The CloudBerry Explorer is a free tool from MSP360™ and works pretty much the same way as the Windows Explorer. The difference is that the CloudBerry Explorer is used to work with the Simple Storage Service (S3), which is part of the Amazon Web Services. The Simple Storage Service is a Cloud storage similar to Dropbox.
S3 is unfortunately not for free. However, at $0.023 per GB per month for the first 50 TB, I would consider this as an almost free service. On Dropbox, you will get 2 GB for free. But if you get over that limit you will have to pay about $12 per month with a 2 TB limit. For S3 you will have to pay only $0.069 per month if you need a little more than 2 GB. You will need to use more than 500 GB of storage on S3 to exceed the price tag of Dropbox. And I never use that much. Why? Because I only save files in the Cloud if I need to share them with others. Otherwise, it’s safety first for me.
Ok, why do I need CloudBerry Explorer?
The issue with S3 is that Amazon does not provide a simple user interface. This is where the CloudBerry Explorer has its place. This tool is as simple to use as the Windows Explorer. MSP360 provides a series of videos to show exactly how to install the tool, how to create your account, and how to use all the different settings.
One of the best things about S3 is the ways you can protect your files. And the CloudBerry Explorer makes it easy to use those features. You can of course assign permissions (such as Read Only) for each file if you make your files available online. But you can do more. You can encrypt your files, you can create short URLs with chilp.it, and best of all, you can create expiring links. This features makes it possible to send someone a download link, that will expire at a specific date/time. So if you forget to remove the file, when you don’t need it anymore, you don’t have to worry. After the link expires, nobody can access the file anymore, not even the person you sent the link to.
