ownCloud 5 Released

ownCloud, the open source cloud syncing and backup service have today announced the release of version 5 of their server side management system. Being version 5, this is obviously a major release with many improvements to not only the user interface but also under the hood.

For those that aren’t familiar with ownCloud, ownCloud is a service similar to other cloud storage and syncing services like Dropbox and Ubuntu One. Except ownCloud has one big advantage over these services – you keep full control over where your data is stored. Here is how the ownCloud guys describe it themselves:

Unlike Dropbox and other commercial sync and share apps, which store data in the cloud in remote, third-party data centers, ownCloud is deployed on-premise, seamlessly integrating with existing security, storage, monitoring and reporting tools. With more than 750,000 users worldwide, ownCloud offers the ease-of-use, flexibility, sophistication and security not available from basic syncing apps and third-party storage.

New Features

I briefly mentioned above that ownCloud 5 has a lot of new features, both user facing and under the hood. The official announcement on the ownCloud Blog has a full feature list of all the improvements in ownCloud 5, but here is an overview of some of the improvements found in the latest iteration of ownCloud:

• New design
• Ability to restore deleted files
• Improved search engine
• Clam AV integration to stop virus’s
• Re-written photo gallery
• Improved file cache and versioning (up to 500% faster)
• Faster desktop client syncing
• Improved security features (new version of local encryption due by April)
• Enhanced external storage app for linking in with other services like Dropbox & Google Drive
• And many more…

A while back I mentioned that I would be writing a complete setup guide for ownCloud. I held of on doing this as I knew ownCloud 5 was imminent, but now that version 5 has been released I will be starting work on the ownCloud 5 setup guide, so don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed and/or email newsletter so you don’t miss out! Whilst you’re waiting for the ownCloud 5 setup guide, you can try a demo of ownCloud yourself, or you can get started and download ownCloud 5 now.