Cloud-Sharing

There seems to be more and more applications looking to move p2p file-sharing into the cloud. For example Gygan – a propriety application that allows users to upload their own files to Gygan’s servers for storage. So far, sound like existing applications that offer cloud-storage; but they also allow users to search though what other people are storing and take copies. While there is lots of debate as to if Gygan will be inundated with copyright lawsuits, allow copyright holders to sue infringers on the service, even who they are and where they are based – what is of interest here to me is the idea; mass storage and mass sharing but facilitated by the cloud.

It is interesting as it pulls away the walls between storage and sharing. As server and storage costs come down and down, the ability to set-up and run such services will also plummet. What will also be interesting is when this idea becomes truly p2p – that the cloud is composed a small parts of each users bandwidth and hardrive.