Cloud storage has already become an essential part of our present and mobile lives. Services like the Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud etc., have been storing our data on their servers for a while, but which of them suits you the most, is the billion dollar question. So, we present to you some of the best cloud storage services of 2015. The takeaway from this article is that you will understand why these cloud services are on top. But before that here’s appreciating the cloud.
Today laptops, smartphones and tablets have all become the basic need of everyone and are hence owned by greater sums of people. The scheme that your data locked away in your desktop hard drive seems quite outdated. Cloud storage has emancipated from these problems, providing access to files we require anytime from anywhere. By these email servers sharing of larger information with others has become easier than ever. By simply sending a link of files stored within the server to your colleagues or friends, they can have immediate access to that information.
Dropbox
It is the only cloud storage service which offers services to users from various platforms i.e. Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Blackberry, iOS and Android platform, the only exception is the Windows Phone app which is still elusive. The basic free account provides 2GB of data storage and you can upgrade to the 1TB (Tera Byte) plan with £7.99 per month. Recently, Samsung offered 50GB of free Dropbox storage on purchase of a new handset.
Dropbox functions by creating a local folder on your device or PC which syncs with an online version. Immediately after placing the files in the Dropbox folder of your PC, they appear online quickly, and you can also choose the option of making the selected files offline on your tablet or smartphone. The Dropbox servers are encrypted by 256-bit AES encryption.
Google Drive
It is very much similar to OneDrive, which is going to be discussed below. It links iCloud to Apple and Microsoft products. Google Drive is at the center of various online services offered by Google. It provides 15GB of freely available space as soon as you setup your Google account or link to an existing account.
The cloud storage is shared across all these services, like Gmail, Google Calendar, or even YouTube. Unlike Dropbox and OneDrive, Google Drive doesn’t have any way of adding extra storaging details though any way. Google Drive works similar to most of the cloud storing service solutions, with a local folder on your desktop which is linked to a duplicate cloud version. The newer version is supported, as is real-time alliance on documents via the Google Docs app. The storage is encrypted in 128-bit AES encryption,
OneDrive
OneDrive which is previously called as SkyDrive has most of its functionality similar to that of Dropbox, whose apps are available to Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, naturally Windows phone users. It offers additional 3GB storage when you link OneDrive to your mobile phone’s camera roll, enabling it to automatically backup your photos online.
This cloud storage solution also offers 15GB data storage like Google Drive and the referral system is limited to 5GB, which means OneDrive can offer up to 20GB of storage space. There is also a social element to the web version, as popular social networks are available to be linked to your OneDrive account. There’s also a feature which allows you to remotely access files on another Desktop via the OneDrive website. The OneDrive servers are encrypted by 256-bit AES encryption.
Apple iCloud
As of October, Apples’s iCloud has become decidedly the alternative cloud service people like.This is owing to the expansion of its services allowing you to store any document, even if it wasn’t crested in an Apple app and that can accessed from PC rather than iOS and OS X devices (PC : iCloud.com or iCloud for windows).
Now it is possible to store any file in iCloud drive and apps like Pages and Numbers can now create their own folders in iCloud drive. By syncing your safari bookmarks across devices, you can see a list of all open web pages on other idevices. The con with this cloud storage is that there is no app yet for Android, Blackberry or Windows phone. So, it’s not a good option for those who use tablets or smartphones anything running other than on the iOS. Even with iCloud the there is a AES 128-bit data encryption.
Box
This Cloud storage solutions are started in 2005. This is less well known cloud storage because its company’s mainly aims on business sides of market and build up an impressive enterprise reputation. It allows 10GB of cloud storage for every new account, but it has a problem that is, it only allows files sized less than 259MB.
It provides you an option to upgrade to the personal plan by paying £7 per month which allows a storage of 100GB data and it gives you a max file limit of 5GB. The other plan for upgradation i.e.the smart plan is worth £3.5 per month which allows you to store 100GB data and maximum size limitation as 2GB. It has mobile applications for Windows phone, Android, iOS and Blackberry models whose interface is well designed. The data is encrypted using AES 256-bit encryption.
