When I buy additional storage from Wuala - where/how is it located?

Thanks for your quick response! Well, I know how Wuala works and I've read the named page before but it still doesn't give an answer to what I've actually asked, as far as I can see.

Let's say Wuala had only 5 users, none of them shares more than 1 GB but all of them buy additional 100 GB. Where do those 500 - 5 = 495 GB come from? Not from the users, obviously! So the P2P-principle cannot be the whole story.

On YouTube, I saw an early video where Dominik explains the technology. He admits that until a critical mass of users is reached, Wuala needs to backup storage space with own servers (to yield sufficient redundancy etc.). Although the critical mass of users is reached I guess, I'm assuming that most users allocate pretty much the same space they share, so there is simply not enough "free abandoned space" to sell for those who want to buy, right?

In other words: I don't feel comfortable to buy online storage without more detailled information on this.

The problem is that I obviously can't give you exact numbers of the ratio between cloud and server storage we have available due to the competition watching this thread. For the same reason I can't tell you how much of their shared space our users fill or leave empty.
Irrespective of these limitations, I don't understand your uncomfort with our policy of information. Could you please try to explain further what exactly worries you?
I believe that knowing that our servers act like normal clients in the network should assure you that both, the advantages in terms of file availability of a grid storage solution as well as our unique level of privacy are guaranteed no matter where your files are sent to. Furthermore our competitive advantage is derived from the fact that we can provide the most downloaded files from the grid network to the users, thus save the bandwith costs which would occur on the same actions for any competitor. These savings are reflected in our very competitive pricing schemes.

With one sentence, you hit the point: "I believe that knowing that our servers act like normal clients in the network should assure you [...]"

That's the crucial term: "our servers". What are "our servers"? Where are they? The machines the developers are working on? Some forgotten 486sx box somewhere near the printer? Or what else...?!?
As I've said before, I know how Wuala and its type of grid storage works (I'm a software developer myself) and I don't worry about its P2P approach, that is great. But I know that storage space must be backuped by servers operated by Wuala. The questions stay the same:
Where are those backup servers?
How available are they?
How secure?

I wonder why it appears so difficult to give information on this if you want your customers to pay money for your service.

Maybe these FAQ entries can help:
http://www.wuala.com/en/support/faq/c...
http://www.wuala.com/en/support/faq/c...

Okay, okay, I give up. The term "our servers" seems the only hard fact information one can get here.
Whatever mystical type of holo technology, quantum computing, deeply frozen in time machines "our servers" are: I'll go and purchase additional 10 GB to find out, if they do what they should - together with the P2P grid, just give me reliable backup space.
:-)

Cheers,
Hans

Hans, the servers are indeed hosted in data centers and they are professionally operated from there. Of course they are not machines next to the developers PC. We are offering a professional service for tens of thousands of users. At the level of trust, our clients are giving us, we can't afford to work in a nonpressional way es described by you above at any time. Of course they are backed up and of course we have redundant data storage in place. Do you have any further questions?

We are continuously questioning our server architecture and working hard with our partners to guarantee the highest level of data security possible. Of course we know this is crucial for our operations.

Hi Andreas, to make this clear: I never wanted to offend you or your product! But since I have "a little" experience in the business myself, I know that hosting servers and maintaining client data is not always taken as seriously as it should...

In my opinion, it's simply good marketing to do good things = have a highly professional storage backup infrastructure and talk about it = tell the very details on the company web site (naturally without revealing crucial/confidential aspects).
As Wuala doesn't do so, you're just missing a chance!

I didn't feel offended, I just wanted to make it crystal clear that we are a professional company operating our service on a professional level. Have all your questions been answered or do you feel you need more information?

Yes, could you please take a photo of the server rack stack where especially my data is stored... ;-) No, I'm kidding (and knowing it is fragmented/distributed and not located on one machine alone).

Right now, my valuable family pictures are being uploaded to the 10 GB I've purchased. Trust enough, I think.

Thank you very much for being our client. It's good to hear we've got you on board. Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement of our service.

Currently, there are some discussion about the group sharing dialogue going on in the Wuala Community group:
http://www.wuala.com/Wuala%20Communit...

I think you might also like the Pictures of the World group if you're interested in travel pictures: http://www.wuala.com/Pictures%20of%20...

Hans - I think these are the pictures you are looking for:

http://www.wuala.com/Wuala/Photos/200...

Dominik has comments are certain images, but you will need to use the Wuala client to see them.

I wouldn't have an issue renting 1TB of storage from Wuala.