Plex, a media server company that helps customers access files on a range of devices, is expanding its cloud service well beyond Amazon. Now, users of Plex Cloud can use Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft’s OneDrive to store media and other files. That way, you pay any one of those companies for storage — and pony up $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year for a Plex Pass account — to access Plex’s app library to manage files and play media. The company’s software works on most major game consoles, smart TVs, and streaming devices.

Plex Cloud launched as a beta program back in September, starting exclusively with Amazon’s cloud service provider, AWS. A number of users have run into issues using Amazon, and Plex says it’s working out a number of kinks with the beta to make its cloud service fully operational across a number of platforms. “We are working hard to resolve the issues, so please stay tuned,” the company wrote in a message posted to its Reddit community today. “In the meantime, we really hope you can help us test and validate the other Cloud storage provider integrations once we get you into the Beta.”

The benefit of Plex’s cloud service is removing the need to manage and operate your own home media server either on a computer or with some another storage means like NAS. By using Amazon — and now Google, Microsoft, and Dropbox — you can store those files in the cloud and have the same ease of access with Plex as if they were local to your own network. There is one hitch: Amazon, and most other cloud service providers, has specific language in its Terms of Use banning the hosting of copyright infringing files. So perhaps think twice about storing pirated content with Plex Cloud.

- Source: Plex (Reddit)