It’s not much of a secret. Microsoft, Google, dropbox, Wuala, Amazon, Sugarsync, and Box are competing for a valuable future.
At the individual’s level, what’s best? Cheapest? Least invasive, and most trustworthy? No secret: BYOS (bring your own storage with continuous storage and redundancy). Sorry, I can’t bring myself to trust The Cloud.
Well, it wasn’t easy figuring it all out. Not at all. First came the crunch question, “Do I want to store online or on a personal storage device? Will it will be cheapest (in the long run) if it’s an SSD, vs. a Hdd?” The answer is: It depends. For a small amount of data (up to 100 Gb) online will be cheaper, and MS is the winner. Why? Because of its TOS, and its cost.
If you choose online storage. The only reason to do that is ease of storage, shareability and syncing. If you don’t need those things, use a second/third HDD/SSD.
If you choose a HDD or SSD and store it in a fireproof/waterproof box with a redundant copy what’s yours is yours and honestly? I think a lot safer and I feel less “used” (no mean feat at my age).
Google first stated,
“a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content”
Google later explained theirs saying:
“Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.”
Microsoft’s from the beginning:
“Except for material that we license to you, we don’t claim ownership of the content you provide on the service. Your content remains your content. We also don’t control, verify, or endorse the content that you and others make available on the service.”
“You understand that Microsoft may need, and you hereby grant Microsoft the right, to use, modify, adapt, reproduce, distribute, and display content posted on the service solely to the extent necessary to provide the service.”
Google’s put in an additional “for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving [their] Services, and to develop new ones”
There’s a difference there, and a non remunerated (to you) one. They charge you, use your data, etc. yet do not pay for it. That policy has been Google’s path to wealth since the beginning.
The “derivative works” means they’ll manipulate your data for their own purposes. Surprise. For Google (and others) it’s all about “all your data (bases) is mine”.
The way to frustrate that is simple: Encryption. It will also add a layer of security to what you wish to store, and that should be done for any sensitive data on any storage media.
Anyway, say you’ve decided to use online storage for ease of use, security (not on your vulnerable machine) and ways of sharing what you need. Google wins here because of “workgoups” and the ability to work on documents collaboratively. In the Corporate world, that’s a huge thing.
OK – cost. This table is from gHacks (Martin Brinkmann). To use it best, find out from MS what the cost of storage is beyond 100 Gb (as he points out), as it isn’t on their website and might be cheaper than Google’s.
A very good comparison of Dropbox, SkyDrive and Google Drive can be found on TechHive Beta Blog (http://www.techhive.com/article/2000049/which-cloud-storage-service-is-best-google-drive-dropbox-or-skydrive.html) and I urge you to read it.
If you want online storage for your HDD/SSD, Acronis sells that fairly cheaply. Honestly? Anytime I’ve needed my backup, I used my external iomega drive and was quite happy with my weekly backup. Just be sure to make your emergency boot disks, and have your “emergency rescue tools” on a zip drive (make two and keep one safe).
Sources:
http://www.techhive.com/article/2000049/which-cloud-storage-service-is-best-google-drive-dropbox-or-skydrive.html
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/04/24/cloud-drive-price-comparison-amazon-apple-google-box-dropbox-skydrive-and-sugarsync/?_m=3n.0038.500.hj0ao01hy5.idm
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/04/25/skydrive-and-google-drive-terms-of-service-something-to-consider/?_m=3n.0038.500.hj0ao01hy5.idg
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/04/microsoft-takes-on-dropbox-with-major-skydrive-update.ars?clicked=related_right