| At a glance | |
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| Product | Zecter ZumoDrive () [Website] |
| Summary | ZumoDrive is a cloud storage product with a focus on media sharing. It uses a similar approach to DropBox, but adds additional media features while lacking some basic features competitors have. |
| Pros | • Very easy setup • 1GB to 2GB account upgrade via walkthrough is a way to make people read manuals. • Excellent Mobile applications • Streamlined web interface. |
| Cons | • Installation requires restarting Explorer.exe, which causes system instability. Should just require a reboot. • No option to email a link to download the file. • Revisions count against your storage limit. • Motorola acquisition leaves a lot of questions about what will become of the service. |
Typical Price: $3
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ZumoDrive is a cloud storage product with an emphasis on syncing media and being very easy to use.
ZumoDrive recently caught the attention of Motorola and its parent company, Zecter, has been acquired. This could be good news, as it could mean Zumo technology being more widely deployed via Motorola’s Android-based phones and other mobile products.
ZumoDrive starts out with a 1GB free account that can be “upgraded†to 2 GB by going through some tours, and doing some simple walkthroughs. Higher GB quotas are available on a monthly basis, from 10 GB up to 500 GB of available space. The pricing is on par with DropBox and other similar services.
Installation of ZumoDrive is extremely simple. Download an executable, and walk through a 3 step process of setting up the “linked folders†which synchronizes them into the cloud. ZumoDrive also sets up as a “Device with Removable Storageâ€, similar to a USB drive. You can then access it fairly easily using Windows Explorer.
I ran into an issue where ZumoDrive didn’t initially set itself up correctly as a removable device, but a reboot of Windows fixed the problem.
ZumoDrive has a console application that manages the uploading and downloading to the central servers. There are a number of good settings to tweak in there, including network limiters, which by default are disabled. I found ZumoDrive could saturate my 25 / 25 FiOS connection with no limiters engaged. So I would recommend setting the limiters to keep the upload throttled to a decent rate, to be nice to everyone else on your network.
Once ZumoDrive is synced up, you can access your files either via Windows Explorer or through the web. The web interface is very “Windows†even requiring double-clicking to open folders. The web interface is the only place you can share files with others, which requires they also have ZumoDrive.
An important note is that all revisions of all files are kept by default, and count against your storage limit. This is different from DropBox which only keeps 30 days by default, and revisions do not count against your storage limit. I think most users will miss this subtlety, and it should be noted more prominently by ZumoDrive.
Selecting your initial "linked" folders is quite simple, including your entire iTunes library.
After installation, you have the option to upgrade to a pay-for plan option.
ZumoDrive’s installer restarts Explorer.exe to integrate into the Remove Storage area. However, this still required a reboot for my Windows 7 PC.
ZumoDrive appeared after restarting the machine.
The ZumoDrive console shows transfers currently occuring and their progress.
The web interface is clean and styled after Windows’ Explorer.
One of the more touted features of ZumoDrive is its iTunes integration, where you can import all existing files into your iTunes database. This way you can have a single place with all your media files and still have local copies of all your media.
The downside is that iTunes management is a manual process. Adding more media to your ZumoDrive means having to go to each iTunes installation and click the “Import New Songs†button. I’m actually rather surprised this isn’t more automated. But could see the issue with iTunes locking its XML library file while iTunes is open.
Mobile support is also another touted feature. On all devices the app is basically a media streamer and viewer. However you can choose to download specific tracks to the mobile device for use when you are not connected to the network.
The iOS app that I used for testing worked very reliably for viewing both media files and regular office files. It’s actually one of the best viewers I’ve seen, easily outpacing DropBox’s application. This can be seen in the app store reviews too, with the ZumoDrive app having 4.5 / 5 stars average from 146 reviews. This is excellent for a free application, most of which usually average 3 stars.
Support, Security
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Security is not documented well at all. I could not find anything describing the encryption used, or even if files are transferred via SSL.
Overall, ZumoDrive is a very nice cloud storage product. But the lack of security documentation is worrisome, and would need to be addressed before I could fully recommend the product.
I have reached out to ZumoDrive for further explanation on security via their support channel and will update the review if I receive a more definitive answer.
Hopefully with Motorola’s backing, ZumoDrive will blossom into a very nice cloud storage service.