As the increasing of the storage capacity trends, to have the best storage method is a vital issue of the company. Every outstanding company has been focusing on data back-up. Since they are doing that, there is no full trust in their storage device due to crashing hard drive for some reasons. Because of its benefits such as reducing expense and flexible way to access, cloud storage became a popular storage method or technology since 2009.
There are thousands of cloud storage providers on World Wide Web. It is pretty hard to say which one is the best as each technology brings each weaknesses and different strengths or fulfillments to the users. Some providers offer free access their server, some are on limited access, and some are required subscription fees. The lists of some cloud storage providers are as follow.
1. Dropbox
2. Sugarsync
3. ZumoDrive
4. GLADINet
5. Ubuntu One
6. Box.net
7. SpiderOak
8. ADErive
9. Amazon S3
10. Mozy.com
11. SDExplorer
12. Jungle Disk
13. Window Live Sync
14. SkyDrive
Before we make a decision to choose cloud storage, it will be better to know advantages of it. Hence, even though we know cloud storage reduces company expense, we are going to concern on our company privacy. As cloud storages are hosted by third parties, we cannot throw our full trust on them. Occasionally, the providers may undergo updating and maintaining their server. Meantime, we may face some problems such as difficulty in accessing server, poor bandwidth; and hardship in retrieving data. Additionally, cyber security is another issue. We could not say we or cloud storage will be never attacked by hackers and crackers.
Here, we would like to discuss on Dropbox and SkyDrive. Both of the companies are offering the best services to the user.
Dropbox
Dropbox is privately owned company. Dropbox provides 2GB of free online storage. Other op-tions include 50GB for $9.99 per month or $99.95 per year, and 100GB for $19.99 per month. These several options give us some chances to consider about the condition of our storage needed. We might not pay to enhance the capacity of storage space as long as we have enough one. There is no file size limit while you are uploading company data files. As we are diving deeply into the business environment, probably most of our advertising documents would be attached some heavy graphics file formats. There is no wonder the file size may large. So, unlimited file size in each uploading is a potential issue to focus on Dropbox. Although the storage capacity trend is high for the company, we can try 2GB using the free plan at the first stage. And then, we can see the benefits by observing time by time.
SkyDrive
There is no doubt everyone knows Microsoft. It was known publicly because of its dominating OS Windows’s series and Office Suite series. But less people know about SkyDrive. Here again, Sky-Drive is owned by Microsoft. We can get 25GB of online storage space without any charges. Using Sky-Drive is very simple. What you do is just create an account at site. Creating folder and uploading files to it may vary depending on how you can manage your cloud storage. We can know definitely the meaning of simplicity by using SkyDrive. There are some limitations. For example, 50MB per file for each uploading
After looking thoroughly, Dropbox is the better cloud storage company. Even though we have to pay for some, we can say it is much affordable price. Unlimited uploading file size is much valued to us.
By Zokhuva
References
Shelly, Gary and Misty Vermaat. Discovering Computers 2010. Boston: Course Technology , 2010
PC World. (2010, January 12). “Google Docs: Not the Only Free Cloud Storage in the Sky.” Retrieved August 28, 2010 from http://www.pcworld.com/article/186782/google_docs_not_the_only_free_cloud_ stor-age_in_the_sky.html
Associatedcontent from YAHOO. (2009, August 17). “The Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing. “Retrieved August 28, 2010 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2052513/the_ ad-vantages_and_disadvantages_of_pg2.html?cat=15
PCMag. (2009, March 25). ”Dropbox.” Retrieved August 28, 2010 from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/ 0,2817,2343852,00.asp
PCMag. (2009, March 3). ” 5 Great Microsoft Web Services You Probably Don’t Use” Retrieved August 28, 2010 from http://www.pcworld.com/article/159413/5_great_microsoft_web_services_you_probably_ dont_use.html?tk=rel_news
