Zima Personal Cloud Storage Solution
The Zima Personal Cloud
Zima Cube reached out in August and asked me to make a video about their Personal Cloud storage array. It arrived and I started the unboxing. Shortly after I started, Mom died and I had to take some personal time to deal with that.
After a few months, the workflow was getting back into the groove and the Zima Personal Cloud was once again back on the workbench. There was some back and forth with the support department but we managed to get it working just right and it’s been rock solid ever since.
Getting Support:
Speaking of support, communication with Zima Support was excellent. They answered all my questions over email plus there are plenty of other resources for support. The setup is fairly straight forward. I have it connected via a ethernet cable plugged into the back of my modem. There is a way to set up the Zima Cloud as a DAS (direct access storage) but it was too loud for me to keep too close to my editing station. There are several fans in the unit and they can be heard if in the same room. Zima does provides a Thunderbolt 4 cable and whether you connect the unit directly or not, USE THAT CABLE! I use the Thunderbolt 4 cable to transfer videos from my iPhone 15 Max Pro to my M2 Pro Mac Mini. It moves LARGE videos over quickly and more efficiently than Apples Airdrop
Even though it’s connected to my network, the Zima Personal Cloud is still fast enough for me to edit off. It does hold 6x 3.5″ or 2.5″ hard drives plus 4x M.2 NVMe drives For a maximum total of 164TB. Currently the Zima Personal Cloud is stacked with 4x 4TB for a total of 16TB in 3.5″ and 4TB M.2 NVMe
Overall, general workflow for video editing has improved. Files were rather scattered before but by adding new hard drives and creating a new filing system, it’s easier to track the files that are required.
It’s been really impressive so far.
Who needs this?
Whether you are a content creator or have a small business, this is a useful tool. Think of it as your own personal digital filing cabinet. With new and ever changing regulations on handling client data, it would be safer to have the data within your own environment rather then rely on a cloud service (remember the Cloudflare data breach? or the AT&T databeach). We also use it as a family storage unit, where family documents are backed up.
There is a RAID option of 0,1,5 For my purposes, each drive represents a YouTube channel. That allows storage of files where each separate drive is for different purposes. The real test will be when it reaches the maximum storage limitations but that is many years down the road.
The links for it are below and I’ll be adding more detail to this page about it as I use it. My favorite ability about it so far is how I can edit on my main computer and then move up to my iPad and still have access to the documents.
Where to buy:
If you have a small business and you’re thinking of getting a new storage solution, check out the Zima Personal Cloud.