LucidLink is far more than just another Dropbox alternative – it’s the future of file management and access with cloud storage for today’s breed of video production professionals.
LucidLink eliminates the sync & share method of constantly downloading the entirety of a file, and sharing it with each computer or device that has access, which means that sync & share methods like DropBox need to download and reupload the information before it is available to the user. With LucidLink, the “Single Source of Truth” is in the cloud and replaces the slow days of sync & share technologies. In short, LucidLink is an enterprise-grade, high-performance cloud storage and file system that works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Both video and audio editors routinely work with massive, dense files whether they’re editing, creating motion graphics and animations, or sound mixing. Until now, the most practical option was to access these files at a physical, on-premises location, as working remotely would require high levels of latency and storage.
But with working from home or a hybrid solution becoming the norm and file sizes ever-increasing, media production professionals need a secure file sharing solution that delivers immediate access – no matter where they’re working or what they’re working on.
The best approach to data security? Trust no one. With LucidLink’s Zero-Knowledge security model, we don’t allow wandering eyes to view your data. To achieve that, we use a strong end-to-end, full system encryption where all data is encrypted on the customer device and remains encrypted both in transit and at rest with only the customer in possession of the encryption keys.
Unlike other storage services like DropBox and Google Drive, both LucidLink and the cloud storage providers have “zero-knowledge” of any data you’re storing or transmitting. You can have peace of mind knowing there’s absolutely no sharing files with strangers, and no storing unprotected copies of sensitive data on multiple devices.
LucidLink lets you create instant “snapshot” backups of individual files or your entire filespace. Snapshots make it easy to perform file recovery, roll back to previous versions, and schedule automatic backups to run on a schedule of your choosing. Only data that’s changed between two snapshots are saved, resulting in more efficient space utilization. What’s more – snapshots are immutable (read-only), so they act as a last line of defense for your files against ransomware attacks.
With Dropbox, version control can become a nightmare – especially when you have complex, shared projects being worked on by remote teams.
Rather than endlessly syncing across multiple devices and pushing changes to the cloud, LucidLink’s cloud repository acts as “The Single Source of Truth” where any changes are made (and saved) in real-time, as they happen. This helps eliminate stress and confusion over who on your media production team owns the “latest” version of a file.
LucidLink is easily shared across many connected devices or users, and team members gain rapid access to media files of any size from wherever they happen to be working. At the same time, teams still get the benefit of powerful end-to-end encryption, which ensures users can’t access the information they don’t have permission to see.
Dropbox, and many other Dropbox alternatives, employ file “sync and share,” which is really just another way to say they automatically make local copies of files on all your connected devices, and then push any changes that you make up to the cloud.
For smaller files, this approach can work well…but when working with massive data sets – like gigabytes of raw 4K footage, for example – your workflow can get bogged down to the point where it’s just not practical.
Dropbox’s sync and share also put a heavy demand on network and storage resources – all while limiting you to syncing smaller data sets.
Today’s video production creatives need a Dropbox alternative that’s truly tailored to their needs. LucidLink cuts out the whole long-winded “sync and share” step, so that any files you’re collaborating on are instantly available – and editable – on-demand.
Is LucidLink among the best Dropbox alternatives for you and your media production team’s needs? We think so.
LucidLink focuses on globally, instantly accessible data that is streamed on-demand and available immediately for collaboration on projects.
This makes LucidLink a solution ideally suited for industries that rely on remote access to huge, multi-terabyte files, such as the media and entertainment industry or the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, to name a few.
But don’t just take our word for it. Feel free to kick the tires and try it yourself with a free, 14-day LucidLink trial today!
LucidLink removes the limits put on location and accessibility. This allows any number of users access to files in real-time, across any distance. Dropbox is restricted by location and accessibility, limiting the number of users and requiring full synchronization of a file before access to the most recent file is available.
We use a “Zero Knowledge” security model with end-to-end encryption in the strongest AES, 256 GCM mode. Only the client ever has possession of the username/password combination that is used to decrypt the encryption key. Only the customer can “see” the data. Neither LucidLink nor the object storage provider has any visibility into the data that the customers store and transmit.
LucidLink’s unique functionality was developed to allow users access to an unlimited volume of data, with infinite scalability through cloud storage. Dropbox users select plans which include storage limitations, requiring the user to upgrade their plan if they reach their storage limit.
Since LucidLink is mounted as local storage, we read and write in 256KB maximum size blocks/objects. This enables us to quickly stream individual blocks of data, on-demand, as the application requires. This is similar to how your computer accesses data on local storage. There is no need to “sync” a file in its entirety from the cloud to local storage in order to use it. Sync & share is the method of constantly downloading the entirety of a file, and sharing it with each computer or device that has access. With LucidLink, “The Single Source of Truth” is in the cloud and replaces the slow days of sync & share technologies. It is unnecessary to re-upload that modified file in its entirety after modifying it. LucidLink has effectively made cloud storage and sync-and-share solutions obsolete.
No data is ever passed through or stored on the LucidLink service. Each client (Windows, macOS, and Linux) reads and writes directly to the cloud storage. The LucidLink service is not in the data path and only synchronizes encrypted metadata (not the data) in real-time across all connected clients globally.
We use a proprietary protocol. We directly read and write to the cloud storage from the LucidLink client over port 443. Chatty protocols that were meant for LANs such as SMB and NFS are not used in a LucidLink solution.
There is no need to purchase or configure a physical or virtual appliance.
There are 3 components to a LucidLink solution:
1) The LucidLink client software running on either macOS, Windows, or Linux
2) The LucidLink service
3) The cloud or on-prem object storage
Users download the LucidLink client to access data in their Filespace.
When the Filespace is initially set up, LucidLink’s service is automatically created in a public cloud, whenever possible, in the general geographic region where the object storage is located.
The default mount points are as follows:
Microsoft Windows: L:\
Apple macOS: /Volumes/~
Linux: /media/
The default mount point for each OS can be modified and set globally. The mount point can also be set independently on each client.
Yes. You can use Okta or Azure AD for authentication to a Filespace. Okta or Azure AD users and groups can be assigned read-only, read-write or no access to specific folders in a Filespace. LucidLink users and groups can be used concurrently with Okta or Azure AD users and groups.
LucidLink users and groups can be configured and a user or group can be assigned read-only, read-write or no access to specific folders in a Filespace.
Yes. You can have one or more Filespaces in a LucidLink account. Additionally, one can have different Filespaces where different storage providers (IBM, AWS, Google, Microsoft, etc.) can be used for the object storage backend.
Yes. Simply right clicking on a file folder in a LucidLink Filespace in Finder or File Explorer allows one to select “Copy link” and then send that link to another LucidLink user.
SaaS offering, no hardware or IT support required
End-to-end security encryption
Works with any object storage
Instant on-demand file access from anywhere
Works with any OS
