Sissle

Sissle is a file transfer program for storing and retrieving files within the Amazon S3 system. Files stored on Amazon S3 can be for backup, this can be as your main backup or as secondary backup in case of fire or theft of your machines and discs. Also it can be used as an extra infinite storage disk as for example photographs and movies or even as a simple web site as for example part of this site. Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) provides a cheap reliable storage for high volume files (e.g. one set of users are defined as storing over 5000 TB) and Sissle transfers files to and from Amazon S3.

Sissle provides numerous functions such as creation and deletion of buckets, folders and files, file encryption, file compression, synchronization of files, filter operations e.g. *.doc, batch operations, copy / move files internally within Amazon S3, reading and setting ACLs..

Sissle has 2 modes of operation, the original Sissle FTP style module and a newer extension to Windows Explorer. The Sissle FTP program, shown below, contains 2 explorer type windows showing local and remote folders and files, adorned with buttons to transfer data to and from the Amazon S3 system and a synchronize button (Larger Screen shot). When an operation has been selected another transfer window opens showing all the operations to be performed. The transfer window (Screen Shot Transfer Window) allows a further level of selection / deselection of operations and then tracks the progress of all operations.

The extension to Windows Explorer is shown in the last screen shot.This shows a section of the C drive and a section of  Sissle NSE. This is showing in the left window, buckets in light brown and folders in blue. The right hand window is showing the contents of a folder. Uploading is achieved by the normal mechanism of selecting the files from C:\Daves (say) dragging and dropping in the folder within Amazon S3  "Sissle NSE/dwarf9/Test/disttest" (say). Downloading is achieved by dragging and dropping  in the opposite direction. Drag and drop from 2  Explorer windows is very convenient. Other operation are performed by right clicking and selecting from the menu.

Amazon S3 pricing: Visit http://aws.amazon.com/s3. and you can skip the next paragraph.

Amazon S3 provides a top level container called a bucket and stores files (Amazon calls them keys) inside these buckets. The analogy with folders and files is complete within Sissle. The Amazon S3 Simple Storage System is a low cost reliable file storage system. The storage cost is $0.15 per GB per month, all values are in US dollars, there are bandwidth costs of $0.10 in and $0.17 out per GB. Complete and up to date details can be found at http://aws.amazon.com/s3. As an example the yearly cost for storing 1GB is 12 * $0.15 = $1.80 + initially loading of $0.10 = $1.90. The download costs are more difficult to calculate and depends on use but if we say this is 'n' times the complete 1GB per year this is $0.17n. There are some auxiliary charges but as these involve per 1000 and per 10000 accesses for $0.01 I will ignore them here. There is no minimum fee, as an example my monthly payments have varied between 0.05 to 0.25 $ and these small amounts create no problems on your credit card. I have quoted the most expensive rates, cheaper rates are available for users with excess of 50TB, ... and currently until 1st Nov 2010 the bandwidth costs for the example given is free.The site http://aws.amazon.com/s3 gives the up to date info and general info on the service.

Sissle Version  1.4.0