My Journey to the Cloud

I've been working with a lot of paperworks in my workplace lately which in the end I needed to print and having no flash disks (yes I do not own one for at least the past four years) I resorted to sending the files I needed to print to my own e-mail. At first the process I was going through was easy but not until I needed to print a lot of papers that finding the files in my laptop, attaching it to an e-mail and then sending it to my own e-mail address became too cumbersome.

And so, a few weeks ago I decided to try out free cloud services. I know several names of cloud services that I encounter from time to time such as Dropbox, Microsoft Skydrive, 4shared's 4sync, Amazon Drive and Google Drive. I'll try to review each and everyone of these based on my knowledge and a few experiences with them.

CLOUD (an overview)

Note:

• I am always hooked into a proxy server so setting up the proxy through Internet Options is a must almost all of the time.
• The comments I make below are from my own personal perspective and based on my own personal experience.

1. Dropbox

Dropbox is quite nice but the 2Gb initial free cloud space is not so appealing though you can invite friends to try it out earning 500Mb for each successful referral. The limit goes upto 16Gb and you can download a desktop program which sets a certain folder (Dropbox folder) wherein everything contained in it will automatically be synchronized to your virtual Dropbox cloud storage. Maximum possible free space whoops upto 25Gb according to https://blog.dropbox.com (dropbox blog). You can earn the above maximum free storage by completing "quest" of some sort.

2. Microsoft Skydrive

Hmmmmm...what can I say? Skydrive looked so promising at first but the upload speed of the files just kills me. It offers 7Gb of cloud storage which in the present standard for initial free storage is not that bad. Microsoft should improve the way the files are synchronized because I've downloaded the desktop program which also sets a Skydrive folder and upon putting files inside the folder and watching the sync progress from time to time I know that it is not the cloud service for me, well at least for the mean time.

3. 4sync

This cloud service offers free 15Gb file storage and it is directly synched to one's 4shared account. I tried installing it a few days ago but I was not successful in setting up the cloud. I think the initial set-up of 4sync requires only direct connection since I'm not successful using it with a proxy server. But still worth exploring since 15Gb is not a small amount of storage.

4. Amazon drive

I loved this at first. The fact that you can just drag and drop your files to the amazon desktop application is very handy. Amazon drive offers 5Gb of cloud storage but it does not offer you a direct view of which files are already in the cloud or will be in the cloud since this is a drag, drop and sync app. You can view the files and the changes in the Amazon drive website. What you drop in the Amazon drive app is directly synchronized in the Amazon cloud drive. At first handy but being able to monitor the files in your cloud directly through a desktop folder like Dropbox and Skydrive is, for me, a better way to use cloud services.

5. Google Drive

I love this cloud and compared to the other four, I find this cloud very easy to use since it's the same concept as Dropbox and Skydrive wherein you have a folder and any files that you copy or put in it is directly synchronized to you Google Drive. It also preserves the folder and subfolder organizations (the same as other cloud services) plus in my own experience, this Cloud is the fastest among the three Clouds (I had a hands on) in terms of upload speed. I do not want to sound biased but Google has really nailed it since this service can easily be found in your Google App list plus it's just very minimal - just the way people needed it to be. This is very important for me since my main e-mail is under Gmail and just a few clicks away I can already access the synched files in my Google Drive.

My verdict goes to:

Google Drive

Simple and without any unnecessary complications. Just the way it needs to be - a drive. Faster synchronization and fast download of the files from Google Drive cloud to PC. I will let Google get away though, with its meager 5Gb storage. I hope Google increases the free storage in the future which is I believe is highly probable.