GrandStore: Towards Large-Scale Free Personal Cloud Storage

Personal cloud storage services are gaining popularity, such as SkyDrive, iCloud, Dropbox, etc. All of them provide a certain amount of free storage space for individual users, while the free space is quite limit, and you should upgrade to a paid account to get extra space. Therefore, a new approach is proposed in this paper, that many free personal cloud storage accounts are integrated in order to realize large-scale free personal cloud storage. A prototype system called GrandStore is designed and implemented, which is based on the principle of OAuth protocol and open API. Specifically, after authorized by the owner of account, GrandStore could manage and control the account, so there is no need for complex login any more. Users only need apply for several free cloud storage accounts, and then account authentication credentials are stored in back-end database of GrandStore, which realizes easily enlarging personal free storage space, and managing all storage space in a unique access entry.