When I started building my personal cloud, I wanted several things:

1. Manage all my data by myself. I love Google tools, but I really want to have the full control of my data.
2. Be able to have a backup of my data in two different sites in case of disaster
3. Have a “cache” of my data at home in order to be able to access it even when my internet bandwith was low.

This is the architecture I set up:

• A dedicated owncloud server (http://owncloud.org/)
• A NAS at home run by custom firmware from http://plugout.net
• Owncloud clients:
  • Raspberry pi (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) runs a client in order to synchronize the server with the NAS (See here how to build the owncloud client for the raspi)
  • Smartphone Nexus S with automatic picture upload activated
  • Several PC at home are connected to the NAS and can add files

I made a quick test that shows the powerfullness of this cloud:

1. Take a picture on my smartphone
2. Wait automatic upload to the owncloud server
3. Wait download to the NAS through raspberry pi

The picture was available on my NAS at home only 1 minute after it has been taken without any manual action.

• Build a program for the Raspi to be able to upload automatically to the cloud pictures from my camera when the camera is detected on the USB port.
• Build a Web Interface accessible easily from my smartphone to get raspi status with some commands (reboot, owncloud client status…)
• Manage automatic mount of NFS share after boot, when NFS share become available (autofs?)