I like the way S3 operates and how it gives us separation between website files and user uploads, and makes our website backups much smaller, but I would like to get away from Amazon. 
https://www.coralnodes.com/amazon-s3-alternatives/

This reminded me that I've seen others use alternatives to Amazon.  Here's a link to how to use Backblaze:

 

And this one for Wasabi and Cloudflare 🙂

 

 

Thank you, that looks very interesting. I will try implementing this.

Why Invision does not natively integrate the Wasabi and Cloudflare ?

I'm interested in some Cloud Storage just for backups. I looked at Wasabi and I think there was no way of making it delete the files automatically after a given number of days (Imagine I only want the keep the 7 latest backups for example).

I know this is possible with Amazon, but I don't want to deal with Amazon. Does Backblaze allows this?

  On 1/25/2021 at 5:02 AM, MEVi said:

Why Invision does not natively integrate the Wasabi and Cloudflare ?

For the same reason they don’t support Amazon SES and only 1 Mail Provider... god knows!

Every integration point we put into Invision Community adds to the technical debt of the product. It means keeping abreast of changes to the API and adjusting our code as needed.

S3 is probably the most widely used system right now (and something we use natively with Cloud Communities). You are welcome to add a request for more to be added, and if there is demand for it then we will definitely consider it.

  On 1/25/2021 at 5:02 AM, MEVi said:

Why Invision does not natively integrate the Wasabi and Cloudflare ?

From what I understand, IPS has hardcoded certain functions to S3 like in IP.Downloads.  If you do investigate Wasabi and Cloudflare, you'll be reliant on a Marketplace plugin.  

With that said, I would support S3 compatible buckets which would dramatically open more choices for community admins.  If I were to use Amazon S3 + Cloudfront, I would be paying something like $180 - 200 / mo for just storage, bandwidth, and CDN and it will continue to grow as I'm charged as usage grows.  With Wasabi + Cloudflare, I'm paying a flat $26 with significantly more capacity to store up to 1 TB at the same $26 price.  The cost savings are too compelling.  

I created a bucket with Backblaze and it has all the same settings as an S3 bucket, but I don't think IPB supports this yet.

It looks like this would reduce our file storage cost to about 25% what it is now.

  On 1/26/2021 at 3:08 PM, Matt said:

You are welcome to add a request for more to be added

How does one do this?

As a medium / small tech company, IPS should really be doing everything they can to help build an ecosystem outside of the FANGS.

Edited February 4, 20214 yr by Interferon

  On 2/4/2021 at 1:26 PM, Interferon said:

created a bucket with Backblaze and it has all the same settings as an S3 bucket, but I don't think IPB supports this yet.

It looks like this would reduce our file storage cost to about 25% what it is now.

There's a community guide on setting up Backblaze by @ASTRAPI

  On 2/4/2021 at 1:26 PM, Interferon said:

As a medium / small tech company, IPS should really be doing everything they can to help build an ecosystem outside of the FANGS.

Two notes that you will soon discover: 

- IPS devs love to drink the iOS koolaid

- IPS as a company loves to drink the AWS kool aid

 

  On 2/4/2021 at 1:26 PM, Interferon said:

How does one do this?

1. Create a post in the Feedback and Ideas forum, pretending that this thread is not already in the Feedback and Ideas forum.
2. Wrap yourself up in bubble tape and prepare yourself to receive the lashings of those who fear change.
3. Tag @Jordan Invision and light three candles.

  On 2/4/2021 at 9:23 PM, Paul E. said:

1. Create a post in the Feedback and Ideas forum, pretending that this thread is not already in the Feedback and Ideas forum.
2. Wrap yourself up in bubble tape and prepare yourself to receive the lashings of those who fear change.
3. Tag @Jordan Invision and light three candles.

  On 1/26/2021 at 6:48 PM, Joel R said:

With Wasabi + Cloudflare, I'm paying a flat $26 with significantly more capacity to store up to 1 TB at the same $26 price.

We severely limit non-text content for our end users because of the costs we'd incur in storing binary data. And you know I love a gif.

This is quite a savings. You're running an image-heavy community, right @Joel R?

  On 2/4/2021 at 10:01 PM, Paul E. said:

You're running an image-heavy community

Images are my community, so yes, yes I suppose you can say I have an image-heavy community.  

In the Cloudflare + Wasabi setup, I pay:

• $20 for Cloudflare Business, which you don't need.  But why not, since I'm saving so much from AWS
• $6 for every terabyte on Wasabi.  

Real picture of Joel throwing his money around like he's the boss.  A $26 dollar boss.  Anything more and he's keeping.  

We already are leveraging Cloudflare, and on a paid level. Great to know. I'll be investigating this.

  On 2/4/2021 at 10:36 PM, Paul E. said:

We already are leveraging Cloudflare, and on a paid level. Great to know. I'll be investigating this.

The reason why the Cloudflare + Wasabi setup is fundamentally cheaper than AWS is that Wasabi is part of the Cloudflare Bandwidth Alliance.  There are no egress fees, so for media-rich sites, it's game changing.  

https://www.cloudflare.com/bandwidth-alliance/

 

Our provider is part of that alliance too. It has significantly reduced costs. Fantastic.

Thanks, Joel!

I am working on integrating KeyCDN instead of CloudFlare. It's a Swiss company, the basic plan if free, and the pricing for the paid plans is extremely low.

Looks like there is some kind of integration with IPB here:
https://www.keycdn.com/support/ips-cdn-integration

Edited February 5, 20214 yr by Interferon

  On 2/5/2021 at 9:52 AM, Interferon said:

I am working on integrating KeyCDN instead of CloudFlare. It's a Swiss company, the basic plan if free, and the pricing for the paid plans is extremely low.

Looks like there is some kind of integration with IPB here:
https://www.keycdn.com/support/ips-cdn-integration

Those instructions are the same for any CDN.  

Also, it's important to consider your overall pricing.  For example, if you use Amazon S3 as your storage, you will pay egress fees of Amazon S3 + KeyCDN.  Even though KeyCDN may be 'cheap', you need to take into account the bandwidth from your storage container to the cdn.

I'm actually wondering why we can't just enter an FTP username and password for this? Why do we need a third-party service at all? It's easy and cheap to set up an unmanaged VPS with a large capacity.

The key is to have a separation of user-created files and website files. Our backups would be impossible if each one was 100 GB, but with S3 our site is only a few GB and our user files can be backed up much less frequently.

Edited April 17, 20213 yr by Interferon