Announcing the Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition
In my last post, I outlined many of the great new things that you will see in Jungle Disk 2.0. The product is making a huge leap forward in many areas and the Jungle Disk team is working very hard to get things wrapped up to begin the beta process. Now that I have seen 2.0 in action, I am probably more excited than all of you to get my hands on it!
Over the past several months, many of our customers communicated a clear need to leverage the powerful online backup and storage functionality of Jungle Disk across groups of users. As the needs of our customers grow, so does our desire to meet those needs through improvements and additions to the Jungle Disk product line.
Thus, it is with great pleasure that we officially announce the future release of the Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition. This new addition to the product line shares all of the power and usability of Jungle Disk 2.0, while providing several additional features to make the administration of groups of users possible. Here are just a few of the enhancements that you will see in the Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition:
- The ability to create ’sub-accounts’ to support multiple users with a single S3 account
- Customizable secure access control to multiple buckets, along with private and shared buckets
- User management, bucket management and usage reporting via a web-based admin console
Our plan is to offer the workgroup edition for $2 per user per month. This fee would include the software, support, upgrades, and Jungle Disk Plus. I would like to emphasize that this is a per user license and not a per computer license. Each licensed user can install the software on multiple computers (work, home, laptop, etc.) at no additional cost. Pricing for the Amazon S3 service remains just $0.15 per GB.
To ensure that there is a clear distinction between products as we go forward, the existing Jungle Disk application will be referred to as the Jungle Disk Desktop Edition.
Without question, the Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition is a great step towards giving our business customers more control over their online backup and storage. More information about signing up for the private beta and the planned release dates will be shared in the near future.
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Dave Bandian said,
April 9, 2008 @ 11:19 am
I bought JD at a very early stage because of the promised ‘free life time upgrades’. It becomes more and more apparent that these ‘free life time upgrades’ are limited to a very limited functionality. You would be well-advised to make clear what exactly is going to be ‘free’ or whether you can no longer keep your promise anyway.
Jungle Dave said,
April 9, 2008 @ 11:29 am
We’ve tried to be clear all along that the free upgrade offer only applies to the current Jungle Disk product. Our company will introduce new products from time to time, and I don’t think it’s realistic to expect every product we offer to be free to current users. In fact, I don’t know anyone that does that.
The functionality the Workgroup Edition offers would be completely impossible to build into the current stand-alone product. The sub-account functionality is something we’ve had to build on top of Amazon S3 since it does not support it natively.
Our free upgrade policy for the Desktop edition continues to apply. Jungle Disk 2.0 will be a free upgrade for all paid users and you can expect more major updates in the future.
Tim Berglund said,
April 9, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
Dave,
This sounds like an great new product to meet a need not envisioned in the original JungleDisk tool. I am a very happy home user and evangelist, and would have been a perfect workgroup customer in the role I was in a year ago, but it’s still nice to know you’re expanding your portfolio.
Tim
vince said,
April 9, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
great news,
So will this be a web based tool or a desktop tool?
How will users authenticated to S3?
Any timeline on when can we expect to see the first beta?
Jon said,
April 9, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
All these products are getting a bit confusing. It would be nice to add a ‘comming soon’ section in your toc on the left that had links for all these future products where the current status could be posted. I would repeat the link on the download page as well.
From all of the posts and messages, I was under the impression that existing customers could download the beta of 2.0, but I don’t see that after digging through your site. It would be nice to find that information right up front. Thanks! -jon
David Underhill said,
April 9, 2008 @ 1:42 pm
This is great — I’ve been looking forward to this announcement for a while :). Though aimed at businesses, it might also be helpful for families … backup some files to ones’ own bucket, but perhaps photos to a shared bucket.
It will be interesting to learn how the shared buckets will be synchronized, and what kind of overheads will be involved in doing so (since Amazon bills on traffic usage).
Doug Leins said,
April 9, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
This is exactly what I have been looking for. Hopefully it will be released sooner rather than later. Take your time though to make sure it is rock solid before release.
Lars Fischer said,
April 9, 2008 @ 2:52 pm
This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for!
I can’t understand all these people complaining about the (very moderate) price.
Jungle Dave said,
April 9, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
@vince - The software is still desktop based, but there will be a web-based console to configure sub-accounts and permissions.
@david - there is no specific “sync” between shared bucket. It works just like Jungle Disk does now when installed on multiple machines sharing a single bucket - the cache system keeps copies locally but checks for changes when you access the file.
Mike Guidry said,
April 9, 2008 @ 3:27 pm
Sounds like what I’ve been looking for to offer customers easy offsite backup.
The pricing structure sounds very reasonable and make it worthwhile to resell, unlike Iron Mountain. I also agree with you that I don’t see how anyone can expect the new version to be a free upgrade. I got what I paid for only a few months ago, a standalone desktop backup tool with a very liberal multiple machine license. Expecting a free upgrade to the workgroup version would be like buying Window desktop and expecting a free upgrade to Windows server.
One question: Will there be any easy way to incorporate my current bucket into the new setup without having to upload the contents again? I’ve embarked on uploading my collection of photos in raw format and have about 10 gigs up there now.
Jungle Dave said,
April 9, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
@Mike - Yes, you’ll be able to share buckets between the desktop and workgroup version if you use the same Amazon S3 account.
Alex W. said,
April 9, 2008 @ 5:15 pm
Just so I understand the pricing structure, you state it is $2 per user per month. I am looking to share my account with just one other user (an artist working on a project for me), so for me that would be $4 a month for the both of us. Do I understand that correctly?
And even though I’ve already bought the JungleDisk application, she wouldn’t have to as it is included in the monthly fee, yes?
In the same vein, will I no longer have to pay the Jungle Disk Plus fee I would otherwise be charged for my current Jungle Disk installation or is this a completely different thing, so I’d still need to keep that for my current Jungle Disk app and backups?
Sorry if I seem dense — and I’m not complainng — just want to be clear.
Jungle Dave said,
April 9, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
@Alex - Yes, that’s all correct. You could move to this edition entirely for $4/mo and cancel your personal Jungle Disk Plus subscription.
XavierL said,
April 10, 2008 @ 5:20 am
Good news, great roadmap.
$2 per user per month may be a little bit expansive, but it’s not a show stopper for those who really look for a true, secure shared on-line disk(s) as opposed to specialized solutions like MS Live Workspaces, Skydrive or Google Apps.
My only “worry” now is the name: JungleDisk. For a small geeks’ club, it’s a great name. For Corporate IT, everything called “Jungle” does not usually convey security, privacy and up-time. I guess I’m too serious here :-))
XavierL
EricC said,
April 10, 2008 @ 10:59 am
I remember as well last year something like:
“After the trial period, the software is just $20 to purchase . It comes with free lifetime upgrades and can be installed on as many machines as you want.”
Then the interesting new functionalities, required and expected, came up for the happiness of most users of JD:
- new free upgrades as promised ?
- no no you understand they are technically impossible to integrate in the poor standard JD, they have to be new products!!
Thus:
-> Jungle Disk Plus and its own fee !
-> Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition and its 2 USD per user and per month !!
(so say you are two users and want to benefit from private buckets and shared buckets you have to pay 2 x 2 x 12 = 48 USD a year !!
“…. It comes with free lifetime upgrades and can be installed on as many machines as you want.”
Jungle Dave said,
April 10, 2008 @ 11:12 am
We haven’t changed either the free upgrades or multiple machines policy for Jungle Disk. We are simply introducing a new product for a different market (small businesses).
I hope it’s clear that we aren’t creating new products to try and extract more money out of existing users - we are adding new products like the Workgroup Edition to expand our market into new areas that aren’t served by the current product.
August said,
April 10, 2008 @ 11:28 am
I’m a huge fan of the description of the new version. Be interested in how you manage the permissions issue.
On pricing, I’d easily pay $10/user if this pans out!
I don’t know what to say for folks complaining. What I would do if I was jungledisk would be to clarify that your $20 doesn’t get you all possible software products JD introduces and then simply refund the money of these users give them 30 days to stop using JD.
Feel like you got a bad deal? You can return the software and go on to the better alternatives you’ve found.
And I’d limit free upgrades to 5 years which is still generous. Life is too uncertain to go out beyond that.
Sign me up for the beta however…
Mike B said,
April 10, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
Some of the comments on this topic remind me of something Eric Sink said in his “Product Pricing Primer” (http://www.ericsink.com/bos/Product_Pricing.html):
================================================
I have come to the following conclusion: No matter how low we set the price, someone will complain.
* If I lowered the price, I would merely attract the attention of someone for whom it is not low enough.
* If I gave the product away, someone would complain that I am making them buy more disk space to install it.
* If I paid each user a hundred bucks to use my product and sent Salma Hayek in a bikini to personally install it for them, someone would complain that they prefer blondes.
================================================
Somewhere in this thread are the seeds to a corollary to that about product upgrades.
Nathan Jones said,
April 10, 2008 @ 9:46 pm
How disappointing it is that people complain so heartily. Jungle Tools is a small business and it needs revenue to survive. If it doesn’t survive, then existing users will be left with an unsupported product.
The release of Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition keeps Jungle Tools from stagnating and it lets them succeed without increasing the price of the existing Jungle Disk Desktop Edition.
Most business that care about backup capability can afford $24 per user per year. And depending on usage, that might just be a fraction of the S3 costs. Those that can’t afford it can continue to use Desktop Edition: a great single-user product that is still cheap and still being actively developed, thanks to Jungle Dave’s efforts to expand his business.
EricC said,
April 11, 2008 @ 4:53 am
I agree in principle with you complaints about complaints, but there are individuals which are running not small business and would have love running JD on 2 or 3 machines with having functinalities of distinguish private and shared bucket ! … it was never hidden I think and well understood up to now that running on JD on several machines with one Amazon S3 account does not necessarely mean the same user only on the 3 machines!… it can simply be a family of 4 users at home with more than 1 machine !
I am not against paying more than 20$ for this product upgrade and to benefit from this feature but sorry 4 home users x 24$ = 96 $ every year (+ Amazon S3 storage cost) no sorry this a bit too much for families !!
Luke said,
April 11, 2008 @ 5:14 am
Stop me if I’m wrong, but concerning the desire for the private/shared buckets thing for family purposes, will JD 2.0 not allow for this to a certain extent by simply supporting multiple buckets?
Would it not be possible for users on different computers using the same S3 account to simply configure their local copy of JD with their own personal bucket, using an encryption key the others don’t know (so whilst others would be able to see the bucket they wouldn’t be able to access its contents), and a shared bucket using a common encryption key that would therefore be open to everybody? Hope that makes sense!
The security here wouldn’t be bulletproof - you’d be able to acecss each other’s buckets even if you couldn’t view the data; but for family use that’s probably fine. Businesses wanting tighter security will be able to pay for fully fledged permissioning by getting the workgroup edition.
Or am I missing something here?
Peter said,
April 11, 2008 @ 9:13 am
I’ve just set up a local 15 person company with two ’shared drives’. One ‘General Docs’ bucket for everyone to access with one encryption key and another ‘Contract Docs’ bucket just for the accounts people with access using a diffrent encryption key.
There are issues with file modification date preservation, running jungle twice on XP machines in the accounts office (required for two buckets) and needing to give everyone the Jungle Tools account password; but balanced against the cost of managing a ‘real’ server it still made sense.
I need to roll out the Workgroup version before the ‘issues’ start to grind away at their initial enthusiasm. I reckon they’d pay $2/month/user but $10/month/user (as suggested above) would start to look like a serious outlay and would mean I’d have to review all of the market offerings again.
Jungle Dave said,
April 11, 2008 @ 9:19 am
We realize there is a great variability to price sensitivity - certainly for some companies $5 or $10 per user wouldn’t be a problem for what Jungle Disk provides. However with the Workgroup Edition we are adopting the same approach to pricing that we did with Jungle Disk by trying to find the price that maximizes our potential market while still making a profit, rather than trying to find the “optimal” price at the risk of pricing many users out of the market. Our belief is that online storage is a mass market opportunity and we want to position ourselves as a solution that anyone can afford, not just big companies with lots of money to spend.
EricC said,
April 11, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
Thanks Dave. I quite appreciate all the hard work you put on Jungle Disk , but I just wonder how the existing JDDE could benefit of some of the new features , like a secure access control to multiple buckets, along with private and shared buckets …
Mark said,
April 11, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
So are these two going to be two different downloads? One for JD 2.0 and one for the work group edition? or the 2.0 will just work in workgroup mode?
Which one should we expect first?
Jungle Dave said,
April 11, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
Yes, they will be separate applications. The JD2.0 public beta will come first, followed by a private beta of the workgroup edition and later a public beta.
Adam said,
April 11, 2008 @ 4:04 pm
Are the Workgroup and Reseller editions one and the same?
Saulo Falcão said,
April 12, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
Hi Dave, I’d like to reforce Adam’s comment above, and please include me in the private Beta for Reseller/Workgroup edition!
Thanks!
Dave Bandian said,
April 14, 2008 @ 7:53 am
That’s all I wanted to read. Thank you, keep on your great work!
curt said,
April 22, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
I’m a freelance designer with multiple clients. I’d like to use Jungledisk to automatically backup a “clients” directory, then provide each client rights to their sub-directory. Clients would only access the drive via the web as a sort of client extranet.
Is this possible with either the Workgroup, Reseller, White Label or Private Label solutions? If so, how many “users” would that be according to the pricing structure?
Thanks,
Curt
Jungle Dave said,
April 22, 2008 @ 1:31 pm
Yes, that would be possible with the Workgroup edition. Each client would be a user, since otherwise you wouldn’t be able to restrict them from seeing each other’s files.
You’ll be able to “re-use” user licenses, such that you really only need enough for your active clients - if one isn’t active you can use that license for another client.
Tracy said,
May 12, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
When (month?) do you expect you will have this multi-user program available?
Jungle Disk » Blog Archive » Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition Private Beta said,
May 23, 2008 @ 11:52 am
[…] going to be conducting a private beta test of the Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition in the next few weeks. If you’d like to participate, you can sign-up on our interest list. […]
Jungle Disk » Blog Archive » Jungle Disk Workgroup Edition Public Beta said,
June 23, 2008 @ 4:44 pm
[…] we’re also pleased to announce the availability of a public beta for the Workgroup Edition. First announced back in April, the Workgroup Edition allows multiple users to securely share a single Amazon S3 account without […]