ABSTRACT
Recently, with the advancement in technology, there has been a drastic change in the way information is shared over the internet. This involves the various channels in which files can be stored and shared. Cloud sharing is a relatively new technology advancement which has been steadily taking over more and more market share in the past three years. The cloud file sharing technique makes users share files among each other with ease, easy to setup, and open-source. Cloud file sharing is publicized as the next major step for all forms of typical information technology use. From businesses, to non-profit organizations, to single users, there seems to be various applications which can use cloud file sharing or storage in daily computer usage, to offer a better, faster, and smarter way to share important document. This paper aims to build a cloud based file sharing application, offering users the power to share files via cloud networks in the palm of their hand.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
File sharing has been a means of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, these information could be computer programs, multimedia files like (audio, images and video), documents, or digital books. The Phrase "cloud computing" is defined as a framework or sort of programming application. Cloud computing is on high request and saves a lot of cost in processing and adaptability, high-accessibility, and decreased data usage. Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a case of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) stage. It offers fundamental foundation segment, for example, CPUs, memory, and capacity. Google App Engine is a case of PaaS (Platform as a Service) stage. In Distributed computing stage Cloud server is a physical server. In light of IaaS and PaaS stages, a lot of time and money have been saved for start-up companies, such as foursquare and dropbox. Cloud computing is a technology that utilizes the web and central remote servers to keep up applications and data storage. One significant challenge is the manner by which to move these conventional applications to the cloud. This research focuses on the migration of specific flies of any size, from the local storage device to a cloud based system with more security, and can be easily accessed at any part of the world.
The cloud computing is developing quickly for it offers on-demand computing power and capacity. The power of cloud computing empowers dynamic adaptability of utilizations confronting different methods of file transfer in our advanced technology age. However, challenges emerge while considering the enormous amount of files to be shared. In this research, we propose moving of flies, from the traditional FTP service to the cloud. We execute FTP file transfer on Windows Azure Platform alongside the auto-scaling cloud feature. Furthermore, we implement a benchmark to study the performance of our Cloud sharing system. This research focuses on designing and implementing a cloud file sharing system, the potential benefits and technical issues associated with sharing of files easily for easy retrieval.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The essential challenges faced with the conventional way of file sharing, management and storage techniques (such as manual filing or sharing of images, documents etc) is that users have little control over –or even knowledge the type of file being shared, if it contains a virus. Also, users do not or sometimes don’t remember the names of these files, the files contents, and their storage locations, this increases the risk of lost.
There may also be irregularities during file sharing, this could be lack of connectivity strength, device compatibility and other human factors. The cloud based file sharing system will be an effective way to share files over the internet and give other usage access to view or manage the uploaded files easily at any part of the globe via the internet.
1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main aim of this research, is the Implementation and design of a cloud based file sharing system for easy sharing on a secured platform, with the following objectives:
- Users can easily host, store and backup data, with high-performance computing easy to retrieve.
- Files can be accessed without any limiting factor, example device compatibilities.
- Availability of flies at any time. Cloud computing offers availability difficulties experienced in the conventional way of file sharing.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of the research is focused on designing and implementing a Cloud based file sharing system, which will represent as a platform for file sharing, information storage and dissemination.
1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
One of the major limitation of the study is - The internet, which is the only way to cloud computing. When there is no internet connection, the internet path to the cloud file sharing system is in trouble, automatically access to your cloud files can only be accessed when connected to the internet, and in most part of the world, internet cost is high.
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
- Cloud computing- the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.
- Internet - an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world.
- File sharing - File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia, documents or electronic books.
- FTP - The File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used for the transfer of computer files between a client and server on a computer network.
- Cloud server - A cloud server is a virtual server (rather than a physical server) running in a cloud computing environment. It is built, hosted and delivered via a cloud computing platform via the internet, and can be accessed remotely.
- Dropbox - Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud.
