Basic FAQ

FAQ:

• What is PDS?

• What are the application scenarios of PDS?

• What are the differences between PDS and OSS?

• How do I get started with PDS?

• How am I charged for using PDS?

• Are the storage costs charged based on the logical space or physical space occupied?

• What are the differences between a drive and a folder?

What is PDS?

Drive and Photo Service (PDS) is an open platform on which you can develop applications to provide data management, content recognition, and data sharing services.

PDS is one of the innovative PaaS services among Alibaba Cloud intelligent storage services. PDS is a middleware drive service that provides file management features based on an account system. Customers can conveniently and efficiently build dedicated photo and drive services based on PDS. PDS also provides customers with an out-of-the-box drive application that can be used without custom development. The application can be directly used after simple configurations.

In addition to the file management features, PDS provides more features such as instant file upload, space allocation based on user permissions, sharing based on encrypted URLs, and quick search. Customers can use existing accounts, create new accounts, or use third-party accounts to log on to PDS. PDS is suitable for providing drive services for both enterprises and individuals. PDS also provides a variety of photo features, including image clustering, extraction of metadata such as the capture time and location from images and videos, thumbnails of images and documents, and timeline sorting.

What are the application scenarios of PDS?

With the popularization of 5G and the continuous expansion of personal data size and types, the demand for personal cloud storage is increasing. Users also demand more in terms of data management, collaboration, and intelligent processing services. PDS provides a standard middleware drive service based on which partners and customers can develop dedicated photo and drive services. PDS is suitable for providing drive services for both enterprises and individuals. You can use PDS in the following scenarios:

• Drive space rental: Independent software vendors (ISVs) in the drive industry can build dedicated drive services for sale based on PDS. PDS provides the built-in deduplication, thin provisioning, and intelligent hierarchical storage features to greatly reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO). The deduplication feature ensures that only one copy of a file is stored in a domain. Thin provisioning allows you to over-allocate virtual space to users. PDS also provides rich usage statistics for drives to support your operations. For example, you can charge your users for using virtual resources based on the statistics.

• Photo and drive services: PDS allows customers to develop drive and photo systems for enterprises or individuals. PDS also provides an official application that can be used together with your systems to simplify your development.

• Data hosting: PDS can manage the data stored in Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS) for customers. PDS provides management views based on drives, folders, and files for end users. Customers can also use OSS API to implement data interactions between applications and users and data transfer with partners.

What are the differences between PDS and OSS?

PDS is a PaaS middleware drive service based on OSS. Compared with OSS, PDS provides the following enhanced capabilities:

• To Customer (ToC) account management

• Efficient file and folder management

• Instant file upload, deduplication, resumable upload and download, and URL-based sharing

• Document preview, photo service, and intelligent video processing

How do I get started with PDS?

For more information, see Get started with PDS.

How am I charged for using PDS?

PDS charges you based on the data storage size in GB, outbound traffic over the Internet, and the number of users. PDS stores only one copy of each file and charges you storage fees based on the actual physical space that is occupied by files. This reduces your storage costs. For more information about PDS pricing, see Billing overview.

Are the storage costs charged based on the logical space or physical space occupied?

PDS stores only one copy of each file and charges you storage fees based on the actual physical space that is occupied by files. PDS does not charge you storage fees based on the logical space that you have over-allocated to users.

What are the differences between a drive and a folder?

A folder resides in a drive. Compared with a folder, a drive is a finer-grained management object. You can specify the size and administrator of a drive based on your business requirements. If you are not the administrator of a drive, you cannot move, rename, or delete the drive. A folder supports only file-related management operations, and it can be operated by a random user.