My Head's In the Clouds

With the release of the Google Drive, clouds are more confusing than ever.  Which one should I use?  Do I need to upgrade?  How do I decide?  These are just a few questions you might be asking yourself.  The answer is not simple.  It really depends on what you plan to use your cloud for.

For readers that don't know what a cloud is, this might sound even more confusing.  Check out my original post on Riding the Cloud: A Guide to Online File Storage.

If you are ready to join the online storage craze you might be looking at the pros and cons of each cloud along with the cost.  Almost every cloud offers a free tier, but some are very small and very restricted.  ars technica has written a wonderful article comparing the free and pay tiers for the major cloud providers.


I found it interesting that Dropbox, while one of the most popular clouds, is also the most expensive paid services.  The free tier only starts with 2 GB but the free upgrades are easy to get.  I love that the app on my phone automatically uploads every picture I take.  That's a 3 GB (500 MB at a time) free upgrade.  You can also earn free storage from referrals, installing the app, and more.

Google Drive is providing 5 GB to start but I don't see any free upgrades.  Of all the drives, they are the cheapest for paid upgrades.  I haven't really played around yet but it looks good so far and Google is reliable for quality.  The only problem I see is that ars technica listed the con of Google Drive as having loose privacy policies.  This makes me worry that they might be looking at your documents, pictures, etc.

Check out the whole article on ars technica to compare the different clouds for yourself.