Wuala
Encyclopedia
Wuala is a secure online storage, file synchronization
, versioning and backup
, service, originally developed and run by Caleido Inc., which is now part of LaCie
. Service is a combination of:
(ETH) in Zürich
.
14 August 2008: an "open beta"-java-applet, available from the website, could be run from a web browser
.
19 September 2008: the Wuala Webstart project was registered on SourceForge.net.
26 October 2008: an Alpha release REST
API, at a very early stage of development, supported HTTP GET requests for content that was either public, or shared through a keyed hyperlink.
16 December 2008: the Uniform Resource Locator changed from http://wua.la/ to http://www.wuala.com/ and files that were public, or shared through a keyed hyperlink, were made accessible through web browsers.
19 March 2009: LaCie
announced a merger with Caleido AG. Wuala describe the merger as between Wuala and LaCie (not Caleido AG and LaCie).
5 January 2010: post-merger announcement of the first joint products.
23 May 2011: all pro features - backup, sync, file versioning and time travel - are available for everyone at no cost
28 September 2011: we are discontinuing the "trade storage" feature.
Registered and unregistered users can:
When a user adds a file to Wuala, or saves changes to a file that is served by Wuala, the user's local copy of file is:
Users of joint products may start with greater amounts of storage for a limited period:
Additional storage may be bought, gained through referral.
For bought storage: prices range from 19 EUR/year for 10 GB to 229 EUR/year for 250 GB.
. Additional features come through integration.
A registered user can install the Java-based client application:
, on a computer that has Java installed:
If the computer is without Java, or if running of the class loader is prevented:
-128 for encryption and RSA-2048 for key exchange and signatures. Keys are organized in a key management scheme called Cryptree.
According to the FAQ, Wuala employs full client-side encryption
. All files and their metadata get encrypted before they are uploaded. The encryption key is stored such that no one, not even LaCie
that operates the service, can decrypt the stored files. The disadvantage of this is that Wuala has no password recovery and all data processing needs to be done in the client (for example creating a search index). The advantage is significantly improved privacy.
Since the source code to Wuala has not been released, it is difficult to ensure that the software does what it states it does (including proper client-side encryption
). Also, updates are pushed automatically to the client machine. These facts mean that users of Wuala are not safe from possible backdoors in code.
File synchronization
File synchronization in computing is the process of ensuring that computer files in two or more locations are updated via certain rules....
, versioning and backup
Backup
In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
, service, originally developed and run by Caleido Inc., which is now part of LaCie
LaCie
LaCie is a computer hardware company specializing in external hard drives, RAID arrays, optical drives, Flash Drives, and computer monitors. The company markets several lines of hard drives with a capacity of up to many terabytes of data, with a choice of interfaces...
. Service is a combination of:
- data centres that are provided by Wuala in multiple European countries (France, Germany, Switzerland)
- the Wuala cloud — distributed data storage that is provided by users who trade storage. This feature has been dropped.
History
Most research and development occurred at the Swiss Federal Institute of TechnologyETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
(ETH) in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
.
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
.
19 September 2008: the Wuala Webstart project was registered on SourceForge.net.
26 October 2008: an Alpha release REST
Rest
Rest may refer to:* Leisure* Human relaxation* SleepRest may also refer to:* Rest , a pause in a piece of music* Rest , the relation between two observers* Rest , a 2008 album by Gregor Samsa...
API, at a very early stage of development, supported HTTP GET requests for content that was either public, or shared through a keyed hyperlink.
16 December 2008: the Uniform Resource Locator changed from http://wua.la/ to http://www.wuala.com/ and files that were public, or shared through a keyed hyperlink, were made accessible through web browsers.
19 March 2009: LaCie
LaCie
LaCie is a computer hardware company specializing in external hard drives, RAID arrays, optical drives, Flash Drives, and computer monitors. The company markets several lines of hard drives with a capacity of up to many terabytes of data, with a choice of interfaces...
announced a merger with Caleido AG. Wuala describe the merger as between Wuala and LaCie (not Caleido AG and LaCie).
5 January 2010: post-merger announcement of the first joint products.
23 May 2011: all pro features - backup, sync, file versioning and time travel - are available for everyone at no cost
28 September 2011: we are discontinuing the "trade storage" feature.
Features
Any registered user can:- keep files private
- share files with other registered users
- share files with unregistered users, through a keyed hyperlinkHyperlinkIn computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
- publish files
- backupBackupIn information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
- file synchronizationFile synchronizationFile synchronization in computing is the process of ensuring that computer files in two or more locations are updated via certain rules....
- file versioning.
Registered and unregistered users can:
- receive streaming mediaStreaming mediaStreaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
.
When a user adds a file to Wuala, or saves changes to a file that is served by Wuala, the user's local copy of file is:
- first encrypted
- then chunked into redundant fragments using Reed-Solomon error correction codes.
- The fragments are then uploaded to the data centers
Storage
Users of Wuala alone start with 2 GB of storage for free.Users of joint products may start with greater amounts of storage for a limited period:
- with a LaCie external hard disk drive, 10 GB for one year
- with a LaCie USB flash driveUSB flash driveA flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
, 4 GB for two years.
Additional storage may be bought, gained through referral.
For bought storage: prices range from 19 EUR/year for 10 GB to 229 EUR/year for 250 GB.
Trading
One of the distinguishing features of Wuala, the ability to trade local disk storage space against cloud storage is being discontinued.Desktop application
The user interface offers most of the features that are normally associated with a file managerFile manager
A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files are: create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy, delete, search/find, and modify file attributes, properties...
. Additional features come through integration.
A registered user can install the Java-based client application:
- on any number of LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
and Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
computers - with FUSEFilesystem in UserspaceFilesystem in Userspace is a loadable kernel module for Unix-like computer operating systems that lets non-privileged users create their own file systems without editing kernel code...
, MacFUSEFilesystem in UserspaceFilesystem in Userspace is a loadable kernel module for Unix-like computer operating systems that lets non-privileged users create their own file systems without editing kernel code...
and Dokan respectively for file system integration.
Wuala Webstart and web browsers
Through a web browserWeb browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
, on a computer that has Java installed:
- the user can start/trust a Java appletJava appletA Java applet is an applet delivered to users in the form of Java bytecode. Java applets can run in a Web browser using a Java Virtual Machine , or in Sun's AppletViewer, a stand-alone tool for testing applets...
, which downloads and runs a class loaderJava ClassloaderThe Java Classloader is a part of the Java Runtime Environment that dynamically loads Java classes into the Java Virtual Machine. Usually classes are only loaded on demand. The Java run time system does not need to know about files and file systems because of class loaders...
allowing fast start of the latest version of the Wuala application.
If the computer is without Java, or if running of the class loader is prevented:
- any folder that is public, or shared with a weblinkHyperlinkIn computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
, can be browsed.
Non-graphical interfaces
Support for the following may be limited:- command-line interfaceCommand-line interfaceA command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks...
- daemonDaemon (computer software)In Unix and other multitasking computer operating systems, a daemon is a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user...
- headless systemHeadless systemA headless system is a computer system or device that has been configured to operate without a monitor , keyboard and mouse...
.
Security
According to Wuala's FAQ, the software uses AESAdvanced Encryption Standard
Advanced Encryption Standard is a specification for the encryption of electronic data. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. It supersedes DES...
-128 for encryption and RSA-2048 for key exchange and signatures. Keys are organized in a key management scheme called Cryptree.
According to the FAQ, Wuala employs full client-side encryption
Client-side encryption
Client-side encryption is the cryptographic technique of encrypting data before it is transmitted to a server in a computer network. Usually, encryption is performed with a key that is not known to the server. Consequently, the service provider is unable to decrypt the hosted data. In order to...
. All files and their metadata get encrypted before they are uploaded. The encryption key is stored such that no one, not even LaCie
LaCie
LaCie is a computer hardware company specializing in external hard drives, RAID arrays, optical drives, Flash Drives, and computer monitors. The company markets several lines of hard drives with a capacity of up to many terabytes of data, with a choice of interfaces...
that operates the service, can decrypt the stored files. The disadvantage of this is that Wuala has no password recovery and all data processing needs to be done in the client (for example creating a search index). The advantage is significantly improved privacy.
Since the source code to Wuala has not been released, it is difficult to ensure that the software does what it states it does (including proper client-side encryption
Client-side encryption
Client-side encryption is the cryptographic technique of encrypting data before it is transmitted to a server in a computer network. Usually, encryption is performed with a key that is not known to the server. Consequently, the service provider is unable to decrypt the hosted data. In order to...
). Also, updates are pushed automatically to the client machine. These facts mean that users of Wuala are not safe from possible backdoors in code.
Reviews
- 2007-10-18: Unlimited online storage for free, almost: Wuala | Webware - CNET
- 2008-05-22: Online Storage with Wuala | Linux Journal
- 2008-08-14: Wuala Makes Online Storage Social | News & Opinion | PCMag.com
- 2008-08-14: Wuala P2P online storage service goes live (Download Squad)
- 2008-07-18: You Have Three Days To Check Out Wuala's 'Social Grid' Storage (TechCrunchTechCrunchTechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
)
External links
- Wuala - Change Log
- Wuala - Roadmap
- YouTube | Google Tech Talks | Wuala - a distributed file system (2007-10-30)