Plex is the defacto option if you want to stream your videos, music, pictures on your local network. All you need to do is centralize your media at one place, probably using NAS, and setup plex on top of it.
Plex has taken it one step ahead with “Cloud”. This service makes your Media Server a portable one. It’s for those whose data is always on the cloud. Yes, you got it right. Plex Cloud can connect to popular cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive to stream content on the go, and without any wires.
The company is offering a closed beta. The idea does look promising if bandwidth is not of much concern. All the storage services now offer offline sync, and if I have enough storage space on them, I would rather keep all my files there. I would use Plex Home Server when I have the option, else switch back to the cloud when I want to stream.
I have my collection on OneDrive and had used Groove to stream songs from there, and now with Plex in place, I will do it more often, especially with my Xbox One.
So is the cloud useful? It’s more about evolving, and offer an option for those who can make use of it. A simple example is about me. I dont want to invest money on a NAS, and I have 1 TB storage on OneDrive, 22 GB storage on Dropbox which is a lot if I want to keep my movie files, and songs. All I need is Cloud Streaming option which is exactly Plex is offering. Now if I can give access to all of this to my family, and they could stream the media which is on my cloud, the need of NAS is more.
I will be trying out Plex Cloud is much detail. Stay tuned for more!