14 DAY TRIAL // Today, September 16, 2016, Nextcloud informs Softpedia about the launch of a new hardware product, the first in the company's history, in collaboration with Canonical and WDLabs.
Before Nextcloud was formed as a fork of ownCloud, you remember that the team worked with the WDLabs engineers to bring us a Raspberry Pi-powered device, named ownCloud PiDrive, that allowed us to create our own personal and secure private cloud infrastructure based on ownCloud and Snappy Ubuntu Core.
Well, it looks like the ownCloud PiDrive project moved to become NextCloud Box, a hardware kit that comes bundled with the Nextcloud self-hosting cloud server and allows you to run your own private cloud, on your network. And because it uses the newest Snappy technologies, it can be easily transformed into a true IoT hub.
"We have always believed that collaboration brings out the best in communities and companies alike," said Jane Silber, CEO at Canonical. "Together with WDLabs and Nextcloud we are able to bring the first Ubuntu Core-enabled device, as an app-enabled IoT gateway, to the market and to people’s homes."
Here's what's in the box
However, it appears that Nextcloud Box only consists of a 1TB Western Digital hard disk drive (HDD), and, of course, the case, to which you can attach an external SSD or HDD if you want more storage, and a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3, or another supported single-board computer.
As mentioned before, Nextcloud Box comes pre-installed with Nextcloud, which has been pre-configured to handle file syncing, storage, and communication without any additional maintenance from the end user. Of course, power users can extend it to their liking by adding the LibreOffice-based Collabora Online Office, OpenHab, or Spreed.
It's also possible to integrate WebRTC-based secure audio and video calls, as well as to install other Linux kernel-based operating systems. Again, Nextcloud Box ships with Ubuntu Snappy Core pre-installed, which enables the device to act as an extensible Internet of Things gateway.
First 50 Nextcloud Boxes are now on sale
NextCloud Box is also designed to run on the oDroid C2 single-board computer, besides being engineered for Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 2 devices, but 50 units are already available for sale for the price of €70 if you're attending the Nextcloud Conference in Berlin, Germany, from September 16 to 22.
Best of all, Nextcloud gives away a free Raspberry Pi 2 single-board computer for every purchase. Below, we've attached the press release photos with the new Nextcloud Box device if you want to see how it looks, but we also recommend that you visit https://nextcloud.com/box for more details.
Update: Nextcloud informs us that only the 50 units available for sale at the Nextcloud Conference in Berlin come with a free Raspberry Pi 2 single-board computer. Also, they will enable software support for Raspberry Pi 3 and oDroid C2 devices later in the year.
