Cloud Backup and Storage – Why not an Extra External Hard Disk?
Is my external hard disk not enough? It might be, but just that question arises – “Why not use an extra secure option of storing in a server when current technology provides it for cheap?”. That is why people use Online or Cloud Backup storage to be sure that it is bit extra safe.
Online Cloud storage is the most powerful and relevant option for people who want to store and share their data online. It also serves as a data backup in case your personal computer/mobile storage crashes accidentally. All your data is stored in secured servers, accessible anywhere where there is internet. There is no need to carry the data wherever you go.
There are paid and free versions available in the online storage platform. All you need to do is – Signup and Upload data, but do not forget your login password.
Note: Above plan and pricing based on their current range dated Jul 2015. Refer service provider website for actual pricing.
1. GoogleDrive – Free 15 GB
Google Drive is the famous Cloud Backup Storage System provided by Google. You can easily download this to your computer and install it & start maintaining data in it. Google Drive provides free Storage Limit up to 15GB. Please keep in mind that this free Storage limit 15GB is inclusive of the data used by your Gmail, Google+, Documents, etc.,. Now, it will not be a surprise to you to know that Google drive’s free data limit 15GB is not solely available for uploading data in Google drive.
Google Drive also comes in the form of Andriod and iOS App available in Google Play Store / Apple Store. You can download this App to your mobile or tablet and access/store your files to Google Drive.
Google Drive storage is available for both individual and business. Google Drive Unlimited for Work is best suited for small-scale business (<4 employees) and each user will get 1TB storage space with unlimited Gmail messages and Google Photos. You can login to Google Drive here to know more about its storage limit and pricing plans.
Alternatively, you can try the free 30-day trail and decide for yourselves. No credit card is required for free trial. Google recently announced Drive for Education with Unlimited Storage Space. This is good news to students/educational institutions and can plan to store/share their creative & innovation work more easily.
How to get more storage in Google Drive?
We can choose our desired storage plan based on our data limit requirement. Pricing for storage plans is on monthly basis. After enrolling for a plan, it provides flexibility to increase or decrease the storage size.
Special Offers
Google Drive occasionally announces free offers for specific mobile handsets (Android devices as Motorola, HTC, Asus, etc.,) or special day promotions. You can get to know the active offers here.
2. OneDrive
Like Google, Microsoft also offers Online Cloud Storage called One Drive. One Drive also sets the Free Storage Plan limit up to 15GB. However, unlike Google Drive this free storage limit is completely available for uploading data.
OneDrive is built-in into Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1. In addition, OneDrive is available by default in Windows Phone. For Mac, Android Phones and iOS, app is available for installation.
Another Key feature is that Office365 is readily available in OneDrive. Though if you don’t have Office installed in your machine, you can still create,edit or share all types of Office Documents through Office365. Once the file added to OneDrive, you can edit by using online Microsoft apps and share it with your friends and colleagues.
OneDrive for Business comes with 1TB storage space and you can checkout various pricing plans and storage limits before choosing the storage provider. You can explore One Drive here. OneDrive also provides free trial for users to checkout.
How to get more storage in One Drive?
In addition to free 15GB storage limit, we can get additional storage space through referral bonus program.
Referral Bonus
You can invite your friends by sending them an email or sharing through social media(Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). You and each friend who Signs up as a new customer of One Drive will get an additional 0.5GB.
Note: In this option, you will get a maximum of 5 GB data(i.e., limited to 10 friends) and this invite option is not applicable for those who live in European Union member states, Australia, and New Zealand.
3. Box (app box)
Box is one another widely used Cloud Storage enterprise platform mainly by business folks. After signup, we can start using Box for uploading data. Box offers 10GB free storage space.
Installation program is available for Desktops and equivalent Andriod and iOS app is available to access Box features through smartphones.
Box cloud may be little clumsy for personal usage as it provides lot of collaboration tools like SalesForce.com, NetSuite, GoogleApps, etc., and may not be required for managing small set of personal files. After uploading data, available collaboration options will be made available. It also provides password-protected links, secure with SSL suite, full-text search, etc.
To make use of collaboration tools, we need to pay extra and hence, business users choose tools as per their need. Unlike Google Drive and OneDrive, there is no option to obtain extra free storage space.
4. MediaFire
Media Fire normally offers 10 GB of free storage. They also offer 40GB free for referrals and social media signups. Mediafire provides software for desktop and app for smartphones.
Mediafire holds the content of inactive accounts for one year and account will be marked for deletion to free the space. You can get to know the pricing and storage limits here.
To Get Bumper boost up, follow these steps.
- Refer a friend – You get 1GB space for each signup limited to 32GB
- Install Media fire desktop app and get 2 GB.
- Install Media fire mobile app and get 2 GB.
- Connect your Facebook account and get 1 GB.
- Connect your Twitter account and get 1 GB.
- Post to Facebook and Earn 1 GB.
- Post to Twitter and Earn 1 GB.
5. Drop Box
Finally, we end up with the most people’s choice of Dropbox where you will get 2 GB space. Are you surprised that why Drop Box only offers 2GB for Storage? Because it has awesome referral bonus limit up to 16 GB. We can refer dropbox request mail and for each signup, we can easily get 500MB limited upto 32 referrals.
Dropbox provides support for all Windows, Andriod and Mac devices. Dropbox is simple to use and widely used cloud storage platform for personal or small business usage.
Several more free online cloud storage platforms are available around the internet world, but as per most user review, these five are the stepping at front. Other list of famous Online Cloud backup and storage are listed below in case you want to analyze more:
- Carbonite
- BackBlaze
- JustCloud
- Amazon Cloud Drive
- SOS Online Backup
- Keepit
- CrashPlan
- SugarSync
- bitCasa
- iDrive
- LiveDrive
- AltDrive
- OpenDrive
- pCloud
- Zoolz
Please go through this article for a comparison of Online Cloud Backup & storage service providers and make your choice wisely.