For a medium to big business, we always do have daily back-up of file systems. In case of any disaster, the files can be recovered from the back up. However, this facility is often non-existent in small business. This may be due to ignorance or unavailability of fund. We seldom have the back-up facility available for our personal computers. However, in both these cases, the loss of data may cause significant impact and often creates ripple effect. With cloud technology within our reach, we can avail the services of cloud storage providers and easily avoid any substantial data loss or any other adverse effect caused by the same.
Yes, we can also store all our important data in a remote location using free cloud storage. The same can be termed as online storage. Here, the important point to note that you can store your data free up to a maximum limit set by cloud storage providers. Cloud or online storage keeps data in virtualized pools of storage. The virtualized pools are actually customized and virtualized forms of data center resources.
So, now you have decided to go for free online storage. But, it is required to do some research before you choose your cloud storage providers. Let us see what the determining factors are.
Storage Cost of Cloud Storage Providers
The first thing is the free online storage capacity and its cost. There are many cloud providers, which provide free storage up to a maximum limit when you sign up. For example, “Amazon cloud Drive” provides yearly 5GB online storage free. For a paid service, you can store 20 GB for $10 a year, 50 GB for $25 a year and so on.
Justcloud.com provides 15 GB of online storage free and one of the highest storage space provided in the free limit.
Symform is slightly different from other cloud storage providers in the way they operate their online storage. Symform uses your local drive as storage and there is no datacenter working behind the scene. In symform, your online storage is always free, providing you maintain a local contribution to online storage equal to 2:1. It means that if you provide a 2 GB local space, you will get 1 GB of online storage in return. Otherwise, they charge $0.15/month for every 2 GB storage above the free space.
Cloud Storage providers Speed
One of the crucial determining factors is the speed. Though the back-up happens regularly, it is important to have high speed retrieval as it involves huge amount of data. Before going for a paid service, it is better that you test the data retrieval speed with substantial amount of data. The speed is dependent on many factors, including your broadband speed. You may want to check whether the data being stored is a centralized or a decentralized location. Though, it may not be always true, the decentralized online storage gives you speedy back-up and recovery. For example, symform stores the different data fragments in different locations. The data fragments are distributed over parallel internet connections, resulting in faster transfer speed. Additionally, they use a HOT COPY concept, which mirrors your file to the cloud for offsite data protection. This provides faster restoration in case you need it.
Cloud storage providers Security
Security may be the most important aspect when you select your cloud provider. You are choosing online storage to avoid losing important data. Leaking this data to a third party may turn out to be equally or more detrimental to you. Thus, when selecting your cloud storage providers, you need to closely check their security i.e. how the data is kept and what is the possibility of leaking the data. In most of the cases, the data is stored with encryption. You should ensure that your cloud storage providers are applying at least 128 bit encryption (however, most of the companies are now applying 256 bit encryption). You may also want to check when the data is being encrypted i.e. before it is being stored or after it is getting loaded in the online storage. It is always better if the data is encrypted before it gets loaded in the online storage.
Multi-Computers Synchronization
If you have multiple computers, it is possible to synch the data from two computers. You can check with your cloud provider, if they are providing any such facility.
Ease of use
It is important that the online storage should be user friendly. It means that back up should happen with minimum effort. And the recovery process also should be smooth with minimal manual intervention. In most of the cases, the cloud storage company provides you a desktop application, which facilitates the back-up of the data. When you zero in on your cloud provider, ensure that the application provided by them is compatible with your operating system. For example, mimedia doesn’t yet support Mac OS X. You can also check out with your cloud provider, whether there is any facility of dashboard kind of view, which gives a summary view of your online storage (like GB used) and other related details.
Does your cloud storage providers impose any file size limit?
Many cloud providers have imposed a restriction on file size i.e. you can’t back-up file beyond a particular size. For example, Box storage has file size limit of 250 MB for its free plan. Thus, if you think that you have big files, first check with your provider if there is any file size restriction.
Reliability of the cloud storage providers
The ultimate aim of storing data online is to recover data when you need it. The cloud provider should be very reliable and in no circumstances, it may loose data. Thus, choose a cloud provider, which has good history in successful operation. You may want to browse through their architecture quickly. Many company stores the same data in multiple locations. This ensures that even if there is some calamity in one of the data centers, the data is still safe in other place.
Does your cloud storage privers have any option of money back
Some of the cloud providers give the facility of 30 days money back guarantee. This is a good option. If you are not happy with your provider, you can always switch over to a different provider.
What is the Support level of your cloud storage providers
In case there is a need, you may need support from the customer service or the technical team. Before selecting your cloud provider, ensure that they have robust customer service and technical team to help you out.
Accessibility
Online storage is not only a back-up media; it also provides online accessibility. Thus, it gives the flexibility of accessing your file from anywhere across the world. Isn’t it really fabulous? So, you should always check the easy accessibility of your files. Some of the cloud providers also have this option for mobile devices. My favorite in this area is Apple iCloud. It lets you access your files from whatever Apple device you are on. And it’s built into every new iOS device and every new Mac. The good part of it is that when you buy a music file or take a snap, iCloud makes it available in all your Apple devices.
Is there any complimentary add on from your cloud storage providers
When you get something complimentary, you will always be happy. Number of cloud providers is giving this extra facility to their customers. For example, Amazon is giving cloud player and 250 imported songs free when you sign up their service.
Considering all the points, you may want to give appropriate weightage to the points discussed, based on your requirements.
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