What Is The Cloud And Do I Need It?
One of the most common questions I receive from my clients seems to be about the cloud. What is it? Do I need it? Is it safe?
What is The Cloud?
First a bit of a primer as to what The Cloud is. Basically the internet is the cloud. If it's online, its in the cloud. No one invented the cloud, per se, but instead the term came into popularity a few years ago as online storage became more accessible to everyone. Today the term The Cloud has come to mean online storage. Today the main players are Microsoft (OneDrive), Google (Google Drive), and Apple (iCloud). Dropbox was at the forefront of online storage but as of late they have been left behind by the Big Three. People can use their PC's, tablets or smartphones to sync all their data to the cloud for easy access to their files or to share with their friends/coworkers.
The Cloud and the PC
Today most PC's have more than enough room on their hard drives to store all your files and pictures. So why would you use the cloud? The main reason I use mine is convenience. By storing my documents and pictures on the cloud I have access to all my files no matter where I am. If I'm at a friend's house I can log into my account and show them all the pictures of my holidays, kids, pets, etc. If I need a document I can use my client's computer, my laptop or even my smartphone to access the file. As another bonus, any changes I make to the document, no matter where I am, the changes will be made anywhere else I view it from. This is because the cloud is basically my own personal hard drive on the internet. Any changes made there are the same as if I made the change on the document on my hard drive.
In an office or team environment the cloud ends the problem of duplicate files and not knowing which is the most up to date. By everyone in the office working on the same document stored on the cloud that document is always up to date.
A common problem with today's advancing technology is that while things are getting better they are often getting bigger as well. This is especially true with pictures. My clients often complain that their emails cannot be sent because they are getting errors saying the files they are sending are too big. Most email providers have a limit as to how big an attachment can be. Quite often two or three high-resolution pictures can exceed this limit. By using the cloud to store all your photo's you can direct your email recipients to the pictures on your cloud storage space. This way you aren't actually sending them the files so your email won't get that error message saying it's too big.
The Cloud and Mobile Devices
Cloud storage has really taken off with the increased popularity of smart phones and tablets. Because these devices have relatively little storage space compared to a PC (8/16/32/64GB vs. 500/750/1000GB) they need to rely upon storage in the cloud. For example, my phone has 16GB of storage on it, but I have access to all my documents and pictures which totals over 200GB - all of it on the cloud.
The main two smartphone and tablet operating systems in North America are Google's Android and Apple's iOS (iPhone and iPad). Both of these backup your data (pictures, files, etc.) to their cloud service automatically. Some people may not even know their pictures are being uploaded to their cloud account. They may not even realize that they have a cloud account.
The Main Cloud Services
There are four main companies that provide cloud storage - Dropbox, Apple's iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft's OneDrive. Dropbox is quickly falling behind the other three players, but they were one of the first on the scene and many people still use Dropbox despite some of it's limitations. I know there are many more companies that offer some sort of cloud storage, but I'll limit my scope to the main players. Each of these companies offers a certain amount of free storage space and charge for extra space beyond that and each company only supports specific operating systems (PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, etc.). Unfortunately each company offers different levels of storage and how much it costs if you need more online storage. To help sort through the differences I've created a couple of tables below. The first will show you what operating systems each service is compatible with and the second shows how much each service charges beyond their free storage and how much free storage they offer.
Operating Systems Supported
Operating System
|
DropBox
|
Google Drive
|
iCloud
|
OneDrive
|
PC
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
Mac
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
iOS
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
Android
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
|
Blackberry
|
X
|
X
|
||
Windows Phone
|
X
|
X
|
Cost/Year and Space Allowed
GB
|
DropBox
|
Google
Drive
|
iCloud
Pricing Updated September 10, 2014 |
OneDrive
|
2
|
Free
|
|
|
|
5
|
|
|
Free
|
|
10
|
|
|
|
|
15
|
|
Free
|
|
Free
|
20
|
|
|
|
|
50
|
|
|
|
|
100
|
|
$24
|
|
$24
|
200
|
|
|
$47.88
|
$48
|
500
|
|
|
$119.88
|
|
1000
(1TB)
|
$132
|
$120
|
$239.88
|
|
Unlimited
Updated October 2014
|
|
|
|
$99
Free with Office 365
|
For operating system support you can quickly see that OneDrive is the only service that will work all on all major operating systems and Apple's is the most limited.
For how much space you are allowed both Google and Microsoft offer the most for free at 15GB. The most expensive of the bunch would be Apple at $100 per year for just 50GB - both Google and Microsoft offer twice the amount of storage at a quarter of the price.
Once you get into the 1TB range you'll notice there is an asterisk next to Microsoft's $99/year. This is because Microsoft doesn't actually offer a 1TB plan (for personal use). Instead they offer 1TB for free to those who subscribe to Office 365, which is $99/year. Not to get into all benefits of Office 365, but you can see what a great deal Microsoft is offering. To quickly summarize Office 365, you get: the full Office Suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Publisher, Outlook, etc.); installs on 5 PC's (Windows or Mac); installs on 5 mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet); free Skye minutes; and the 1TB of storage. On top of that, it's not just 1TB per subscription it's 1TB per installation of Office. For example, you get Office 365 and you install it on your computer, your three children's computers and your spouses computer. They all get 1TB of cloud storage for free so really you can get 5TB of storage for $99/year.
UPDATE: Pricing for Apple iCloud was updated shortly after this was written. While they have become more competitive at the 200GB level, their newly added 500GB package is more than the others 1TB packages and their new 1TB package is twice as much as their competitors.
UPDATE - September 19: Microsoft announced (to coincide with the launch of iPhone6) that Smartphone users who use OneDrive to automatically back up their photos would get an additional 15GB of free storage, bringing their total up to 30GB for free
UPDATE - October 27: Microsoft announced that it will start rolling out UNLIMITED storage for anyone with Office 365 - that pretty much ends the cloud storage wars.
UPDATE: Pricing for Apple iCloud was updated shortly after this was written. While they have become more competitive at the 200GB level, their newly added 500GB package is more than the others 1TB packages and their new 1TB package is twice as much as their competitors.
UPDATE - September 19: Microsoft announced (to coincide with the launch of iPhone6) that Smartphone users who use OneDrive to automatically back up their photos would get an additional 15GB of free storage, bringing their total up to 30GB for free
UPDATE - October 27: Microsoft announced that it will start rolling out UNLIMITED storage for anyone with Office 365 - that pretty much ends the cloud storage wars.
Is The Cloud Safe?
In my opinion the cloud is safe. I use it and I have no worries. I'm not saying that the cloud, no matter what service you use, is 100% safe but neither is anything you are using now. Even if you don't use a cloud service you computer could potentially still be hacked (I have a few clients who have had this done to them) or your house could be broken into. Nothing is 100% safe.
To stay safe the key is always the same - make your account as secure as possible. With something as important as your cloud account or your email address you need to make the password a really good one (no more birthdays, names or your pets, your address, phone number or any other easily guessed passwords). Also use two-step verification. By turning this on you have to use your normal log-in information, plus a code that is sent to your cell phone via text message or even a call to your home phone with a computer reading a number to you. The big three providers all have this feature and I encourage everyone to use it (even though this would not have worked in the hack over the weekend because Apple's Find My Phone service didn't even use two-step verification). To make things easier for you, here is a list of links to set up your own two-step verification:
Google - http://www.google.ca/landing/2step/