Look To The Clouds

Cloud storage usage has grown exponentially in the last few years.  When starting or expanding a business the importance of mobile data access only increases.  Cisco projects the increase in global cloud IP traffic to reach 443 exabytes per month by 2017. That’s equal to 1 trillion gigabytes or enough to hold all words ever spoken by human beings 443 times.  The days of carrying boxes of files in the trunk are behind us.  

So what is the best fit for your needs right now?   For simplicity we’ll focus on document cloud storage and compare systems by their cost and the amount of space we can get access to.  I would caution against trying a bunch of different systems simultaneously.  It can be extremely frustrating trying to find a file among several different clouds

The simplest solution at the start is a look at freemium products; Apple’s iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft SkyDrive.

Apple has placed a major focus on their cloud with their recent OS upgrades, Mavericks on Macs and iOS7 on their mobile platforms.  

The Cost: You get 5GB free and then ranging up to $100/year for 50GB more storage (that does not include your iTunes collection.)

The Catch: Your documents must be in their iWork format; Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.  In and of itself not a problem but their can be glitches in style and formatting when you convert them.

Having a Google+ automatically gives you access to Google Drive with tons of document types and flexibility in how you can utilize their service.

The Cost: 15GB free then up to $120/year for 200GB

The Catch: All documents moved to the drive are converted to Google docs format but there does seem to be less hiccups working with Microsoft Office documents.

The Windows equivalent of iCloud seems to make sense for many as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.  Personally I don't use them but the argument can easily be made for their utility as they are more universally used.

The Cost: 7GB free then up to 207GB for $100/year.

The Catch: Not much of one as this is suitable for Mac users as well.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with a multitude of sync options like Dropbox, SugarSync, etc.  I have even started using the WD MyCloud with our home devices and have found it very useful albeit much slower.

The choices are indeed plentiful and we can rest assured there are more coming.  If it seems a little overwhelming sometimes we can take comfort in knowing that, with more competition in the marketplace we benefit from more options and better prices.