Synchronizing is just making sure the version you have available on the cloud is the same one you have on your computer, but if you want that file at home, you still need to download it from the cloud, so you are effectively just downloading twice. In this case the cloud is just working as an organizer of sorts.
Exactly, and that makes no sense to me. You can buy a small 16gb flash drive in your pocket. That will store all of your business files. All of that downloading.Will surely lead to security issues.
I am one guy who is a bit old fashioned but I think it is the safe way. With external hard disks, I can easily move around with them and access my data anytime that I want. This is not the same when it comes to cloud as you must have internet connection to access your data. That is not practical to me.
OK, so synchronizing is downloading it to the other computer, I knew that. I don't agree with you Eagle, I prefer to have it on my cloud rather than copying to a flash drive and carrying the drive with me, those days are over, I find it much more convenient using the cloud, and faster.
The lack of an internet connection is another good point against could services, you never know when your connection will fail at a critical time like before a presentation or so.
Yes, that is a valid point, but I think that with time the people that are not accessing the net will be less and less and that cloud services will be more widely used. We even have smart TVs that access the internet, so I won't even need my external drive to watch my movies.
I back up some of my important files to Microsoft's OneDrive, but I don't consider cloud storage a complete solution for all my backup needs. The main issue is the caps that ISP's are placing on their Internet services. Many of them will charge you extra if you go over 250GB of transfer per month. You could max that out easily if you were backing up your entire hard drive each month, or perhaps several times a month. I was doing the math on this, since my hard drive on my desktop system is 1TB and at one point I had it almost completely full. If I were to back that whole thing up to the "cloud" once per month, that alone would cost me over $70 in additional charges for going way over my limit (750GB at $10 per additional 50GB). That's not even including all my other normal day to day web usage, such as browsing, email, watching shows on Netflix and Hulu... it would actually be way more. I could buy a whole new drive every month for those costs.
I don't trust Cloud services. Unless it's a game screen shot or unimportant files, I would store my files in an external hard drive or if I really need to, burn it to a DVD. Even if Cloud services say they offer privacy and security, nothing on the net is truly secured. The same can be said about external hard drives, but for someone to break into my house and specifically steal my hard drives are a lot rarer than someone hacking into a Cloud server, or someone working at that Cloud service provider peeking into the storage.
I guess we have to agree to disagree. I find it much safer to keep y sensitive information in my possession. What if your file host goes under like Megaupload? What if Someone hacks your account? what if a hacker steals your information when you download it over wifi? I will stick with physical storage.
I agree that if we have sensitive information it's preferable to have it in a hard drive, but Gmac, if the information is really sensitive it doesn't matter if you have it on a hard drive, they can access it as soon as you connect it to the internet, there are hackers capable of anything.
Yes, cloud based storage is indeed great, but I won't throw away my hard drive just yet. You don't always have access to your cloud storage, and sometimes if you do have, its either too slow to even access your files. Although its great since you have no worries of hard drive crashes or drives being stolen. But I always keep my physical storage at bay cause you'll never know, sometimes you're offline. I have it both ways though, better make sure.
For reasons related to the lousy internet service offered by telephone companies in my country, most users still use the classic storage devices (hard disk, external disk, flash drive, memory cards). However, in the last year has popularized the use of tablets and smartphone and in that sense, the cloud storage becomes an essential ally. One of the issues that most concern me in relation to this type of storage is the security of our data and access that other people can have of our files. At present there are many services aimed at the utility and each user has an option that fits their professional and domestic needs.
Good post Bloom, I like the bold parts you used, in fact, they focus the key points we've been discussing here, unless we have a reliable internet service there's no point in using a cloud service because we can't reach it. External disks are really practical though, they are not that bad.
I've always relied on using online storage. Physical storage is faster and simple but I've never got around to using it. I also prefer having things that are digital rather than physical since they don't require and space. If I ever need to back up much larger files I'll probably use an external drive.
Interesting mistymi, I think that each person has it's own needs and no doubt that online storage is more practical than an external disk, I think that when I get a new computer I'll use online storage more often than my external disk, but so far I'm divided between the two.
For me this is a decision based on the sensitivity of the data you are storing. Something stored in the cloud is more likely to be exposed to hacking. While I do not doubt the efforts being made to secure data, a disconnected external hard drive is not subject to cyber attack. For the majority of people, the cloud is a cheap, relatively secure, and safe way to back up data and access it from another location. I am still old school in that I back up my critical data on a disk that isn't subject to electromagnetic damage. The key is to have the external system whether it be a hard drive or the cloud, to back up your data in case of a failure.
That's right, but most of us don't have sensitive data. I do have some colleagues at my job who work with government databases and those are protected by law and they can be run only in computers with no net or even USB drives, but that is an exception I think.
The problem with cloud storage for me is that i do not have the best internet connection and so making that kind of transition and not being able to access information as easily as having my own hard drive for me is a bit hard to digest. If you are one of those people that are able to look after things really well then i do not think that a hard drive is a bad solution at all.
If you're worried about privacy or even data security, I'd store in external drives or both. The thing about cloud storage is that there's really no privacy. Cloud companies can release all their PR if they want to but everyone knows from snowden's revelations now that there's no such thing as online security these days. So don't upload stuff online that you wouldn't mind be revealed in public. Also keep in mind that external drives can die. So it's good to creates backups of backups of backups.
That's true and if you want to go even more extreme they can go to your place and take your computer or drives. That's unlikely to happen because we don't carry anything too valuable, but if we did all attention would be little in our days.
