Now that the last fears of saving data in the cloud have been wiped out,
globally, and after years of hesitation and reluctance on the part of some
users, one may ask: what is the best such service that the web could offer is?
For, indeed, there are several companies participating in the game, and for the
non-technical user the choice may be overwhelming.
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It is reasonable to narrow down the search to these
four top products: Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive and Apple iCloud.
They come from reputable, sound companies, that have been around for many
years, and that have undisputed, proven track records.
Regardless of price, features, or functionality, the
above-mentioned “reputation” factor is critical. After all, to save our
personal files up there in the cloud, however confidential they may be, is to
trust the service that it will ensure — and will maintain — an optimal level of
data privacy and security. From this viewpoint, and as much as the web can be
trusted in general, Microsoft, Apple, Dropbox, and Google have long passed the
test.
The rest is a matter of personal choice, need for
storage space, and pleasant and convenient user interface. For example, Apple
users may go to iCloud and/or Dropbox, whereas Microsoft diehards may prefer
OneDrive.
Some of the above services are more expensive than
the others. At $200 a year for the average family plan, Dropbox is the most
expensive, but it is also the fastest in terms of file synchronization, and
offers generous space: 2TB for the mentioned plan.
Microsoft OneDrive is tempting because its average
family plan is only $80 a year, it can be shared by up to five persons, and
covers legal licenses for constantly updated versions of MS-Windows and
MS-Office. However, it comes with “only” 1TB of storage per user, which
probably is still more than enough for perhaps 95 percent of us.
At this point in our digital life with the web and the cloud, it is no longer about whether we want to use the concept, but which of the available services we prefer.
Google’s Drive is interesting because it comes free
with any Gmail address and account, and provides 15GB of space before you need
to start a paid subscription. A non-negligible part of the population would be
more than happy with that.
According the mailchimp.com, “… Gmail accounted for
36.5 percent of emails in 2021 — [it] supports 105 languages”. Such an
achievement makes Google Drive particularly attractive and reliable.
It should be remembered that some of the mobile
applications we use on our smartphones are automatically backed up in the
cloud, if we choose this option, which most users go for, usually.
Whatsapp chats, for example, are backed up in Google
Drive. Other mobile applications perform the backup to Dropbox, which offers a
humble but still acceptable free storage space of 2GB for those who do not need
more and do not want to pay a yearly subscription.
Some mobile apps would let you choose the cloud
service you like to back up your data to. Here, too, it is interesting to note
that it is essentially one of the above-mentioned four leaders in the game, —
OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud and Drive — that are typically used.
The automatic backup of SMS messages and of a Wallet
(if you do use this excellent password safe application) is rarely proposed
somewhere else.
At this point in our digital life with the web and
the cloud, it is no longer about whether we want to use the concept, but which
of the available services we prefer.
Jean-Claude Elias is a computer engineer and a classically
trained pianist and guitarist. He has been regularly writing IT articles,
reviewing music albums, and covering concerts for more than 30 years.
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