Storage In The Cloud – What’s the Best Package?
Cloud storage services are everywhere nowadays. Eleven of the most popular cloud storage services were tested for functionality and price-per-GB.
Amazon Cloud Drive
Amazon Cloud Drive is little more than a hard drive in the sky, which probably explains why it’s cheaper than most of the providers. Nice background music but very basic interface. Amazon excels here with its ability to stream your music to you via the web or via an Android app. 20GB/year costs $20 with Amazon, and the price of $1/Gb continues right up to $1TB for $1000.
Box.net
Box.net’s main focus is business users – with various sharing tools for managing workflow, versions, tasks, and comments. The interface resembles facebook. And it syncs nicely with Google Apps. Reputedly very reliable, Box.net costs $120 for 25Gb or $240 for 100GB – it’s a corporate thing, dummy – it costs twice as much as the next most expensive cloud storage provider.
Dropbox
Dropbox is extremely simple to use and convenient. Customers receive a folder. They put content in that folder. That folder is synced to any devices. Easy. It even looks just like any other folder on your computer. And there’s no size limit on files. 50Gb costs $120, and access extends to all major OS too. Admittedly it’s one of the most expensive options.
Google Cloud
Google cloud storage represents the best value for money. Google User Managed Storage not surprisingly syncs very smoothly with other Google services such as Google Docs. Microsoft Office documents can also sync with Google’s cloud solution. Prices start from a mere $5 for 20GB. Google also offers Google Music Beta, allowing users to upload 20,000 songs to the cloud and stream them.
Apple’s iCloud
Apple iCloud is the new guy. Designed exclusively for Apple devices, iCloud will sync iWork documents across your machines. Music and videos bought from Apple are exempt from the storage limit, too. iCloud storage costs $20 for 10GB. That works out at eight times the price of Google storage. Though 50GB is the limit at present.
iDrive Sync
iDrive Sync resembles Dropbox, but is more advanced. It also has a desktop app, but with iDrive you can also sync files outside of your main folder. And it keeps back-ups of all versions of your files, for safety’s sake. For $49.50 you get unlimited storage. It’s hard to use though. At the moment iPhone is the only mobile app. and it’s a bit buggy. It’s free for a reason.
Windows Sky Drive
Windows Sky Drive is very generous in giving 25GB free, and surprise surprise it integrates well with the MS Office Web suite and other MS services. Folders can be synced via Windows Live Mesh. No OSX, Android, or iOS support, but 25GB for free is a plus, and being Windows, it’s not too bad. The 100MB size-limit on files could be a problem.
Mozy
Mozy lets you choose which folders from your desktop to back up, and offers solid encryption, and bandwidth throttling allows you to back up without impairing your browsing experience. Mozy also offers 30 days’ backups, and a very pleasant, uncluttered and intuitive UI. 50GB cost $72, 125GB for $120. Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Web all supported.
SugarSync
SugarSync is the knickerbocker glory of cloud storage. Files are synced across multiple machines in realtime. Period. Apps for every major smartphone OS, and a fetching UI. Easy sharing, strong encryption, streaming to mobile or desktop, yes, yes, yes. It even backs up the last 5 – yes 5!!! – versions of your docs, it uploads the pictures on your phone automatically, and has a bonus scheme for free extra storage. And that speed throttling thing. $50 for 30GB, $250 for 250Gb. Blackberry? Symbian? It’s everything even Bill Gates could ever dream of.
Ubuntu One
Ubuntu’s version is called Ubuntu One, 5GB free and $30 for every 20GB thereafter. Its integrated music streaming service streams to Firefox, Android, and iOS. Nice interface as well. A buggy Windows Beta version exists, but really only for Ubuntu users. And quite expensive.
YouSendIt
YouSendIt delivers commercial standard security and plug-ins for proprietorial software (MS Office, FinalCut, iPhoto, etc) and a steep price plan – 5GB for $120, or unlimited for $180. Windows, OSX, iPhone, Web, and Blackberry all catered for. The best solution will depend on your requirements. For free, it must be Windows. On a budget, we’d recommend Google User Managed Storage. For all the bells and whistles, SugarSync is unbeatable, and for technophobes, who like someone to hold their hand in the big wide web, Dropbox is easy to follow. You pays your money…
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As with any “mission critical system” one would be wise to have redundancy. Those that put full faith in any one thing will reep the consequences. Really doesn’t matter whether it is up in the cloud or on the local desktop or back office server, they are all vulnerable.