Lima Ultra - Plug and Play cloud
27.3.2017
Translation: machine translated
Your data needs to be accessible whenever and wherever you want. Hence cloud storage. However, as soon as data is stored somewhere, security issues come into play. Until now, people who aren't experts on the Raspberry Pi or similar products have had to resign themselves to storing their data on large clouds. Now Lima wants to bring the cloud to you.
"And why does the world still need this?", I exclaimed aloud in the editorial office. Because creating your own cloud is very simple. All you need to do is proceed more or less as follows:
- Buy a Rapberry Pi or an Asus Tinker Board
- Buy a class 10 MicroSD
- Download Raspbian OS Image
- Connect it all to a screen and keyboard
- Manage it all with Command Line Installation and more
Two hours' work, tops, and it's done.
"Not everyone is an IT whiz like you," the deputy editor, Ramon Schneider, replies to me. Yes, I hadn't thought of that. It also explains why the Lima Ultra packaging wants to offend me by stating: "We talk like humans, not geeks".
Ramon is right. Not everyone can or wants to battle with Raspberry Pi or Tinker Boards. Fortunately, so that these people can still enjoy the almost unlimited benefits and services that small computers offer, there are devices like the Lima Ultra. This little device does nothing more than make data available on all the devices connected to the mini-cloud from a hard disk connected to a router via Lima Ultra. In other words: Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive or ownCloud in a very small and very private way.
The reasons for such a device are obvious. Manufacturers promise easy installation and smooth service. As for security considerations, you'll never lose control of your data. Of course, I want to test this little box, because I think it's a great idea. There are a few flaws in the execution, but on the whole, the Lima Ultra is a serious device. What's more: this little machine may well have, by chance, put its finger on the future of data storage.
An installation with a few issues
So I banish all thoughts related to the Raspberry Pi and the Tinker Board from my mind and observe this device as a simple user would, who can't or doesn't want to confront Linux. Because Lima is aimed at just such people. The principle is simple:
- Connect the Lima to the router
- Connect an external hard drive to Lima
- Download the application
- Follow the on-screen instructions
- Completed
In theory, this is indeed brilliant and easy. In practice, it's almost that. Here's the Lima system's biggest flaw: the user interface delivers virtually no information. Naturally, a system update should be launched immediately after installation. But something isn't working quite so well: I'm getting an Error Code 43. What does this mean? I've no idea. The Lima website isn't much help either.
What I can say with certainty at this stage is that the hardware configuration is complete and correct. In fact, on the Lima Ultra you have three connectors and each one is a different shape. It's simply impossible to make a mistake when connecting the device. Even my grandmother could do it, even though she's never plugged in even a VHS video recorder. Nevertheless: Error Code 43.
The only way Lima offers to get help is to email the company. That this might get in the way of mass distribution of their product doesn't seem to have struck them so far. Particularly when I want to launch the test installation at around 9pm and I'm used to consulting data sheets or similar information to do so. Of course, an e-mail is nice, it's good and it's friendly, but the error codes could be more or less grouped together on a website. Because if a company makes the effort to assign error codes instead of error messages, then these must be documented somewhere internally.
Well, I'll look for that. The user instructions provided provide some additional technical information since the Lima helpdesk has no idea what Error 43 might be. So I'm going to assume - based on no evidence and in defiance of all logic - that something is wrong with the hardware. Something that probably has nothing to do with either the router or Lima. I discover after a test or by mistake that the USB memory must be formatted in NTFS, because otherwise Lima can't handle it. What's more, the maximum memory that the little blue and white box can handle is 7,000 GB. The Lima Ultra is therefore not suitable for larger data transfers.
After formatting I had to ask the device twice to perform an update, the first of which failed for some reason. But after that everything was hardware ready.
An account for everyone
When designing the Ultra, Lima saved where it could. When the young company says "Your cloud", it means exactly that: your cloud. Not your sister's or your friend's. Your cloud. Given that authorisations for files cannot be issued. And why is that? As I understand it, only one account can be assigned to a Lima Ultra. So if I want to exchange data located on my Lima Ultra configuration with my editorial colleague Phil Rüegg, I have to provide him with my access data.
In terms of security, Lima needs to get rid of some negative points. Because with advertising that puts security and the cloud front and centre, file access permissions and multiple account management are a must. If I want to save my article on my Lima configuration, but I don't want Phil poking around in it, then I can't show him the photos from MWC in Barcelona. I automatically give him access to everything. So he can delete my articles, see the private photos of my last family party and steal my music. Now, I don't find it ideal from a collaborative point of view, which is indeed one of the main arguments for cloud installations.
But, all devices, which are equipped with access data, can access Lima. That is, PC, smartphone and tablet. Apple iOS or Android. No problem. Lima is sticking to its guns and keeping things simple with a page on its official website, where there are direct links to the apps. It's nice.
Restrictions at ISPs
In use, however, the Lima Ultra is extremely user-friendly. Because the application is completely clear and the company has also put simplicity into it, as into everything else.
The application is similar to the ownCloud application, but also to almost all other cloud applications. Interestingly, the Lima interface on the PC is, on the whole, similar to that of a network drive with a few folders. So if I put an MP3 file in the movies folder, the audio file appears among the movies in the mobile app. That's fine. It doesn't bother me.
In terms of user experience, the Lima team have done an excellent job. The synchronisation of the Lima application takes a bit of time. So, I can't immediately watch a film, which I've transferred to my Lima, on my smartphone or tablet, because the folder has to be indexed first. But this takes a little time, depending on the router's Internet connection. If I can give you one piece of advice: become a customer of [Fiber7] (https://fiber7.ch). Because, at the time of writing, no ISP is able to offer faster download and upload rates. So if you want to run a cloud from home - whether with Lima, Asus Tinker Board or Raspberry Pi - then the upload rate is just as important. Because if you want to stream a film from your home network, the film first has to be transferred from your hard drive to your Lima, and then downloaded to your mobile phone. The difference between fully uploading and downloading is when streaming - in that you only partially download the streaming file to your device, so it only plays part of the file.
What I think is really great is that the developers at Lima have taken inspiration from Plex and co, to ensure that when you download a film to your Lima, the software searches the entire vastness of the internet for a film poster, which can then be displayed in the app. Although this is completely unnecessary from a technical point of view, the application feels much better for it.
About hard drive space
A big advantage of the Lima is that memory is variable. But that's up to the user. At most, the software in the little Lima box can handle 7000GB, which should be enough for most individual users without collaborative needs, at least as far as Lima's capabilities go. If you or your business need more storage space, Lima Ultra isn't the right option for you anyway. You're better served by a more complex setup.
Then I thought, "Let's see how little storage space the Lima device can handle at a minimum" and dug out all manner of USB flash drives from my drawer amidst a salad of wires and tech junk. My first test was with LaCie's Porsche Design hard drive. It worked like a charm.
Then I played around with USB sticks and I'm currently stuck there, as I have no use case for the whole Lima installation.
The idea, behind the test, was that I might gain a bit more speed, if I worked with a solid state drive (SSD) rather than La Cie, in which still spinning drives are installed. As good as this idea was on a Tuesday, when it was close to midnight, I don't notice much difference. I'm sure there is, but I haven't noticed anything from a user perspective.
So what is the Lima Ultra all about?
As an end user, without much understanding of and/or interest in the technology, you now know what the Lima Ultra is all about. But since, as my colleague Ramon told me, I'm a computer whiz, I'm wondering, of course, what's inside the little box. In terms of hardware, I can't say, because I wasn't allowed to take it apart. But, it's definitely slightly smaller than a Raspberry Pi and, bizarrely, slightly heavier. Have they simply added weight to give the whole thing more value?
On the software side, Lima - a great company in every way - surprises once again. Their entire software, or a large part of it, is Open Source. The company lists all the licences on their website, a gesture I think is very nice of the company.
In short, if you want to access data from all your devices from the outside, the Lima Ultra is definitely for you. As soon as you want to work collaboratively, you'll be better served by other solutions.
It's all about the cloud.
About the cloud. I'm sure some of my readers - I'm getting to know you well now - will think: "Hey, that's not a cloud" and they'll be half right. Cloud storage has some fundamental aspects that Lima doesn't have. These include the following.
- It has many distributed resources, but these act as a unit. In practice, this means that your holiday photos, which appear in a folder, don't necessarily have to be on the same hard drive
- Security scans and backups are automatically created and maintained
- Versions and copies are generated automatically. This means your Word documents are periodically cached and you can access older versions
The end result, however, is identical in a real cloud and with Lima: your data is simultaneously available on multiple devices, even if nothing is happening in the background of Lima. Obviously Lima is a bit delusional when they talk about a cloud, but I suppose that's because the geek/human relationship takes over here; so if your only interest is in showing off your holiday without making yourself a slave to Google or Apple, then redundancy and decentralisation will be much less itchy. Especially, if you're not particularly drawn to the technical.
The future of storage discovered by chance?
Interestingly, following the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2017, particularly Samsung's press conference, solutions such as the Lima Ultra could gain traction. Because 5G will unleash Gigabits. In other words: extremely high speeds can be achieved without cables and only with a mobile phone.
This may mean, and we're speculating here, that you won't need to carry computing power in your trouser pocket any more. So CPU and RAM etc. become less and less important, because you can do all the computing somewhere in the cloud, or even at home thanks to high streaming speeds. As a result, your home PC could function as a data centre and your mobile phone only as a very good screen.
But that's just an idea like that, by the way.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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