Nowadays, the cloud has provided a way for people to easily store and backup all of their most important documents, photos, and music. These cloud computing services give consumers access to a form of network storage, where the remote hosting of files allows them access to their documents from multiple computers and devices at any time. No longer do people need to fret about forgetting essential documents on their home computers. Email deluges full of pictures that you had to send yourself from your latest event or vacation are a thing of the past. Thanks to these companies and the guidance of an IT support specialist near Winter Park, all you need to do now is upload it to the cloud, and you can access it later at your own convenience.
However, when it comes to choosing the right cloud storage service, some confusion still abounds. Currently, there are plenty of companies that are competing to provide cloud storage services for their customers. While many are offering some enticing rewards to their potential customers, such as free accounts and extra storage space, some companies simply provide a better quality of service than others. The debate still rages on over who is the best, but here are three online cloud storage providers which you should look into:
Dropbox
Dropbox has certainly become one of the more popular options for online cloud storage, and one does not need to look too far to see why they have been so successful. To put it simply, they offer a full-featured service that is user-friendly, and their marketing strategy is superb. Dropbox routinely uses promotions which are styled like video game quests with rewards such as earning more storage space in order to encourage their users to invite their friends to use this service. Studies have shown that many customers will rank Dropbox’s reward system as superior to other competitor, such as SkyDrive or even iCloud. Customers have the option of upgrading to a pro account for around $9.99/month (or $99 annually) which will give them access to 100GB of storage space. Dropbox also provides mobile support for users with iPhones, iPads, Androids, Blackberries, and Kindle Fires.
One of the best aspects of this service is that Dropbox is constantly backing up its storage of word files. If a user chooses to sync their Dropbox folder to their main documents folder, then Dropbox will back up any changes that user makes to any document automatically. Not what you wanted? Well then that user can access the previous version of a document by simply clicking on “view previous changes” within their Dropbox folder. This is an excellent feature to have in case you were to accidently overwrite an important file, or you are working with someone else on the same project.
That brings me to the other really great aspect of Dropbox, the sharing abilities it has incorporated flawlessly into its service. If someone chooses to share a folder with you via Dropbox, then that folder will appear right on your desktop for easy access. You can even share links to particular images or documents too. While these may change, Dropbox does currently offer the best integration with Facebook of any online cloud storage service. In addition, this service has become very popular for photo sharing as photos can be easily viewed in gallery format using Dropbox.
Dropbox Specs: Greatest free space award system available through referrals, best version-control backup, great Facebook integration, impressive sharing options, great for multiple devices, but the lowest amount of beginning free space.
Box
Customers who have chosen box as their online cloud storage device have been quite pleased with the all-around solid service that it can provide. Interestingly, many of their customers are individuals who have become resistant to the idea of giving companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon access to even more of their personal information. Box currently provides excellent mobile support for customers with Androids, iPads, and iPhones.
Potential customers can choose to sign up for a free account which will start at 5 GB of storage space. It is worth noting that many of Box’s common-place features are only provided through their business accounts, which will cost customers about $15 per month. However, for those who do choose to purchase a business account, they will be given access to an incredible 1,000 GBs of storage space! In addition to all that storage space, business account holders will also have access to password-protected sharing, enhanced search capabilities, and version-history backups.
As you can see, Box is very much designed for corporate users, a point that it does not try to hide. Some of the biggest users of this online cloud storage service include such brand names as Six Flags, Proctor & Gamble, and Pandora. Box has become a reliable choice for small-business owners or startups. All users of Box are able to share files and folders via links. Even more importantly, this service allows users to add comments and assign certain tasks for more effective business management and collaboration.
Box Specs: Great online cloud storage service for businesses, solid potential for sharing and collaboration projects, fully integrated workflow management tools, but the free accounts are a bit lacking in areas.
iCloud
If you are doing your own research on cloud storage services, then you’re probably going to see a few comparisons between Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Apple’s iCloud. Now to be fair, both of these companies do provide similar services to their users, such as 5GB of free storage space for new users with the option of paying $10 more a year to upgrade to 20GB of storage space. Plus, both of these services share similar strengths, and that would be in the music streaming and storage departments.
If you are someone who uses iTunes to purchase, organize, and listen to most of your music and other media, then iCloud would probably be the best cloud storage option for you. In fact, music that is purchased through iTunes doesn’t actually count against your storage limit. It also goes without question that this storage services integrates perfectly with your iPhone, iPod, iPad, or any other Apple device.
iCloud Specs: Upgrading your account is inexpensive, easy integration with any Apple device, free storage for any MP3s purchased through iTunes, lacking some features for spreadsheets and word documents.
As you can see, choosing the appropriate online cloud storage device can often depend on what you are looking to use it for. Be it for business management or streaming tons of music, there is a service available which can adequately meet your needs.
For information on cloud computing, contact an IT support specialist near Winter Park at Firewall Computer Services. Call 407-647-3430 today.