Cloud Storage, my newest solution...

I have officially become 100% reliant on the cloud for all of my important data backup. Within a few years everybody will be working this way, but because of my mobile lifestyle I needed to transition a little quicker.

Let me tell you how this came about …

About a year ago I decided I needed to come up with a better solution for living and working from multiple locations and multiple devices. I’d already been using Google Docs for a lot of my writing, but the majority of my data was still held in the physical realm, sitting no-so-pretty on one of my computers and/or awkwardly transported on one of a few external backup hard drives or Flashdrives.

Initially I thought I’d continue with this strategy. Mass storage would be saved to the external drives and items in transition, either being updated or transported, were saved to the flashdrives. Flashdrives are smaller, more versatile, and less prone to failure than hard drives with moving parts but I couldn’t find a large enough flash drive for my needs that also didn’t cost hundreds of dollars.  So the multi storage solution seemed to be as good as it got.

Breaking Free From The Physical World

I decided that the multitude of external Flash drives I had collected, while awesome for certain uses, just aren’t the ideal solution for heavy use.  They are easily lost and capacities, though increasing, aren't enough for my needs.  I really can't backup an entire photo shoot to a single flashdrive..

It was clearly time to begin using a remote backup system that I could access from anywhere. There are about a dozen well-known services that do this, along with many lesser-known services.  After doing my own research it came down to SugarSync and DropBox, the two solutions I was most interested in.



I considered my needs and decided DropBox would work best...  The best laid plans...

My Issues With DropBox
DropBox is definitely a good solution and they’ll give you 2GB of backup free right here so that’s cool. (Sign up through that link for free and you’ll get 250mb of bonus storage.)

But here are my issues:

• Everything I want backed up must go into the DropBox folder on my physical hard drive. I found I was limiting what I would back up based on my file storage locations.  I didn't really want to reorganize my file structure.
• All files are duplicated and synchronized across all devices.. DropBox seems to be more of a  synchronization tool rather than true cloud storage.
• I can’t selectively sync folders that are outside of the DropBox folder to my DropBox account. So if I have an image folder inside my MyPictures folder I can’t have that automatically backed up without moving the whole folder to the DropBox folder first. This is essentially the same as my first point, but it’s important enough to reiterate.
• The online account doesn’t have media streaming. One of my reasons for wanting a remote backup is to send my media library to the cloud. This way I can have my own Pandora anywhere I go. If you’ve ever transferred 42GB of music from computer to computer to computer you know what a pain that is.

NOTE: I still haven't perfected moving my Lightroom catalog to the cloud, though I have read of a few instances of it being done successfully... I'll update when/if that happens..

I’m still using DropBox simply because I have a fair amount of data sync'd there. And since I've increased my storage limit to about 5GB simply via referral, it doesn’t cost me anything to keep it alive.

My Main Cloud Computing Solution Is Now SugarSync

DropBox just doesn’t compete with SugarSync in any way, shape, or form.
My favorite features of SugarSync:

1. With selective syncing I can choose any folder to be backed up automatically. Any time anything in one of my chosen folders changes it is automatically backed up.
2. The online music streaming is awesome. I have my media library selected as a SugarSync folder so now any time I add new albums to iTunes they automatically get backed up to my SugarSync account.
3. If you need a place to store your High Res photos [and who doesn't?  ;-)], SugarSync has a beautiful photo gallery, with easy access from any device
4. Public access to any file with the click of a button. Say you want to share something (a photo, for example) with the world. Just click Get Public Link and you’re golden.
5. You can send any file to anybody anywhere. Unlike DropBox, the recipient does not need a SugarSync account to get the file. 
6. The free account is 5GB instead of just 2GB.
7. In addition, if you register for a free account through this link you get an extra 500mb of data (you get 10GB extra if you buy an account) … and I get an extra 500mb of data in my account as well. :) Obviously they do this because they need to compete with the likes of DropBox.  Every time you refer someone to SugarSync you get 500mb of data into your free plan. This is unlimited. With DropBox you get 250mb for every person you refer, but it’s limited to a total of 8GB.

And, of course, with SugarSync your data is available on virtually any device. PC, mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Android OS, and so on.

Pricing Differences
Pretty much all online storage companies follow a similar pricing plan, but even here SugarSync wins out. DropBox is $99/year for 50GB or 2GB for free. SugarSync is $99.95/year for 60GB or 5GB for free.

My Ultimate Plan of Cloud Covered Action

Simple: use SugarSync and spread the word about it so I get even more data storage. Let me explain: I’m hoping you’ll help me by registering for a free 5GB account (you need this anyway if you want to work in the cloud), in which case you’ll get an extra 500mb and I’ll also get an extra 500mb. (If you register for a paid account instead you’ll get 10GB of extra storage and I’ll get 10GB of extra storage.)
Get your free SugarSync account (5GB + 500mb bonus) here.

Whatever you decide to do, if you want to become a technomad, or even if you just want to do a bit of traveling, backing up your data in the cloud where it can be retrieved from anywhere on any device is a smart idea. Nobody has ever regretted backing up data too much, but I know quite a few people who have been pissed off for not backing up enough...