A few years ago cloud storage was a thing people couldn’t even imagine. Even today loads of people – some even IT specialists – don’t understand the concept. Some fear cloud storage services not to be secure, when they are among the most secure storage solutions available – except for iCloud, but that was a completely different matter.
Let’s see which are the best performing and most popular cloud storage services available today.
1. Dropbox
Dropbox is among the oldest cloud storage solutions available online, being launched in September 2008. It offers its users client software for Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS and Blackberry, and – according to some rumors – a Windows Phone version of the app is under construction.
A free account offers its user 2GB of storage, that can be extended with various amounts by inviting friends and completing similar tasks (at the moment I have 3.25GB of storage, free of charge). Dropbox Pro offers users 1TB of storage space, further sharing controls and Remote Wipe for secure deletion for 9.99 EUR a month, and it also has a Pro Plus plan for multi-user environments, with centralized admin controls, logging and extended version history for a monthly fee of 12 EUR.
Dropbox can be linked to Facebook, Twitter, Mailbox, Sparrow, and other services, and it offers the possibility to automatically back up the pictures you take through its free smartphone app – for safe keeping.
2. Google Drive
When it comes to cloud storage available for free, Google is one of the leaders – all Google users have 15 GB of storage space at their disposal free of charge. The space is shared across all of Google’s services.
Google Drive works similar to Dropbox – through a desktop app installed on your PC and with a local folder synchronized automatically. It has a version for Windows and Mac, as well as one for Android and iOS devices.
3. Box
Box is often mistaken for its similarly named counterpart Dropbox – they are separate services, though. Actually, Box has been around for longer – it was launched in 2005, while Dropbox is three years younger. Box has from the beginning focused more on business customers rather than individuals, this is probably why it sounds unfamiliar for the average internet user.
The basic Box plan offers a user 10GB of storage, but there’s a catch – the maximum file size allowed by the service to be uploaded is 250MB. This file size is perfect for documents, pictures, even mobile videos, so that’s not really a problem.
Box is a solid service with lots of experience, and some paid plans that compete with anyone (although the latest developments of the “cloud wars” have changed the battlefield a lot lately). It’s worth a try.
