The New Plex Cloud Service Will Allow Cloud Storage of Personal Video Collection

Plex is a service that allows streaming of personal media collection such as video, photos, music to any device from a Home PC or a NAS device. It primarily manages to do this using Plex Media Server a free software that organizes collections and streams them.

But of course, streaming them requires the original device to be available and connected. Plex has now teamed up with Amazon to offer a cloud service called Plex Cloud that moves the content to cloud allowing users to access the media from anywhere without restrictions.

"Plex Cloud eliminates the need to run your own local Plex Media Server and manage an always-on computer or NAS," said a Plex announcement. "Let Amazon worry about nasty stuff like power failure, corruption, and data loss. It turns out they're pretty good at that stuff!"

Currently in beta, Plex is currently offering customer singup on its website for those interested.

While Plex has a free service, access to Plex Cloud will be possible only if customers take up the  premium "Plex Pass" package. The current charges for Plex Pass is $5 a month or an annual fee of $40, or $150 for a lifetime pass.

Additionally, customers will need to have sufficient Amazon Drive storage. A Prime subscription provides 5GB space while for unlimited storage a customer would need to shell out $60 a year for an Amazon Drive subscription.

The media uploaded onto Amazon is a separate server than what is available on the local Plex Media Storage.

However, many have pointed out that in all possibilities users will find hosting pirated or illegal content to be a no-no. Amazon's terms clearly state that such content cannot be stored on its servers, and Amazon immediately removes any such content once identified.

A spokesperson for Plex has said that users will need to follow the terms and conditions of service laid down by both Plex and Amazon.