Cloud storage wars

[haven]

Lots of companies want to provide you with file storage on servers you can access by the Internet, aka "in the cloud." With so many competitors, companies have to offer deals to attract customers.

Case in point: Microsoft is now offering 15 GB of storage to anyone on their OneDrive cloud storage service. Price: Free, just sign up.

If you are willing to spend $6.99 a month for access to Microsoft's Office 365 Personal, you'll get 1 Terabyte (that's 1000 GB) of storage included, no extra charge. Office 356 Home costs $9.99 a month, and allows Office to be used on up to 5 devices. Each Home subscription also allows as many as 5 user accounts, each of which has its own 1 Terabyte of storage.

There are OneDrive apps or drivers for most every computing platform, from PCs and Macs to Windows tablets, Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices.

https://blog.onedrive.com/new-onedrive-storage-plans/

 

[kojackJKU]

ms is awesome. I had everything fruit for awhile and hated it. Gone to windows based life again and its great, easy to use and your not super restricted to the way apple wants you to be. I think if it were up to apple, everyone would be wearing glasses, black turtle necks and jeans.

 

[FromRaleigh]

The OneDrive integration with Windows 8.1 is pretty awesome

 

[MikeCG]

I bought a Buffalo NAS drive to use as a Media server on my home network. One of the features that Buffalo offers owners of their devices is an internet Access portal. It's actually nice because I control the equipment, but get all the same service as using a Cloud service. I don't actually use the access portal and haven't even set it up, but I believe it is a free service, so other then the initial purchase price of the hardware, there are no charges.

 

[robgendreau]

I used personal home storage as well for a while. Ran an old desktop and had it serving files and media over the internet. Good use for an old computer, and easy to set up in Linux or OS X; dunno about Windows. Used my router firewall. I'm lucky in that I had a static IP, but these days it's pretty easy to do the same with a dynamic address. I used ssh, which meant all the traffic was secure. Easier than a VPN. If I did it again I might set up ownCloud as well.

But it was still necessary to get cloud storage, a fact drilled home when we suffered a burglary and a house fire. I kinda like Amazon S3, since with it you only pay for what you use. But cloud storage is a very competitive field right now; I can hardly keep up. Wish Adobe was as generous as MS (but then again your typical Adobe file is MUCH larger than your typical MS file).

 

[Longrange308]

I have a WD Mycloud 3 TB drive hooked up on our network. It is in a secure location and I have internet access to it. I still use google drive and one drive, but it is very nice having everything local sometimes.

 

[MikeCG]

Part of our bugout plan is the grab the drive. Really the only thing on it right now is our movies. I keep all my important files (taxes, ect) on a portable harddrive. You can get a portable 1TB Bio-protected harddrive for about $400. Can't beat them for portability and protection. Scan copies of anything important and put them on the drive.

 

[kojackJKU]

I now have a boat load of cloud storage with office 365 now. I have yet to upload my media to it, Just been to busy. I do use one note a lot between my wife and I. I have all my thoughts jotted down in there. travel plans, lists and everything else. an awesome program. with lots of storage. windows keeps getting it right.

 

[haven]

The companies that offer online storage ("in the cloud") continue to sweeten their offers. Today's example: Microsoft will double your free storage space from 15GB to 30GB if you download the OneDrive for iOS, Android or Windows Phone and turn on the automatic camera roll upload feature.

This is a limited time offer. Details here: https://blog.onedrive.com/you-can-now-get-30-gb-of-free-storage-with-onedrive/

Prices are coming down for the XXL storage plans, too. Dropbox and Google will rent you one Terabyte (1000 Gigabytes) of storage for $10 a month. Microsoft OneDrive has a $4 for 200 GB plan.

 

[toylandcruiser]

ms is awesome. I had everything fruit for awhile and hated it. Gone to windows based life again and its great, easy to use and your not super restricted to the way apple wants you to be. I think if it were up to apple, everyone would be wearing glasses, black turtle necks and jeans.

i just threw up in my mouth. I like apple and i certainly don't wear black black turtle necks. Microsoft is nothing but failure. Most IT guys i know use apple at home because they are tired of messing with windows at work. Damnt i still thought you were on ignore, why isn't it working.

 

[kojackJKU]

Ah ha ha, MS rocks compared to xxxxx [referring to Apple]. I have 1 TB of cloud storage. How much do you get with apple now? 500 mb?

 

[haven]

Please be on notice that disparaging names like "crapple" and "isheep" won't be tolerated here, for the same reason that we don't allow wholesale disparagement of vehicle brands. If you don't like a computer or cell phone product, say why. And don't slam the people who hold a different opinion. Thanks.

 

[landy89]

I favor using a home based cloud solution, like ownCloud. You can set up it with almost any NAS that has a linux kernel. Free and 100% private. Biggest problem with branded cloud storage is that your data is in the hands of a company which can do whatever it likes with it.

 

[kojackJKU]

I favor using a home based cloud solution, like ownCloud. You can set up it with almost any NAS that has a linux kernel. Free and 100% private. Biggest problem with branded cloud storage is that your data is in the hands of a company which can do whatever it likes with it.

yes, but I only have music and some photos that go on the cloud, and the photos are of scenery. I really don't care what they do to them. I have hard copy of all photos and music. Its more of convienience of being able to access my complete music collection, and photos that I want on the cloud.

 

[landy89]

yes, but I only have music and some photos that go on the cloud, and the photos are of scenery. I really don't care what they do to them. I have hard copy of all photos and music. Its more of convienience of being able to access my complete music collection, and photos that I want on the cloud.

When you are traveling abroad and what access to your data on the cloud, it is probably not music or photos that you are interested in accessing on the cloud. The kind of data that will be of interest when traveling is almost always personal data.