You can even sync with another Google Docs account in seconds!
Sync your Dropbox, Basecamp, or SugarSync files and folders (Box.net and Evernote sync coming soon!) with Google Docs with a few clicks! For example, you can replicate a newly shared Dropbox folder or document directly into Google Docs.
Check the status and get a list of latest synchronized files directly from your Chrome extension - no need to visit cloudHQ.net!

Click here to install it.

I am looking for an add-on to Basecamp that will allow users to collaborate on documents such as Word, Exel, etc. in a way that allows only one copy to be checked out at a time (ala Sharepoint, etc.) Does cloudHQ allow us to do that? Thanks.

Anonymous

This is possible with cloudHQ:

sync Basecamp with Google Docs (here is how: http://blog.cloudhq.net/post/15352101373/how-to-sync-basecamp-and-dropbox)
collaborate on Documents using Google Docs

However, as somebody pointed out each upload by cloudHQ will generate a new version in Basecamp. We will add option to cloudHQ so that uploads can just overwrite the previous version of Basecamp file.

5 Reasons You Should Replicate Your Google Docs to Dropbox

You may be thinking to yourself, “Why should I backup Google Docs when it’s remotely hosted by Google?” It’s true that Google probably has some of the biggest and most secure servers on the planet, backed by billions of dollars, and maintained by hundreds of Googlers. The work documents you store on your Google Docs account are safe and hosted on the cloud, what could go wrong? This, apparently, has put a lot of users under a false sense of security and can be the catalyst for data loss that may be costly for both companies and freelancers.

Why risk it? There are a lot of factors that may compromise your data on Google Docs; from simple errors up to severe causes. We’ve discussed Google Docs and Data Loss before and can’t stress the urgency of backing up more. Be smart - Here are just five examples of why you should backup your Google Docs data:

Downtimes and outages – these happen occasionally: yes, even Google experiences downtimes and that may cause unavailability of your important work documents on Google Docs.

So even Google can experiences outages: it’s an uncontrollable factor – disasters may happen, and even Googlers maintaining the product might make an error.

Lack of Google technical support – let’s face it; Google gives us nifty tools like Google Docs for free, but technical support is not guaranteed. When you buy software, part of the package is the technical support they offer to users. Errors can and will happen and that’s part of customer retention. When you inexplicably lose your Google Docs due to a freak error, who do you go to? Sure, you can scour message boards and try to find the answer yourself, but you’re mostly left to fix the problem yourself.

To save yourself the headache, keeping a replica of all your documents to other cloud service is always a good thing. You can never be too secure when it comes to your work. When your boss asks you for the report, would you blame Google if you lost it?

Offline access – even with today’s proliferation of broadband and wireless connections, you can’t be sure that you’ll be able to access your Google Docs account. If the hotel or coffee shop you’re staying at doesn’t have Wi-Fi (or the connection is down), how will you be able to show your client your proposal on Google Docs? If you know that there’s a chance you’re not going to get online, there’s no excuse not to keep a backup of your files. Being prepared can be the difference between a sale and a frustrated client.

A single point of failure – a single point of failure is a part that will prevent the entire system from working if it fails. It is a clearly identifiable weakness that should be avoided in your company or work. In this case, relying solely on Google Docs for your files is the single point of failure – if in case you are not able to access the account or experience data loss, there is no other way to recover your documents.

Being proactive and replicating your files to Dropbox will allow you to secure your files and avoid the single point of failure. Why wait for calamity to strike? Start backing up your Google Docs and keep your peace of mind.

User error – Even with all the failsafes at Google and on your computer, uninterruptible power supplies at your office, and the latest technologies, user error is still the leading cause of data loss globally. According to an article on PCWorld, human error causes up to 25% of sensitive data loss for companies. It ranges from simple unsaved documents up to loss of sensitive customer data like credit card and personal information that could lead to millions of dollars in loss and lawsuits.
Whether it’s an accident or maliciously meant, data loss due to user errors are a big issue that companies and huge corporations deal with every year. For an individual, this could be equally as devastating because of the potential delays, costs, and headache involved with losing your precious data.

All this, and other factors make backing up your Google Docs data imperative. Don’t wait for the moment where you lose all your work because of these problems – start backing up your Google Docs data now. Keep a backup of your work on a USB flash drive, locally, or even better – on cloudHQ for Google Docs.

With cloudHQ, your files on Google Docs, Basecamp, or Dropbox are synch’d and kept secure continuously on all these cloud services. Edit your files on Google Docs and it’s automatically backed up on Dropbox AND locally. With an easy to use interface, there’s no learning curve involved: set it and forget it.

Now you can breathe a sigh of relief and avoid all these issues. Try cloudHQ today at www.cloudhq.net. Sign up today for a 15-day free trial at www.cloudhq.net and experience cloudHQ for yourself.

The future computer – not a desktop or a laptop but cloud

When you hear the word ‘computer’, your mind conjures images of the desktop PC back home or the laptop you use at work. People you know and those you come across will probably think the same way, but here at cloudHQ, we think differently.

All the way back in the 1990s we had a vision – the vision of a ‘liquid’ computer (the term ‘cloud computing’ didn’t exist, so we used the term ‘liquid’ to describe this idea).

Our vision is happening already. Now, companies data; your data and your documents don’t exist on your local hard drive – they’re on cloud services like Google Docs,Dropbox, and Basecamp.

Recently, Dropbox raised $180 of million in funding on $4 billion valuation. Is it the return of the dot com bubble? Highly unlikely. We at cloudHQ believe that in the future, all your data will be on the cloud and more companies will migrate their data in into the cloud. In near future, everyone and every company will have some (if not all) data and information in numerous cloud services. Given that, it’s no surprise that investors are pouring money into Dropbox and companies like it.

However, the increasing amount of fragmented cloud services will pose a problem soon: similar to how, in the database world, companies had data in multiple databases from different vendors. And that is why cloudHQ has the vision to simplify management of all your data on the cloud by synchronizing and replicating data between services. Just like how GoldenGate Software solved the problem of synchronizing and replicating data from NSK Tandem databases with Oracle Database and then become the leader in database synchronization and replications, we believe that cloudHQ will become a leader in synchronization between cloud services – the services which make your ‘liquid’ computer.

Editing Dropbox (and Basecamp) txt files inside Google Docs

We had a bug that, for some accounts, Dropbox and Basecamp txt files were not converted into Google Docs format. So these txt files were not editable in Google Docs.

We have fixed the problem and now converting of txt wiles to Google Docs format works for ALL accounts.

This also means that our Google Chrome Extension will be allow you to edit any Dropbox and Basecamp txt files directly from a Google Docs interface.

cloudHQ Team.

How to sync Basecamp and Dropbox?

If you want to sync Dropbox and Basecamp, the best is to sync your entire Basecamp account with a dedicated Dropbox folder and then you can just put files into <folder_name>/<project_name>/Files (attached to Project)/<category name> and new files will automatically uploaded to Basecamp.

Here is how to accomplish this:

Go to Synchronization tab. Click on “Add Synchronization Pair”. That will take you to https://cloudHQ.net/dropbox/synch_wizard
Click on Basecamp icon
Select your Basecamp account or enter your Basecamp credentials

Now, just select top-level Basecamp folder: this folder contains all projects, files and messages in your Basecamp account. Or you could select just a project or portion of a project.
Click on Dropbox icon
In next step, select your Dropbox account or authorize new one
Now, create a new Dropbox folder which will be dedicated for Basecamp project. So click on “Create Folder” and create a new folder. You can name this folder “Dropbox_Basecamp”
Then select the newly created collection (that is folder “Dropbox_Basecamp” created in previous step) and press “Select Folder’.
Start the sync

Now, cloudHQ will copy your Basecamp data into the Dropbox folder “Dropbox_Basecamp” and create the required folder structure.

So, wait for the first sync to finish; You will receive an email.

Now, you can just move or copy files you want to upload to Basecamp into “ Dropbox_Basecamp/<project_name>/Files (attached to Project)/<category name>/” folder. And these files will be automatically uploaded to Basecamp. And each time you modify these files, a new version of the file will be uploaded to Basecamp.