Online Storage Comparison: Go Big or Go Home

Cloud Computing is all the rage ... so what is it? Well there are two aspects of cloud computing; 1. Running virtual servers in the cloud, such as Amazons Elastic Cloud Computing or RightScale and 2. Storing your files in the "Cloud" for access from anywhere.

This post is about storing your files (which is more applicable to most of the internet denizens out there). There are great reasons to store your files in the cloud, including off-site backup as well as colaboration and sharing. To my great pleasure, there are some great free offerings for online cloud storage (and some great paid offerings as well). Here is a quick summary: 

Free Online Storage Comparison: (Listed by Gigs of Free Storage Offered). There are other online storage services (such as the popular Carbonite), but I have only include ones I have tried and that offer a free plan.

ADrive.com	Pro's	Con's
50 Gig Free (Has Paid Plans)	Huge Storage Space FTP and Web Access Includes Backup Utility to sync / backup local directories to online storage Can make files public Paid Plans provide WebDAV access Update: FTP and Backup Utility no longer included with Free Account	Longevity may be an issue since this is not backed by a well known company Can only be logged in from one source (web or ftp) Utility is only for Windows Update: Since it Adrive is now only web based, limitation removed

Skydrive	Pro's	Con's
25 Gig Free	Backed by Microsoft (some may consider this a con) so should be a stable offering Can make files public	No FTP Access (but does have a drag and drop ActiveX control available for IE No Backup Utility to sync / backup local directories

Mesh.Com	Pro's	Con's
5 Gig Free	Backed by Microsoft (some may consider this a con) so should be a stable offering Can make files public Can be used to sync files between computers (Mac and Windows) Provides remote access to your computers See my Post about Mesh.com.	No FTP Access (but does have a drag and drop ActiveX control available for IE Cannot Upload from any computer, must have Mesh client installed.

Mozy	Pro's	Con's
2 Gig Free (has paid plans)	Backed by EMC so should be a stable offering Includes Backup Utility to sync / backup local directories Supports Windows and Mac OSx	Mozy is intended as a backup solution, not an online file storage solution. Cannot make a file public No FTP access

Box.Net	Pro's	Con's
1 Gig Free (has paid plans)	Includes Backup Utility to sync / backup local directories Integrated into Linked In for easy file collaboration with your network	Does not include Backup Utility to sync / backup local directories No FTP access (but does have Java based drag and drop)

Some additional Online Storage Services that I have not tried include:

• Orbitfiles (6GB Free Storage)
• 4Shared (5GB Free Storage)
  
• iDrive (2GB Free Storage)
• ElephantDrive (1GB Free Storage)
  

Check out my Delicious Links related to this post at http://delicious.com/tim.alosi/cloud