Today’s Top Online Storage and Backup Solutions

Introduction
Cloud computing has become a buzzword recently. The best examples of a true cloud computing solution today are online storage and/or backup solutions, which have grown in large numbers during the past year or so. What separates the best of these solutions from the rest of the crowd? Let’s find out.

The Players:

The Champion

Dropbox:

With Dropbox, all you have to do is download a desktop application, install it, save the files you want to access from anywhere in a specified location on your PC, or drag them to that folder, then you’re good to go. You don’t have to do anything: Dropbox will take care of storing your files on its servers, which you can then access from anywhere as long as you have a browser. Dropbox is the first of several similar applications that enable unattended backup, without you triggering anything to start the backup process, and it is the best among these applications. Dropbox offers three plans: a free plan with 2GB storage, and two other plans that offer more storage at affordable prices.

Dropbox is different from its competitors in this space in several aspects: it does not have any collaboration features. No file-sharing, no nothing. But it does its job of online storage extremely well. For this alone, Dropbox gets our vote as the top online storage solution available today.

The Runners-Up:

There are a few other storage solutions that merit inclusion in this list because of their extensive and innovative feature sets, strong security, pricing plans and storage spaces offered, among other reasons. A short discussion of these programs follows.

ADrive

ADrive is one of the newer players in this space. ADrive bests the others on this list in terms of the most storage space for a free account: 50GB. With that, who needs a paid account? Seriously though, ADrive’s free account lacks the standard features of free accounts from its competitors. For one, file transfers are not secure. When you avail of the paid accounts though, you get the best that ADrive has to offer: file history that allows you to go back and secure a copy of a file you’ve previously edited, and the capability to edit documents directly using the Zoho Online Document Editor. Now that’s a deal-breaker that we hope the others on this list will offer in the near future.

SugarSync

SugarSync offers remote and mobile access, private and public file sharing, scheduled backups, secure file access using SSL and AES, and drag-and-drop capability between folders on your PC, Mac, or mobile. SugarSync is the only one on our list to offer integrated file versioning: SugarSync automatically saves up to five (5) versions of a file, with only the latest version taking up your precious online storage space. The company also offers flexible storage plans at attractive prices, though it does not offer a free account. SugarSync’s only drawback: the lack of a file searching capability. You’ll have to jog your memory and try to remember which file went into which folder.

Mozy

Mozy is one of the pioneers in online backup. Today, it remains among the top-notch vendors in this space, offering three packages (including a free one) of its reliable backup service at unbeatable prices. With Mozy, you can automate your backups and schedule them at your convenience. Like our winner Dropbox, and unlike most of its competitors , Mozy does not allow public file sharing.

Box.net

Next on the list is Box.net, which counts Oracle, Symantec, Nike, and Marriott among its more than 50,000 business clients. The reason Box.net is so popular among businesses is that it offers full-featured collaboration, so much so that it has been touted as a replacement for Microsoft’s Sharepoint collaboration platform. You can share files securely, and you can allow any number of people to work on a file at the same time. Collaboration goes hand-in-hand with discovery: Box.net offers full-text search of all shared files at no additional costs. Pricing can’t be beat either: Box.net offers a free basic account (with little or no collaboration features), and 5GB, 10GB, and unlimited plans at reasonable prices.

Carbonite
This is one of the purely online backup solutions on our list: it performs online backup so well, automatically, and securely, that it failed to incorporate some of the bells and whistles of its competitors. Nevertheless, we have no reason to complain. With Carbonite, you can just set it up and go. However, in terms of online storage size flexibility, Carbonite differs from the rest: it only offers unlimited storage. But it’s not really a bad deal at all. The longer you sign up with the company, the lower the price of your unlimited storage goes. For example, a three-year contract would just put your monthly bill to $3.60, a reasonable and fair price. Of course, you have to shell out a fairly large sum of money first. Carbonite does not offer file sharing and drag-and-drop between folders, though.

Summary

Although Dropbox wins by a mile in our opinion in the battle for superiority among online storage providers, the others on this list are not far behind. Compare what each of the players in this niche have to offer, and look for the features you want and need before arriving at a decision.