I still remember the first time I signed up a Cloud service was with Dropbox in 2009. Then there were not much competitors and choosing a Cloud service to match your needs wasn’t that hard. All I need was the ability to access my files from anywhere and a easy way to share them with my university classmates. In this article, I hope to help you get acquainted with these key players in the Cloud service market today . So are you happy with your Cloud?
iCloud
First on the chopping board is iCloud, a cloud service managed by Apple Inc. It was first force-fed introduced to iOS users in 2011 where it allows users to wirelessly back up their iOS devices to iCloud instead of doing it manually through iTunes. This cloud service allows you to store/back up your photos and upload it to your “photo stream” where you can access them across all your iOS devices. It also backs up your applications, documents (iWorks only), bookmarks, reminders, iOS backups, notes, iBooks, contacts, email and calendars.
Why am I happy with it:
2 years ago, my iPhone was snatched away during my solo backpack trip to Vietnam. I was very dependent on my iPhone and most importantly I had very important data in it. “Find my iPhone” was really impressive, I wasn’t able to locate my phone but I was able to wipe it clean remotely when the culprit had my phone online. And having iCloud backed up my stuff, I was able to restore 90%(10% lost was my Whatsapp messages as I didn’t back them up) of my iPhone data. Everything looks the same after I restore my data on the new iPhone.
Why am I unhappy with it:
Erm… where’s the storage? Each new iOS sign-up provides you with a 5GB free storage space but the lowest iPhone specs has 8GB storage space, something is wrong here with the math. And why can’t I save or share other files besides iWorks files? Basically, no file sharing capabilities.
Dropbox
My first exposure to Cloud Service was with them, I would call them the pioneers in this industry as they started way back in 2008. I was very amazed THEN that Dropbox allows me to create a special folder on each of my computers (home, school & work), which Dropbox then synchronizes them. Making it so seamless that the same folder looks the same regardless of which computer I am using it to view. My files in this “Dropbox” folder were also accessible through most web browsers and on my mobile phone apps.
Why am I happy with it:
Desktop synchronization! I was so impressed with how it works then that I kept pushing them to my peers when i started using Dropbox in 2009. Users were also able to “Earn Space” by getting their friends to sign up for an account, each referral will earn them 500MB and up to 16GB of storage space per account. I fully utilised this referral system which earned me quite a fair bit of storage space. They had also a few “Earn Space” campaigns such as The Dropbox Space Race which help me earn a total of 25GB of storage space. More details here on how to earn Dropbox space!
Why am I unhappy with it:
Privacy issues. This is alway one of the main factors I look at when I select a cloud service. I classify all my files as my private files and knowing that someone in Dropbox is scanning through all of them is a no-no for me. I was pretty disturbed when I read this article about Dropbox’s policy in privacy which happened very recently.
OneDrive (aka SkyDrive)
I only learnt about SkyDrive, now OneDrive, when I started using Windows 8 last year. I was a heavy Mac user due to my work and I didn’t know OneDrive was as old as Dropbox as their beta started way back in 2007. For those who owns a Windows PC now has OneDrive built into their operating system (Win 8 & above), where it shows up at the side of your file explorer together with all of the files on the PC’s hard drive. Similar to most Cloud services, users can access their files through any web browsers or by downloading the desktop synchronising app for Mac and earlier versions of Windows. And not forgetting the support on Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Xbox Apps.
Why am I happy with it:
Most people like myself uses Microsoft Office apps like Word, PowerPoint and Excel very frequently. So having OneDrive allows me to collaborate on a single file in real time with my colleagues, and this function is definitely awesome for me. I have to say Microsoft has improved much on their GUI, the web interface for OneDrive looks fantastic and it even allows chats on the side when you sign in to your account. The recent news of Microsoft making Office for iPhone and Android free was the icing on the cake.
Why am I unhappy with it:
I was disappointed when the launch of OneDrive was mostly just a renaming of SkyDrive, all the features were pretty much the same as before. A question to ponder was why would I get OneDrive if there is not that much different than the other competitors.
Box
You can never have enough free online storage. I was drawn to it because they were the first to provide free storage of up to 50GB for personal accounts. And I believe they are still doing it, all you got to do was download their Box App for iPhone/iPad and log in from there. You will be able to get that 50GB upgrade for LIFE, unlike most Cloud service with their common freemium business strategy where you have to pay after it expires. Similar to other Cloud services, it has a desktop app for both Windows and Mac where you can sync your files between your hard drive and the cloud. I would say Box is more targeted to Business customers as they have many tools for collaboration and file privacy control.
Why am I happy with it:
“Hunters & Farmers” take note! If you are using Salesforce (I did previously), this is the Cloud service for you. Collaboration on presentations, contracts and proposals can never be easier with Box. And the full control over the privacy of your files is amazing. There are also plug-ins for Microsoft Office and Adobe Lightroom that allows you to open/edit files and export them to Box directly. And did I mentioned the Free 50GB for Life?
Why am I unhappy with it:
If you are just looking for a Cloud service for personal storage, there are better ones out there. But having said that, if you are a business customer, Box’s paid accounts are tops for their features. I was a little overwhelmed when I first navigate through Box’s website and all I wanted to to do was to manage a few files and folders. And the constricting file size limits and slow upload speeds was the main decision factor for me to move to another cloud service.
Google Drive
The Late Bloomer. The Andriod’s iCloud. These are some of the names I have for Google Drive before it was released in April 2012. It all started with Google Docs where users can access a full office suite within their cloud storage. Now with any Google account you have, you are already an owner of Google Drive. You just have to log on to drive.google.com and enable the service. *Ka Ching* 15GB free for you!
Why am I happy with it:
Own an Android phone like I do? Ready to get the latest Android phone in the market? Migration has never been that smooth when I was using a particular fruit-brand phone. Another thing I like about Google drive was the ease of use where little set up is required. Simple things like saving/backing up of photos and attachments from emails is relatively easy. Oh and do take a look at their recent price update on their paid accounts.
Why am I unhappy with it:
Just 2 things.
1) Target Advertising = you are looking through my files. NO.
2) Working with multimedia files still needs a lot of improvement. Very buggy.
Summary on Cloud Services
No matter which Cloud service you are using now or plan to use in future, personal experience is very important. Regardless of what others tell you, including my personal review here, you really have to hands-on. I hope through my sharing, I can at least give you an idea on where to start on. So you happy now?
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