3 Must-Have Cloud Storage Services to Guard your Privacy

Do you remember living in an era when you had to email yourself documents so you could toggle between two different computers to work on one single file? Back in school, we had to draft research papers in the computer lab and email the same to ourselves so we could work on it later at ease – the consequences lead to too many errors and it’s now a totally outdated system thanks to the latest technological advancement of online cloud storage and data syncing!

Be it small businesses or large enterprises, cloud services are the extensively used to store digital data. Before we dive into the main cloud storage services you should have, let’s take a quick look at what cloud services exactly means. Cloud storage simply refers to a service where you can remotely maintain, manage and backup your data safely without the risk of it getting lost or tampered with. Using this service, users can easily store files so they can easily access them from any location around the world when they are online.

According to latest statistics, more than 900 users and SME’s worldwide have switched to the most convenient way of online file storage and due to this, the online cloud storage market is easily going to cross $244 billion! The current trending online file storage services are Dropbox Google Drive, SugarSync and many more which make your files easily accessible to you wherever you might be or no matter what device you’re logged into.

Here are some advantages of an active online cloud storage service:

• User-Friendly: From all the online cloud storage examples we have mentioned below, they all possess desktop folders for Mac as well as PC’s. This allows all the users to drag and drop files between their cloud storage as well as local storage.

• Better Bandwidth: Instead of sending lengthy emails with hefty attachments, it’s better to send across a single web link to recipients via email.

• Better Access:  If you store files on cloud, you can easily access it anywhere across the world. All it takes is an active Internet connection!

• Savings:  Almost all the businesses whether small or large are all migrating to online cloud storage to reduce on their annual expenditure. Why? Switching to cloud computing greatly helps in saving costs and cloud storage costs are approximately 3 cents per gigabyte for internal data storage.

However, within the online cloud storage arena, there are a few that are exclusively meant for online backup and some are used for their file-syncing features. If you are using a free online cloud storage, it comes with its own set of drawbacks as you might not have access to storage space or uploading massive files can also be impossible. Thus, there are some paid cloud computing services which are worth it as they offer you the benefit of a higher access to file history, better levels of security and power-packed features that can help you will team collaboration thus raking in productivity and results!

Take a look at some of the best online cloud storage services used worldwide to store sensitive digital data:

Google Drive:

One of the most popular online file storage services, it offers all the features you need for enhanced productivity. It is partly an online collaborative office suite and partly a cloud storage platform. If you are looking at file syncing, Google Drive also offers downloadable desktop programs. With a whopping 15 GB storage allotment provided by Drive, you can store and sync as many files as you want. And it gets better! If you pay only $1.99 on a monthly basis you get 100GB and for 1TB you will have to pay $9.99 per month. However, experts have mixed opinions regarding this cloud service and some don’t feel too comfortable regarding its privacy terms and conditions. Google Drive is available on Windows, Mac, Web, Android, Apple and Chrome.

IDrive:

Another one of the most popular trending online file storage systems which offers a variety of data backup solutions. IDrive provides you 1TB worth of storage, apps which work across a variety of platforms, file syncing and so much more for $59.50 on a yearly basis. If you are testing waters and would like to opt for the free trial initially, you get 5GB worth of space which isn’t a bad deal. IDrive is available on Windows, Mac, Web, Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Linux/Unix.

Wuala:

The main USP of Wuala – it encrypts your files locally before it can be sent across to the cloud. Wuala is a popular cloud service which is used highly at offices and it is offered by storage company LaCie. Wuala is different from typical cloud storage providers in certain ways:

All your files would be encrypted on your device before it can be sent to the cloud. This simply means if it’s a non-encrypted transfer, no readable data would be sent out. Whilst this process goes on, it is much more secure than a transfer because it implies that apart from you nobody has any access to data.

But you must remember not to lose out on your Wuala password at any cost, as this is the only way to recover your files.

Conclusion

When you are selecting the most convenient way to guard your data, do remember how valuable that information is to your and uptil what extent you would go to take care of it. So what you must do primarily is to define the level of privacy you require and a level of data guarding for it.

We understand that not everyone is ready to pay for data to be stored, but if you utilize cloud storage to save corporate and sensitive data, you’ll find spending for safe and secure data storage extremely reasonable. So you must invest in achieving a fine balance between the desired level of protection and the amount of time, efforts and money spent on it.