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Can WebDAV Support A Robust Cloud Solution?

The answer to this question is “it depends.​” The WebDAV standard itself can support the basic operations of cloud storage – create/​rename/​delete/​move files and folders. And from a WebDAV client perspective, most operating systems have a built-in implementation of WebDAV. It all sounds promising until you realize the differences in implementation on the various operating systems and the limitations of authentication and session handling. For instance, Windows XP has a very nice integration with being able to interact with the virtual mounted WebDAV drive; but Windows VISTA makes it very clumsy and provides a step backwards from Windows XP. Why should a WebDAV drive act differently than a normal file drive? In addition, if you are thinking about using the Mac OS X, be aware that session cookie handling is non-existent, making the WebDAV solution not a workable alternative. Furthermore, Windows supports X.​509 and basic authentication; but the Mac OS X only supports basic authentication. There are third-party apps for Mac OS X, like Goliath and Transit. Goliath has the same issues built-in the native Mac OS X – very limited cookie handling. Transit, www.​panic.​com, is an alternative for the Mac that works reasonably well, but it only supports basic authentication. We’ve also tried out Java Based DAVExplorer and it has problems handing HTTP 302 redirects, making the folder contents UN-explorable. So, you can see, you might want to invest in a custom WebDAV client if you want your WebDAV server to be accessible via a Cloud Storage solution.