Bitcasa: unlimited cloud sync & storage for $69/year, 10GB free

After roughly a year and a half of being in beta, Bitcasa has finally hit the cloud storage scene. The multi-platform service is poised to shake things up by offering unlimited space with no file size restrictions for $10 per month -- or just $99 per year. However, the company is also kicking off its public debut with a special offer: one-year of unlimited storage for $69. And if a monthly subscription isn't your style, Bitcasa also offers 10GB for free -- all you have to do is sign up.

Bitcasa is effectively, although perhaps not technically, unlimited. Unforgiving pedants may point out that under Windows, "unlimited" accounts actually show just under 8 exabytes of available space. This is actually a limitation of Windows though and not the service, according to CEO Tony Gouda.

Aside from essentially unbounded space to store stuff, the service works very much like Dropbox. On Windows, for example, Bitcasa mounts a virtual drive where any or all of your files, folders and backups can be stored. On big distinction between the two though is that Bitcasa's "sync folder" is hosted entirely online, meaning files in your Bitcasa drive don't need to be stored locally on a computer somewhere.

Users can utilize the Bitcasa utility (or leverage their own tools) to keep their shared data pool synchronized across multiple devices, create mirror backups and so on. There are no fees for additional devices nor did I see a limit on their number.

One more similarity to Dropbox, and something which separates it from your usual online backup solution, is individual files and folders on your Bitcasa drive can be shared with friends and family via a public link. Meanwhile, all files are encrypted and multiple copies are silently stored (at least three, according to Bitcasa) so users can roll back to previous file versions when the necessity arises.

Gouda is a former MasterCard fraud-detection software engineer and describes himself as an "engineer at heart". BitCasa was founded by former Mozy and Mastercard employees.