Well we have been going flat out here, and progress is good (as usual, not as fast as we would like… but never is). Our original beta plan had a release slated for late November, early December… this was to be a very raw beta that used a modified version of the existing Cloud Xtender client, and not the new Drive Xtender portal. The idea being, we could start to test the local Drive Xtender service etc. Well, the portal came together faster than expected, so we have ditched this idea, and are now going with a more complete initial beta. Here’s what to expect.
- Drive Xtender portal with limited pool management.
- Create a new local pool (there may be some limited cloud capability if time permits)
- Installation using the Drive Xtender portal.
- Pool “preview” mode. This can import existing Drive Bender pools. This will be non-destructive, and you can leave your existing Drive Bender pool in place (the same applies to DrivePool users).
Regarding the drop date… well beta 1 is close to being ready, and while I would love to push it out sooner rather than later, dropping a beta just before the holidays is a rookie move. To further complicate matters, I’m taking some time off over the coming weeks, so let’s say “soon” 🙂
One final word on Drive Xtender… we’ve had a few questions regarding how a public website (aka the Drive Xtender portal) is able to manage a service on a machine within a users network. Well, Drive Xtender uses some interesting technologies to accomplish this… but, for security reasons, it does require a user to visit the Drive Xtender portal from within their internal network, this is known as “direct” connect mode. That said, there is also a “limited” mode, which allows for some very minimum monitoring and management from outside of your network, however, this feature needs to be explicitly enabled by a user before it can be used.
Now for a quick Drive Bender update… we are finalising features for Drive Bender v3, these include
- Application whitelisting, which allows only whitelisted apps to write to the pool (or specific folders).
- Improved licensing that will allow users to manage their own license keys (aka release from a machine etc)… yay!
- Improved startup performance.
- 2016 Server dashboard support.
Anyway, that’s it for the moment, have a wonderful and safe Christmas, and we’ll see you all in 2018!
Oh… forgot to post some screenshots
Installing the connector onto a machine
Managing a local pool
Managing drives within a pool
Adding a new service