THE GUIDE TO ONLINE CLOUD STORAGE ~ Technically Funny
Technically Funny

Friday, 27 April 2012

THE GUIDE TO ONLINE CLOUD STORAGE

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The world of data storage has changed drastically over the last few years. Since computers, mobiles and now tablets became available to the world, we've had more stuff to save and carry around. Photos, Movies, Music and more are a permanent part of our lives and we're always on the look out to save these things securely and easily. In the last few years, memory cards were doing the trick for us. Micro SD cards became universal and you can save something in one device, take the memory card out and insert it into another device and just like magic, all your stuff was there. Despite the solution, technology moved on further and left the physical memory card behind. Just like music turning digital and leaving CD's behind. Eventually, memory cards became a daily frustration. They were small, easy to lose and they didn't all work fantastically across the board with new devices. For example, If you have a memory car with all your data saved and you recently bought an iPhone which doesn't support any memory cards, you would have to use a computer as a middle man to transfer your data across. Slowly, the idea behind a memory card was defeating the object of its use. This is an area where most tech companies knew needed improvement and as they decided to focus on simplicity in storing data, they also managed to realise how to charge the customer for the feature. This is evident as multiple companies now offer the new, simple way to save and access your data from pretty much anywhere.


HOW IT WORKS
The idea behind cloud storage is simple. There are huge server farms which house stupid amounts of empty online space. These server farms are always connected to the internet making the space and the content stored in that space available at any time. When you need to save a music file, a photo or anything else, you can upload the file from one device onto your allotted space. Lets call it a digital locker. Once you've uploaded and saved data to your locker, you can use pretty much any smartphone, tablet or computer to access the content of your digital locker and download again at your pleasure. The eliminates the need to carry around a memory card as the data you have stored is always online and always available to you. Of course, space on these server farms doesn't come free so you will normally get a small amount of space you can use which averages out around 5GB without charge with most providers but you can pay more for more space to store your treasured data. The concept is great and in practice, works brilliantly. The problem now is that we're spoilt for choice. Numerous companies have released their own versions of cloud storage and charge various prices for more data. Effectively, the service that each company provides is the same, its just reliability and value that normally wins here.


So we are going to go through the top 4 cloud storage solutions available in the UK and compare them to each other to see which one will be best for you. We will cover cost, data allowance and compatibility as well as features. Shall we?




APPLE iCLOUD
Now although Apple weren't the first to offer a cloud storage service in the UK, they certainly were the first to aggressively sell it as a feature for their products. First and foremost, the one big limitation of iCloud is that it will only work with and support Apple products. So if you're a Windows user with a non Apple smartphone or tablet, iCloud would be useless to you. You can still use iTunes installed on Windows PC's to access your purchase history. On the other hand, if your setup is predominantly Apple, iCloud is a pretty great service. You can sync files from any Mac computer, iPad, iPhone (3GS and up) and iPod touch (3rd gen and up).
Most of the time, the device you are using will give you an option within the sharing list to send to iCloud. Other Apps will also pop with the option when you are saving your document.
The iOS back up is fantastic, saving all your documents from your apps automatically. Also, if you download an app onto your iPhone which is also compatible with the iPad, it will automatically download onto the iPad. Similarly, if you were to purchase music from the iTunes store on an iOS device, it'll automatically be downloaded onto iTunes on your Mac or in the case iTunes for Windows PC. iTunes in the cloud is also another feature that helps you access your purchase history on iTunes from any iOS device or computer with the latest version of iTunes installed. Apple have started introducing movies and TV shows too so any of those you purchase will also show up. When it comes to images, Apple have integrated Photo Stream to all iOS devices running iOS 5 and above. This allows you to take a picture using the camera on an iPhone or iPad and it will instantly send it to another compatible iDevice or computer, giving you access to your images everywhere. In addition to the iCloud integration that Apple offers, a lot of productivity apps available through Apples App store now allow you to save files directly to the iCloud, allowing you access to it if you'd rather finish the file off an a Mac. Apples iCloud works very well but if you're a power user, the free 5GB storage Apple offers wont last you very long. iCloud does a daily back up and with an iPhone and iPadiTunes purchase history uses up any of your iCloud storage space which is a plus. The service isn't great for accessing data on multiple random devices, its more suited for personal use.
PRICING: 15GB for £14/year, 25GB for £28/year and 55GB for £70/year.

GOOGLE DRIVE
Google have long been rumoured to be making an iCloud competitor and finally, they have officially launched the service. Google already had a sort of cloud service through Google Docs which hasn't been as a success in the UK than it has in the states. There are a few key features that set this apart from others. The first one is the fact that Drive can open up to 30 kinds of files right inside your browser. Other services like Dropbox open files inside a "web gallery" but for example, Drive will open up Photoshop files even if you don't have Adobe Photoshop installed on your computer. In terms of everyday use, Drive lets you drag and drop files into the desktop app which will sync with any other device on which you have the Drive app installed. The Drive service integrates with Google +, Gmail, Android and other Google services that will let you drop in or upload files at your pleasure. 
Additionally, you can edit documents within the Google Drive app as it hosts a built in editor. This feature is hit and miss as any documents you want to open, will only be open through a web browser. You wont be able to open and edit directly from the desktop. Drive also includes an option to turn on OCR text scanning, which means that when you upload images to Drive, Google will scan the images for text and make them searchable.
Google Drive will work on pretty much any device with an internet connection. However as it is fairly new, you will not be able to use one Google Drive account for multiple Google accounts but this will mostly likely be addressed later. At the moment, Drive is available on desktop for Mac and Windows and for Android smartphones and tablets. There are also plans to release iOS versions of the app in the coming weeks. At the moment, if you have any music or video stored on Google Drive, you wont be able to stream it but once downloaded, it'll work as normal. Just like Apples iCloud, Google offers 5GB of storage for free with some very competitive upgrade options. Google Drive is suited to people looking to use and access their data across a broad range of devices. This service will especially appeal to power uses on the move. No UK pricing has been released thus far but the American pricing model is as follows
PRICING: 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month and 1TB for $49.99/month. There are options that extend storage to 16TB, but Google haven't yet released pricing.

DROPBOX
Dropbox is the go-to solution for syncing files across multiple devices for a reason. It's a no-brainer to use, allows groups to share files with a couple clicks, and offers few settings for you to mess up. Perhaps the app's greatest strength is the API it's built on, which hundreds of developers have used to create apps that utilise Dropbox. It's right up there with Evernote as the most developer-friendly storage/syncing platforms that apps can leverage to help you access your data everywhere. 
But, Dropbox does have some drawbacks: It offers just 2GB of storage for free, and forces you to keep everything you need synced inside of just one folder (though you can pick which folders you want synced within your Dropbox). Extra storage is also very expensive — Dropbox offers 100GB of storage for £13/month, while Drive offers the same amount of storage for $4.99/month. Additionally, it would be pretty futile to try to use Dropbox as a complete backup tool because it would mean that you've have to store everything you want to back up inside your Dropbox folder. Theres a Dropbox app available on pretty much every platform including iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Dropbox is ultra-reliable and plugged in to all your favourite apps, but doesn't offer a ton of options. However, the ease of use and universal availability makes it great for casual cloud storage such as the odd document.
PRICING: 50GB for £6/month (£60/year); 100GB for £13/month (£130/year).
SKYDRIVE
Microsoft's SkyDrive has been around since 2007 but it hasn't been very user friendly until now. SkyDrive offers users with 7GB worth of free storage which is higher than both Google Drive and Dropbox. It works perfectly if you're a heavy user of Microsoft products. It works brilliantly to sync Word, Excel and even PowerPoint.
It allows users to create, edit and share documents using a web browser. Even Google Drive offers the same functionality set but doesn't integrate directly with MS Office products as of now.
Most PC users would want to use SkyDrive for a complete cloud experience which is almost similar to Apple's iCloud, only it works well for Windows users. With Windows 8 coming later this year, SkyDrive will be able to expand to a much larger audience set, provided Microsoft goes ahead with a heavy integration of it's cloud storage service right inside the operating system.
SkyDrive also lets you share public links, view-only private links, and view/edit private links, which is nice to have. Unfortunately, there's no sharing yet from the Mac app and you can't download items for offline viewing on all mobile platforms. But as a whole, In the end, SkyDrive makes for an extremely well-rounded entry — especially if you forgot to sync something with it. If your home PC is turned on, you can still access all your files using SkyDrive's "Fetch" feature.
PRICING: 20GB for £6/year, 50GB for £16/year and 100GB for £32/year.


The four services mentioned above are perhaps the most popular and widely available storage services available. There are several more solutions out there so feel free to explore all options.


USE THEM ALL
Cloud storage has really taken off and over the coming years will be at the heart of everything we do. The solutions we have available now are great and should suit everyone dependent on their needs. During my use of the above four, I found that there wasn't just one service that did the job for me. In fact, the more services I used the easier it was. Yes, the companies are going to want you to stick with them for all your cloud storage needs but a little bit of diversity will really get you started on what will most likely be the deciding journey when it comes to choosing your service. For now, I'm sticking to using both Dropbox and iCloud. Other might have different views so let us know your cloud setup in the comments below.

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