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Cloud Storage: Five Alternatives Compared

Discussion in 'Articles and Reviews Comments' started by Jos, Apr 27, 2012.

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  1. mario TechSpot Developer Posts: 384   +6

    The decision is easy:

    Google Drive - "Don't be evil" bullsh*t, those terms of services are what define Google now.

    SkyDrive - You lost me at "Let's make it look like Hotmail"

    Dropbox - Company dedicated to providing ONLY that service with years of experience in that field with apps for every platform available, including Blackberry.

    The decision is a no brainer for me, the better service is Dropbox even if it's more expensive it'll be worth it and a lot of applications already support it for providing synchronization between devices (1Password in my case).

    I've always looked at new technology and when I find a better one I switch without thinking that much about it. I switched to Macs 10 years ago and I would switch again if I find a better tool for my needs. I hate not being up to date and I refuse to not update my software to the latest versions.

    In this case if you already use Dropbox stick with it. Who knows maybe Google Drive will go the way of the Dodo in a few years, just like Buzz and Wave.
  2. mevans336 TechSpot Enthusiast Posts: 159   +9

    Too bad it will only sync certain file types. (Drop a .7z file in there and watch it go nowhere.)

    Dropbox is by far the easiest and quickest on my mix of platforms (Win 7, Mac, Android) but unfortunately, offers the lowest amount of space.

    I'm glad to see Skydrive finally offers desktop apps and since I was able to bump up to 25GB of space, I hope to see them expand the types of files you can sync.

    Right now, the combination of Dropbox + LAN Sync + TrueCrypt is hard to beat for a secure file sync solution.
  3. lawfer TechSpot Paladin Posts: 1,167   +54

    I... I can't even...

    Like, where do I start?
  4. PinothyJ TechSpot Enthusiast Posts: 383   +12

    Adrive does not have a client for the free plan (although the Java uploader is surprisingly sturdy)...
  5. 'Cubby' is a new and exciting cloud storage platform. 6 GB on Cloud and Unlimited LAN Sync stands out for me :)
  6. Why do you link to what somebody else has to say about Google's terms of service, instead of just saying it yourself? It's weird to me when somebody says they are reviewing a product, but doesn't state what it's biggest negative is, they just link to another description of it. Afraid to blast The Giant yourself?
     
  7. You guys seem to forget that there is also a Live Mesh app in addition to SkyDrive, that focuses on syncing selected folders between your PC's (that also does LAN syncing when available) so you can select SkyDrive folder for syncing in Mesh if you need to bypass internet-only sync.
    So this extends feature list quite a bit (although Mesh is not SkyDrive, but can be combined with it and uses same account) while providing with alternative to online-only backup. For example my work and art projects folders are way too big to sync over cloud, so I backup my data by automatically duplicating on all my PC's. For other purposes Dropbox and Skydrive work the best (I use both for different needs).
  8. Strange no one mentioned the CrashPlan it is superior in prise/performance to everything including DropBox, SkyDrive, etc. Just check their site. And their seeding is very convenient too: they send you their own 1 TB HD for that.
  9. Archean TechSpot Paladin Posts: 5,735   +27

    Not sure how you got to this conclusion as I have several .7z files uploaded.
  10. TJGeezer TechSpot Enthusiast Posts: 380   +9

    I've been using CX.com for awhile now in addition to Dropbox. My shared folders in Dropbox are automatic and all the people who share files with me have Dropbox on their machines, so the hassle factor of changing would be extreme, especially since even with us all sharing video clips and pics and such, I'm rarely over 2GB of the 5GB available.

    For backing up my work files I've been using CX.com - it syncs multiple folders automatically and is as painless to use as Dropbox in most respects. Unfortunately, the sync service is giving me some headaches right now - some of my key files (luckily also backed up in Dropbox) stopped syncing some time ago, I just discovered. I've updated to the most recent client for Windows and hope that fixes the problem, since I'm using over half the available 10GB for large DOC files plus my ebook collection and would hate to shift all that over to a more restricted service like SkyDrive.

    I like CX.com a lot and REALLY hope the software update makes it sync again.
  11. to add to Cubby's features...... encryption.
  12. treetops TechSpot Evangelist Posts: 1,385   +12

    Thanks again for reminding me to backup my school work, I went with Google Drive. I'm loving cloud storage.
  13. With plenty of cloud services available today, people need to evaluate and analyse their needs carefully and choose the one that best suits them. I have been using Dropbox and completely satisfied with it, also giving a try to Google Drive but I think Dropbox would fit my personal cloud needs. On the other hand, we use SyncBlaze officially which does the same thing as dropbox and lots more, its perfect for business purposes.