Do you know what a Cloud Backup is? Is a way to backup your personal files into a server on the web, so you can access them anywhere since you have an Internet Connection available. Some of them, you can use your mobile phone (like iPhone or Android). They are usually similar in the way they work. You sign up, some of them provide their own application so you can download / upload and manage your hosted files, have limited online space (specifications of each one below) and some services you get some additional space for you for each person you invite and creates an account with them. Some of them allows you to share your files with other service user, others don’t. I didn't went that further exploring. Cloud host can be used for – sharing files with some other user, having files accessible anywhere since you have internet for you, or someone else, or even backup (in this last scenario, offered space does matter) so you don’t need to burn dvd’s or cd’s with your data, you can just host it online. Even though I always think it’s a good idea to have a local copy, “just in case”. Some of these services provide also a file size limit which you have to pay attention. Everything should be in detail on their website.
I’m going to give a brief resume of the best cloud services but in the end, I’ll explore the winner :)
So, the best online cloud services (free accounts) I choosen are:
- Dropbox – Which allows 2 gb on a free account, you can use their website to upload, download and manage hosted files or download their neat application and work from there, simple as drag & drop on the local computer into a Dropbox icon and will be uploaded. It’s nice, but 2gb is kind of short nowadays, but still very helpful for important files, like documents. You also get an extra 250mb into your account by each person you invite. Their application is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Mobile.
- SkyDrive – Allows 5gb. You can use Live Mesh (which is bundled optionally with the package Windows Live. Natively, you use their website (dashboard) to download / upload / manage the hosted files. 5Gb is starting to be “something” :-) Since is a Windows Live application, you can only get their app for Windows.
- SugarSync – Offers 5gb of online storage, and by each invite with a referral link you get extra 500mb. They also have their cute application to manage your files and a dashboard. Their application is available for Windows, MacOSX, iOS, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian.
- ZumoDrive – Offers 2gb free, supports multiple languages and they also provide their application for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android and yay! For Palm Pre mobiles! :D
- TeamDrive – Offers 2gb, available in English and German. You also get 250gb for each person you invite and their application is available for Windows, Linux and Mac and you also have a dashboard.
- UbuntuOne – Offers 5fb free. They provide a application supported on Windows, Linux and recently added mobile support (Android and iOS). Nothing too fancy, simple and easy to use. Either way, you also have a dashboard. :-)
- iDrive – Offers you 5Gb free. Additional support for multi-languages, provided application for Windows, Mac and iPhone (no linux, aww), but you can use the dashboard.
- OpenDrive – Offers you 5gb and multi-language as well. They also have their neat application for Windows, and lately added support for Mac OSX, iPhone and Android and also have a dashboard available.
- Syncplicity – Personal edition (aka free) gives you 2gb, they provide their application for Windows, Mac, and added recently on iPhone store and Android. For Linux, well, dashboard is the answer, because they don’t have an application for Linux.
Okay, these are the ones most used and discussed, until recently a friend told me about BeeCloud. He said “they give you 512gb free”. I was surprised. I was like.. “what’s the catch” ? “none”. “None?!” For 512gb there has to be a catch”. Well, it turns out, there’s no catch. It is as it is. They offer you 512gb for free. They also provide their neat application that works similar to every other one. Basically, you sign up on their website choosing a free account, you download their application called “LiveDrive”, login using the credentials you used to create the account, select a computer name (some services restrict to one computer only per account, this is not the case, which means you can install their application in as many computers as you like with different names so you can differentiate them when managing the files), select the directories you want to backup (in my case, i selected directories that contained various file types ranging a few kb’s to 600mb in file size). With one installation apparently you can also manage different accounts. Some screens of this lovely application!
Once you install the application you’ll have a useful system tray icon that display transfers status, access to your online files and access to the options. Let’s explore the options shall we?
Account details, where you can manage as many accounts as you have with them and a Report Problem button. Cool!
Bandwidth allocation / personalization and hey! Allows encryption! Useful for protection in case of man-in-the-middle attacks! I haven’t seen this option on the other services, this is something unique.
File integrity check, also handy and proxy configuration support, in case you’re behind a proxy.
And the self-updating tab. Where you can check if you’re using the latest version of LiveDrive or not and update it.
And at last, the backup manager, where you select which folders you want to backup. I’m going to test a huge transfer, let’s see how it goes…
This is the transfer window, which shows what files are being backed up. Since it’s a few gigs.. I’ll just leave it overnight since my upload isn’t that fast.
So, assuming everything goes okay, this is a stunning – underrated service, or at least so it seems. I wonder for how long they will offer free 512gb free accounts, I hope they last, there were a couple of services like these in the past that went for a couple of months then went offline. I’m guessing 512gb is a LOT of space for a FREE account, but I couldn’t let it go and not review it! After all, its something rare.
Since it’s an European cloud service, I’m not sure whether there are location restrictions or not, if you’re outside the EU, try it and let us know :-)
This is it! The upload has finished (after a few hours) all my data is available online. I’m surprised and I hope they keep up with this free service. I’m sure Dropbox and so every other cloud solution for free accounts will be jealous and will want to keep up. This is healthy for competition!
Try it and give us your opinion!
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