Comments for Into the Cloud: Our 5 Favorite Online Storage Services

Into the Cloud: Our 5 Favorite Online Storage Services

2008-09-26T17:27:41Z

Being able to access your files from anywhere and from any computer is one of the great conveniences of the always-on Internet. Online file storage has been around for quite a while, but the latest generation of services are so cheap and easy to use that there is almost no reason not to back some of your files up into the cloud. Most online storage providers also give you the ability to then share these files with your friends and colleagues. We selected the services on this list because they have a good track record of keeping your data safe while providing you easy access to your files from wherever you are.

]]> Box.net

Box.net has been around for quite a while, but is still one of our favorite places to store documents online. Thanks to its integration with numerous online services, including Gmail, Zoho, picnick, and Scribd, box.net can not only store all your documents, but can also function as the hub of your virtual office.

One other nice feature of box.net is that you can share your files and folders with 'collaborators,' which makes it a good service to exchange files within a small business or among friends.

The storage limit for the free accounts is 1GB, which is plenty if you mostly exchange text documents or spreadsheets. Paid accounts start at $7.95 a month and include more advanced features, including 5GB of storage, a versioning system, mobile access, and 24/7 phone support.

Live Mesh

The online storage component of Live Mesh is only one part of Micorsoft's latest venture into cloud computing, but it is also one of its most compelling features at this point. Live Mesh gives you 5GB of online storage and an online desktop that looks a lot like Windows Vista. You can upload any type of file to Live Mesh, but you cannot edit any of your files through the online desktop. In the future, though, we expect Microsoft to start adding more of these features.

One of the main reasons we like Mesh is because it constantly watches for changes in the folders you are synchronizing to it and updates them automatically. In addition, you can share folders with friends, allowing you to collaborate on projects.

Live Mesh works on both Windows PCs and Macs.

DropBox

Few online storage services integrate with your desktop as well as DropBox, which only recently opened up to the public after an extensive beta test. While you do have to install a small program on your machine to run DropBox, it is well worth it. Besides setting up a folder on your machine, which automatically syncs with DropBox, you can also set DropBox up to then sync that folder with other machines, similar to Live Mesh. DropBox lets you upload any type of file, as long as it is smaller than 350MB. DropBox uses Amazon's S3 service as its storage solution and provides its users with 2GB of free storage. For $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, you can buy 50GB of storage.

One of our favorite features of DropBox is that it preserves every revision of every file. You can also easily share folders with your friends or colleagues.

DropBox supports Windows XP and Vista, Mac OSX, and Linux.

Oosah

Oosah's main selling point is simple: you get a whopping 1 terabyte of storage for media files. One restriction of Oosah is that you can't use it for text documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, which seems a bit weird, given that those types of files are generally small.

One interesting aspect of Oosah is that it accepts RAW image files from most camera manufacturers, though it automatically converts them into JPGs. You can also connect to your Picasa, Flickr, Facebook, and YouTube accounts and view your images and videos from those services in one central place. Oosah also gives you Media RSS feeds and even a podcast feed for your audio files.

While we love Oosah for its general ease of use, the one aspect we really did not enjoy was the fact that uploading files seems to be unnecessarily hard. Oosah does not provide any desktop clients and while you can use the web based uploader to select multiple files, uploading multiple directories at a time is not an option.

JungleDisk

JungleDisk is the only service in this list that is not available for free - and technically, it is not even an online storage service. Instead, it provides a frontend to Amazon's S3 storage service. JungleDisk costs $20 and after that, you pay Amazon for the storage and transfer of your files. JungleDisk also lets you map your Amazon S3 storage space as a network drive on your computer, so that you can just drag and drop files back and forth between your online storage and your local desktop.

JungleDisk is available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux.

Other Services

Online storage is a competitive market. The best services integrate fully with your desktop and allow you to effortlessly upload and download files. They also provide you with an online desktop to access files from any computers and are stable and dependable. A service that does not fulfill these basic requirements is going to have a hard time convincing users to use and trust it.

There are, of course, a large number of other online storage services that we did not include in this list. BOXSTr, for example, is a great application, but it constantly bothers you with ads and attempts to sell you their premium service. AOL's Xdrive is a great service, too, but we have heard too many rumors that AOL is trying to sell the service or that they will simply close it to be able to recommend it anymore.

The one company that is suspiciously missing from this list is Google. While you can upload your documents to Google Docs, the company that has made cloud computing a household name does not have a dedicated file storage service. While rumors about the existence of a 'GDrive' have regularly appeared in the tech blogosphere over the last few year, users still have to rely on hacks like the GMail Drive shell extension to store their files on Google's servers.

What Did We Miss?

Do you have a favorite service that we did not list? Let us know in the comments.

Logo courtesy of Flickr user blakespot.

Comment from Ramine on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T18:30:38Z

Hello Frederic!

Sorry for the shameless plug, but you missed MySites.com!

I'll quote what was written earlier today at Mashable:

"MySites gives you plenty of space to host your files and media. Being able to share any of these things makes the site a great repository for anything you want to keep available online and use from your social network accounts. Sure, there are sites that can host your files like Box.net, iDrive, and DropBox, but MySites does more than just host and share your files like those sites. Being able to actually view your media through their online players makes MySites one of the best Web desktops available today."

We're also going to release a Facebook application, as well as desktop synchronization tools (based on Air) very shortly.

Hope you give us a try :)

Comment from Sandy Kemsley on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T18:37:29Z

Because your data is backed up to Amazon, JungleDisk is the only one (I think) where you have an option to store your data outside of the US: handy for those of us who aren't fans of American privacy laws. I use JungleDisk with Amazon S3 European storage.

Comment from Paul on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T18:56:37Z

My service is ElephantDrive. It has been consistent and the support has been great. I started using it because they were featured by Amazon as an S3 example. Backup and mapped drive in one. Check it out...

Comment from Randy Rizun on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T18:57:19Z

Since we're doing shameless plugs, there's also http://www.subcloud.com though it is less of a consumer side product and more of an enterprise server side product.

Comment from Will Flavell on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T18:58:50Z

Hey Frederic,

Another storage service that you might have overlooked is DocLanding. They are a Saas-model document storage and collaboration tool. They mostly focus on small businesses and entrepreneurs. They have some really cool security and document annotation tools. Also they are HIPPA and SEC standard compliant so businesses can use Doclanding to send sensitive files without risking e-mail or using an expensive courier service.

Check out a free account at www.doclanding.com

Comment from Mircea on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T19:14:56Z

Maybe people are interested also in Content Delivery Networks (CDN) and Cloud Computing providers.

Both lists are to be found here:
- http://www.mytestbox.com/miscellaneous/content-delivery-networks-cdn-list/
- http://www.mytestbox.com/miscellaneous/cloud-computing-grid-computing-utility-computing-list-top-providers/

Comment from Doug Ramsay on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T19:21:55Z

Another S3 option is S3Hub, a relatively new entry for OS X. More info at http://s3hub.com.

Comment from John Woodcock on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T19:51:36Z

I'm using smestorage.com. I can backup all my data to Amazon S3 through their Rich web site or Firefox plug-in and I can access it through my iPhone, mobile, Facebook, Google, Microsoft Office and others I probably missed out.

I've tried lots of the different Amazon backup services and this is the best for me by far.

Comment from Kevin on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T20:33:49Z

I'm a big fan of drop.io. Extremely simple way to set up a file share for small groups.

Comment from Michael Thompson on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T20:33:59Z

Why on earth would you pay for Jungle Drive?! Just use Cyberduck for your S3 handling: file permissions, bucket CRUD, etc.

It does everything JungleDisk does, except it's completely free. And for those that say, "Well, JungleDisk shows an icon on your desktop, so it's totally more awesomer." I'd say, "What's the real difference between dragging something there versus a window in Cyberduck?"

I've tried the rest of the OS X offerings; Cyberduck wins hands-down.

Comment from Avatar on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T20:48:06Z

I guess you didn`t wanted to have two Microsoft services in the list but overlooking SkyDrive is quite a weird choice. pretty much the only 5gb free alternative for those running from recently declared dead storage services like Xdrive and others from a company that you don`t have to wonder if they will be around next year.

As alternatives to SkyDrive and Live Mesh. i think the only good choices are Box.net, DropBox and Syncplicity (made by the guy who created Foldershare)

I seriously doubt Oosah can stay around for the long haul. it may go the way of the dodo just like divshare and mediamax. unless they change the way they do things and get a solid business model of course. everything is possible. but users should not be surprised if it goes belly up in less than a year.

Comment from Darragh Curran on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T21:59:16Z

Worth checking out PutPlace http://www.putplace.com/
I don't use it - but have met the people behind it.

Comment from Andrew on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T22:12:25Z

ElephantDrive is so far the best most affordable service I have found. I've been using it for over a year now and they have been very reliable so far.

They use Amazon S3 as one of their storage system, but they are not relying on S3 to be up for their business. When S3 had their outage my ElephantDrive account was working fine.

JungleDisk is fine, but too expensive for my taste.

Comment from ElDeve on 2008-09-26

2008-09-26T22:17:52Z

I have been using Sugarsync (http://www.sugarsync.com) and I have found it to be very reliable. It constantly monitor your changes and syncs your files. You can even sync several computers. It also allows you to "email" links to your friends where they can download large files. And the price is very reasonable

Comment from Mike on 2008-09-26

2008-09-27T00:45:07Z

Since you aske what you have missed, you missed http://www.widgetplus.com

Comment from Brad on 2008-09-26

2008-09-27T03:54:41Z

This is such a strange post. How can you lump Box.net and Mesh in with a totally new and unproven service like Oosah?

In your own write up, you spend more time talking about its problems than any positive features (with good reason it appears). How does this make it into your favorite services? Is it just included because it is new and getting a lot of press, or is there something I'm missing?

Comment from duffy on 2008-09-26

2008-09-27T03:59:54Z

We've used Spider Oak with some success...
https://spideroak.com/

Comment from goobi on 2008-09-26

2008-09-27T06:01:44Z

I've been using iDisk and it serves me well. I'm part of a family pack so I get like 5GB of space, but 20GB of iDisk space for a full account is very good. For basic file storage and access, iDisk is mighty enough.

Comment from Avatar on 2008-09-26

2008-09-27T06:33:14Z

@Brad:

EXACTLY!!.

Oosah has no place in this list. it almost a wildcard. i would have set if syncplicity or Sugarsync would have taken its place since her put live mesh and dropbox in the list.

Comment from Avatar on 2008-09-26

2008-09-27T06:35:05Z

@Brad:

EXACTLY!!.

Oosah has no place in this list. it is almost a wildcard. i would have set if syncplicity or Sugarsync would have taken its place since he put live mesh and dropbox in the list.

Comment from Miguel De Buf on 2008-09-27

2008-09-27T07:04:41Z

And you are missing http://www.nomadesk.com as well. Perfect for team filesharing amongst a small professional team, with professional security and safety in mind.

Comment from Shirley Woodrow on 2008-09-27

2008-09-27T09:59:09Z

Thanks for the tip on SMEStorage John. I can't believe I've not come across this before. For me who is not a very technical user but who runs a small company and wanted to take advantage of the cheapness of storing some of of our digital media and office documents amongst staff this really works well. The File Explorer is just like I use on Windows, and yesterday I had a crash on my laptop in which I lost all my mail, but as look would have it I'd backed up the mail to S3 via SMEStorage the day before so I still have it !

The only negative is that there is not a lot of documentation on the site but their blog has plenty of tutorials so I'd look there.

Comment from R_K on 2008-09-27

2008-09-27T12:51:13Z

You should have mentioned that Live Mesh is only available in U.S.

Comment from Anurag Bansal on 2008-09-27

2008-09-27T13:29:37Z

Hello everyone,
It is beyond debate that there are numerous services available now a day. And every day new services are joining this crazy crowd.
Recently I have done a research to provide my visitors OVER 100 places to share files (Photo, video, music or any other kind). I had to split the post in parts, though I plan to again compile them in one post again. If you guys wanna check, here are the two parts of it:

http://www.knowliz.com/2008/09/over-100-places-to-share-and-host.html (Part 1 - Provides 30 places)

http://www.knowliz.com/2008/09/over-100-places-to-share-and-host_22.html (Part 2 - Provides 35 places)

Part 3 is still in progress which is going to provide 50 more.

There might be personal preferences, but what I figured is there are some set standards and limits which almost every service provider follows. It is not only hard but quite impossible to define any one of them to be the best.
Check it out.

Thanks
Anurag Bansal
http://www.knowliz.com

Comment from steph on 2008-09-27

2008-09-27T13:40:45Z

There is one service missing: wuala the P2P cloud storage solution from switzerland.

Comment from Jack on 2008-09-27

2008-09-27T13:49:52Z

@ Brad et al:

Not sure if I agree with you guys. The title of Mr. Lardinois' blog is "Our 5 'favorite' online storage services", implying just that. While others have been on the market and "proven", there are features that set Oosah apart, such as the 1TB of storage and the sync'ing with the other sites, which he found compelling and an attractive factor.

Every time you read an expert's list, whether it's fantasy football, or stock market predictions, or whatever, there is always a diamond in the rough up-and-coming standout. If you watch Jim Kramer's show, he's not going to tell you to buy the established Google or MSN stocks. He will dig deep and find something in an obscure sector that is going to be ground-breaking and new - and interesting to his audience.

I think the point of this blog was obviously to highlight what's been tested tried and true, but also inform readers of new technology that is appealing and has tremendous potential. Experts and insiders must do that. Otherwise, it'd just be another list that tells me the sky is blue and that the sun will rise.

Comment from Nora on 2008-09-27

2008-09-27T14:36:12Z

The astroturfing going on by SMEStorage is pretty laughable. Comon, at least have the dignity to pimp your service under your own name.

Comment from Defunkid on 2008-09-27

2008-09-27T16:32:29Z

Yes, you forgot OMEMO :)
Store your files online, share your stuff and browse what other users store in the world's largest multimedia library: The Omemo peer-to-peer virtual hard-drive

Comment from AJ on 2008-09-27

2008-09-28T02:22:13Z

I'm currently using Evernote.com to develop some classes through the online, desktop and iPhone interfaces. It was easy to learn how to use and uses tags rather than folders to organize.

I am also still using www.Springnote.com but it does not have a desktop interface nor an iPhone app -- as far as I know. The learning curve was a little frustrating but I really like the organization options that it provides.

Comment from miguel on 2008-09-27

2008-09-28T02:24:22Z

Great list of resource sites, RWW. Thanks for taking the time to catalog such utilities! One key attribute that is helpful to know about each site is the per-file size limitations. Some of the greatest promotional sites out there catch you at the final stage of usage because of 2-10MB file size limitations on the free packages.

Comment from John on 2008-09-27

2008-09-28T06:28:43Z

I also use Springnote as my storage. A Springnote account is based on notebooks. Each notebook comes with 2GB storage.. and there is no limit on the number of notebooks you create. Most of all, it’s a free service

Comment from Brian on 2008-09-28

2008-09-28T14:30:49Z

Idrive is excellent and relatively cheap. Sugarsync is a little buggy but much cheaper than Dropbox or syncplicity.
BTW Live Mesh is available in the UK and is very good.

Comment from Jade on 2008-09-28

2008-09-29T01:51:35Z

Hey whats the difference between a virtual office and real office? Does that mean I own the virtual office too? Is there space allocated?

Comment from Dave on 2008-09-29

2008-09-29T13:42:45Z

What about adrive.com 50GB free

Comment from Nic on 2008-09-30

2008-09-30T11:24:46Z

Yet another storage provider is Storegate, www.storegate.com . Like most mentioned, you can share files, view images as a slideshow etc. Multi accounts are also available for e.g within e.g. a company where each user can have his own storage space as well as some shared storage between the users in that company.

What sets them apart from the competition is their mobile backup which is really great. No need for advanced mobiles (though they're supported as well of course) - as long as SyncML is supported in the phone, you can probably use them.

Rumours has it that soon it's possible to backup images and videos as well from the mobile phone, which is great news for me as I use the built in cam in my Nokia a lot.

Comment from Paul Harder on 2008-09-30

2008-09-30T13:02:48Z

I've been using Dropbox and I have to agree, the interface is great and it works smoothly.

Having said that, I have a problem. I have a website plan with 100GB+ of space that I want to use for this purpose. I've tried syncing with FTP software but I lose the date/time stamps and the software I've tried doesn't keep track well. I wind up synchronizing all the time.

Is there any tool that RWWers know or use that can basically "roll my own" online storage?

Thanks,

Paul

Comment from Andy on 2008-09-30

2008-09-30T13:28:11Z

Yuntaa is worth a serious look also (http://www.yuntaa.com).

The advantage is a complete backup/synchronization site and a complete online storage site all in one place. You no longer have to use one site for backups/synch and then re-upload your files to another site in order to share/edit/collaborate/print online. For example, Box has no online backup/synchronization capabilities. Dropbox has no online editing/printing/viewing capabilities. Yuntaa has both those options in one place, plus a lot more to offer.

It has a great interface, a solid infrastructure built on Sun, Oracle and .Net platform, a Data Protection Guarantee, reliable backing from partners and investment groups and they are continuously evolving and improving their service. You'll find great customer service and support there as well. They don't take ownership of your data like other site do, and they don't pawn off their storage to a service like A3 or a black box. It's a purpose-built system, owned and operated by Yuntaa themselves, with a lot of benefits both behind the scenes and throughout their applications.

Comment from Kevin on 2008-10-01

2008-10-02T02:43:43Z

There are soooo many online storage and backup solutions out there these days. While trying for find a backup solution for myself I created an extensive review of these service providers that also include a comparison spreadsheet for pricing and features. Let me know if I left any important ones out. http://tomuse.com/2008/09/01/ultimate-review-list-of-best-free-online-storage-and-backup-application-services

Comment from friarminor on 2008-10-02

2008-10-03T06:59:58Z

The comments section is a virtual 'storage list' of cloud storage. You may have to revisit the post again in about a month's time and see if those 5 are still your faves. I know I will have to review mine.

Best.
alain
mor.ph

Comment from Cell Phone on 2008-10-03

2008-10-03T20:25:10Z

You list a lot of my favorite online storage services, but I am partial to box.net. If you haven't already, do some research on each of these companies and go with the one that fit your needs the best.