[feature request] - MC cloud

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
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arnie
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[feature request] - MC cloud

Postby arnie » 20 Mar 2011

Hi.

I'm certain that I've read something about this here in the forum, but I couldn't find it.

Every one nowadays have at least 2 computers, and also have MC installed in both of them.
Usually we copy the Multicharts folders from one computer to the other and we have basically a copy of everything.

I don't know what is happening lately, but I'm having difficulty in doing this. Every time I open MC an error occurs, and although I can open MC, no data base is available.

So I thought that one way to resolve this issues would be MC to have a cloud so its users could save all their data.
Imagine, that every time we would close MC, it would automatically save all critical data into the cloud, such as the StudyServer, the Databases, the TradingCenter, and PLEditor folders.

Now imagine that, something would happened to our computer or even a simple transfer of data from one computer onto the other, or even we out of our home or contry and he need to update our database.
A simple click of a button would update automatically all data in a safe environment and in the correct way.

Something that should definitely be considered.

Regards,
Fernando

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Re: [feature request] - MC cloud

Postby tcat » 20 Mar 2011

Hi Fernando,

I disagree with your statement for several reasons.

1) It appears that your issue is very specific, so it should be worth identifying the root cause of the problem(s) and solve it(them).
2) Backup services based on cloud computing already exist, you can give it a try through "dropbox" for example. What you will notice is that, in order for those kind of services to work, both uplink and downlink require good bandwidth. At this point in time, the uplink data stream is most of the time very slow, which means that backup to cloud is slow.
3) I am not saying that cloud services are not to be considered in the future, but I would definitely see more opportunities for "processing services", rather then backup services. Whenever I launch a severe optimization, I would appreciate having more processing power then the one I have, which is limited by whatever latest Intel cpu I have at hands.
4) Tssupport resources need to be focus on what provides short term added value for customers. There are currently a number of open requests, and as MC grows in term of functionalities, so does the time needed to support and update the current ones.
5) On the topic of everyone having several PCs and needing to synchronize each, you are absolutely right. This should be a point of focus for future releases, so that setup with several PCs can refer to one master for updated data/workpspaces/indicators or strategies, (with a differentiator between development and production). Redundancy and synchronization is currently an issue, but once again, I don't see cloud services as a solution to that.
6) Back to cloud computing. What about security? Remember that everything is secured, until it is not anymore. Going through cloud services increase the potential risk level.

Just my 6 cents.
Thierry

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Re: [feature request] - MC cloud

Postby sptrader » 20 Mar 2011

I always backup my data nightly, so easy to do , takes about 30 seconds, to make a copy of the data folder (saved as a favorite) and copy it to a backup folder.
I actually save the most recent 3 days of data history files and rotate through them. I have data problems once every couple of months or so and it's easy to delete the current data files and use the files from the previous day, problem solved, no time wasted.
A macro could make it even faster.

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Re: [feature request] - MC cloud

Postby arnie » 20 Mar 2011

I mention a cloud service just in terms of backup service, nothing more. Maybe I should have cleared that out more properly.

I do backup my database, to be more exact, I keep 6 backups of it. 2 in each SSD drive in my trading computer, another 2 in each HHD drive in my old computer, another one in a normal pen drive and another one in my laptop.

I have a program that make copies automatically to each drive.

But I would prefer something more reliable, something automatic, something like iTunes that synchronises itself with all computers in the house.
Naturally that having only 1 MC license, we could not have multiple MC instances opened at the same time in different computers, but that synchronization could be made directly into the folders, without MC being opened.

The error that I've mention doesn't happened frequently, but does happened from time to time.
There must be some file from one computer that messes up the other.

If MC had some sort of automatic backup/synchronization tool between computers, this would solve many problems.....

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Re: [feature request] - MC cloud

Postby Xyzzy » 30 Mar 2011

I'm using DropBox. I highly recommend it. It creates a subfolder within your "documents" folder. Anything that you place into that folder automatically gets copied to "the cloud," and is then automatically synchronized with any other computers that you have that are also running DropBox. It works relatively quickly (at least across a good broadband connection), and is stupid-simple to use.

You can password-protect the data. According to DropBox, it uses "military grade" encryption to encrypt data both during the uploading and downloading, and on the DropBox servers. That should mean that DropBox doesn't have any ability to see the unencrypted data itself. They also seem like a reputable company.

As a bonus, it's free for a small 2GB "bucket" of data. It's somewhat pricey for larger amounts of storage, but well worth it.

I'm currently using it to synchronize workspaces and portfolio backtester files between my notebook and my desktop. I'm trying to figure out how to use it to synchronize other data, like indicators and signals, but haven't got that far yet...

https://www.dropbox.com/


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