Jungle Disk Review

Jungle Disk Workgroup is a data security-focused business cloud storage and notable cloud backup solution built for compatibility with Amazon AWS. Starting at $4 per month per user, Jungle Disk is geared for laptops, desktops, and mobile devices and combines encrypted online storage with clients for PCs running Microsoft Windows 10 and Apple Mac OS. Jungle Disk's strength lies in its focus on security and compliance, which many small to midsize businesses (SMBs) will find valuable. It also blends the convenience of cloud storage with the familiarity of network drive functionality native to all computers. Each subscription includes 10 gigabytes (GB) of free storage per client, unlimited free data transfers, and the option to employ advanced data compression for backup snapshots, which can speed up transfer times by 30 percent while lowering storage costs. Jungle Disk also offers a Server Edition of its service for $5 per computer per month. For businesses that need email archiving, this option is available for $5 per mailbox per month.

Installing the Jungle Disk Server application on a user's PC makes it possible to securely store data by dragging and dropping files and folders right from the desktop. With the foundation of military-grade AES-256 encryption, separate cloud storage volumes are accessible only through unique encryption keys which can be controlled by admins. Another difference between Jungle Disk and some of its competition is that the company lets you choose the virtual storage infrastructure provider to whom you want to back up, either Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Storage.

As general cloud storage for businesses, Jungle Disk also does well. Anything from network-attached storage (NAS) devices to Microsoft OneDrive for Business ($5.00 Per User Per Month at Microsoft 365 Business) repositories can be backed up or synced on Jungle Disk. This makes Jungle Disk a one-stop-shop not only for ensuring your data is always somewhere safe in case disaster strikes, but also as a primary storage repository your users can touch every day.

However, a limited amount of storage as compared to other business cloud storage players, as well as some additional hoops that administrators must jump through when configuring backup processes, keep it slightly behind Editors' Choice winners Microsoft OneDrive for Business and Egnyte Business ($8.00 at Egnyte) .

As data protection and backup solution, its focus on security is well-received, but it also lags a bit behind our Editors' Choice winner in that category, Arcserve UDP Cloud Direct (175.00 Per Month at Serve from American Express) , mainly for the management overhead. However, for small teams with a keen interest in data security, it's definitely worth a look.

Getting Started

Setting up Jungle Disk entails adding a specific domain for your business or organization. Jungle Disk suggests using the domain of your business's email address for greater convenience. From the setup menu, you can add users and passwords as well as choose between Amazon AWS or Google Drive storage. You also have the option to choose Local Drive Mapping, Sync Folders, Automatic Backup, and Public Sharing, as well as set the level of security desired.

Setting up users and their drives mean having to manually set read and write access to that drive. Jungle Disk makes this easy and straightforward to set up. At this point, users need to select and download the appropriate version of the Jungle Disk desktop software.

Aside from Windows 10 (in 32-bit and 64-bit versions) and MacOS (supporting MacOS 10.9 and higher), there are also various options for a variety of 32-bit and 64-bit Linux operating systems (OSes). There's also a very convenient USB Key installer which allows you to download all the Jungle Disk installers into a USB drive for easy installation on multiple machines. The only caveat is the computers need to be running 64-bit versions of their OS software.

We installed the Microsoft Windows 10 compatible 64-Bit Workgroup for Windows software. This requires a reboot after which a Setup Wizard will be initiated. It is in this Setup Wizard that you can choose which folders to back up as well as the schedule. In our case, we chose to back up once a day at midnight.

Jungle Disk is preconfigured to back up certain folders, including Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, Video, Fonts, and Favorites in Windows 10. Users can omit certain folders that they don't need to back up. It is also possible to dig into your PC's file manager and add and include any folder that you'd like to include in your backup process. For business users, there may be a folder containing recent files that are critical and require regular backups.

For the Network Drive functionality, Jungle Disk will assign an available letter to the drive (in our case, "j" was the selected drive letter). It is also possible to select the Maximum Cache Size anywhere from the standard 1 GB to 10 GB. If the volume of data that needs to be backed up is high, consider increasing to the maximum size available given available hard drive space. Once setup is completed, the network drive should appear on your Windows File Explorer.

Storage and Recovery Options

Collaboration tools in Jungle Disk take the form of a shared network drive that clones the native implementation in Microsoft Windows. Alternatively, a more traditional "sync folder" may be specified, similar to how Dropbox and similar software works, where the client creates a special folder with special options to act as its local repository. Recovery options are managed from the web portal so everything available on the desktop is sparse.

Jungle Disk will appeal to users who like the predictability of old-time file shares. There's nothing to get in the way between you and your files, but there aren't a lot of extras either. Dragging files to the shared folder is seamless and backup occurs silently and flawlessly in the background. The Jungle Disk Activity Monitor is available for checking on the sync status, but otherwise, there is no user interface (UI) indication that anything is happening. This might bother some users who have become used to the dynamic icons overlays of services like Dropbox, but it also makes it easy to forget that you are using an application at all. Businesses will appreciate the reliable and no fuss interface that limits distraction and confusion.

For the server OSes, both a server agent and a management client is needed. Typically, the management client would run from a workstation, allowing a centralized way to configure backups for each server as required.

Shared sync folders and "Network Drives" constitute the bulk of Jungle Disk's team collaboration options, which puts it well behind the more collaboration-centric service offerings from Box (for Business), Dropbox Business, and Editor's Choice pick Microsoft OneDrive for Business. While most SMBs and users can eke out a collaboration system around Jungle Disk, more demanding workflows or intense collaboration requirements will be better served by solutions like Google Drive Enterprise.

A nice feature worth highlighting is that you can add personal Amazon S3 accounts to your Jungle Disk account. For organizations that already leverage cloud storage with AWS, this could be a significant benefit as it avoids overlapping costs across solutions. Drive Mapping, Sync Folders, Automatic Backup, and Public Sharing can also be toggled on or off per share. Encryption can be set to standard security (SSL) or high security (Encrypted Files).

Backup Options Abound

Backups are simple to configure. You can add multiple jobs but it's often simplest to keep only one. The major configuration options are limited to schedule, what to back up, and retention time measured in days. When compared to other business-class backup products, this is a very lean set of features. Schedules can be set to as little as once per day or as frequently as every five minutes. The app can also be configured to restrict bandwidth usage, which is a necessity for large backups that could occur during peak usage.

Server backups configured through the management client follow the same setup procedure. The only added steps are installing the Jungle Disk agent on the target server along with the appropriate license key. The client will then auto-detect the server and let you complete the configuration. Even without reviewing the documentation, someone new to the product could get a baseline established in under 15 minutes.

Jungle Disk backs up data in three basic ways: a traditional scheduled backup option, a set of shareable network drives, and configurable sync folders. In all cases, the backups are incremental and keep with the philosophy of continuous backup. Unlike some other traditional backup apps, there isn't a system image backup option, which is a definite ding nowadays. In many cases, this is still workable since the most important information to back up is often not the OS. But, for any business relying on IT-managed virtual servers of any kind (which is most businesses these days), the notable downside is that IT administrators will need to use a separate tool for creating pre-configured system images, backing them up, and restoring them later, with any data or app files being added from Jungle disk only after this initial operation.

Data can be configured to back up to and restore from Backup Vaults. These are compressed and deduplicated volumes that are tied to a single system. They're very efficient and can often achieve 50 percent compression or better. For large backups with a retention period greater than seven days, this is the way to go. Files that need to have rapid access through the file-sharing capabilities should be backed up to a Simple Backup volume instead.

Security and Integration Options

Jungle Disk excels from an encryption perspective. All data is protected by using AES 256-bit encryption while maintaining client ownership of the encryption keys. This is a strong position to assert compliance to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), SOC2, SOC3, and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Permissions are managed solely from the web-based administrative Control Panel. Permissions, however, are designated as being per-user and per-volume. Folders and groups are non-entities as far as Jungle Disk is concerned. For small teams, this isn't a big issue, but for shops that tend to use consultants or need finer control of data access, this is a noticeable flaw. With proper structuring, it can be overcome but that will require extra time and effort on your part which might translate to higher costs.

Reporting is somewhat lackluster, which impacts security because that makes it difficult to maintain traceability at the file level. While usage logs are available, they only show data transfer statistics and not who deleted what file and when. If this capability could be improved, then Jungle Disk could take some big strides toward drawing clientele away from Box (for Business) and Dropbox Business, which don't need the extra app integration and instead love the simplicity of a simple shared drive.

There is currently no integration with other apps. Due to the nature of the product, this would be difficult to achieve even in best-case scenarios. Jungle Disk, in its most secure configuration, is like locking your data in a bank vault. The upside is that makes it very secure. But the inevitable downside is that you can't reach it without jumping through significant hoops, which makes app integration very difficult.

The good news, however, is that those restrictions apply only to code- or process-level integration with other cloud-based services or apps; any on-premises solutions your business is using would still have access to Jungle Disk's shared folders as though they were simple network file shares (which could mitigate some of this difficulty). Unlike most of its competitors, Jungle Disk isn't open for custom integration work, but some trusted third-party options exist for using Microsoft's Active Directory (AD) and other Single Sign-on (SSO) systems via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

At its core, Jungle Disk is business-grade storage and backup product with simple sharing capabilities. While this sounds like a step backward given the ever-expanding feature set of competing for products that offer advanced collaboration tools, it remains an elegant solution and one that focuses on security and for some SMBs and enterprise customers, that makes the best sense for their needs.

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