Local Storage or Cloud
OneDrive, iCloud, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, etc, etc, etc. There are a lot of choices out there for cloud based storage. But should you use it or take advantage of the local storage options and build your own cloud.
Having accounts with MS, Apple, Box and Google I have access to several cloud storage providers. So all in probably 100GB or so of "free" cloud storage.
I do utilize some of automated cloud storage features for example my Nokia 521 Camera Roll is automatically sync'd with OneDrive - so kind of nice for sharing photos. I've also tried Cloud based Music storage (more on that below) as well as Apple iCloud for apps, music and other purchases that sync across my iPads.
But outside of those use cases, I don't rely on Cloud storage.
Why ? So several reasons.
First - it's expensive. While all of these services offer a free 5 - 10 GB allocation - buying anything more is pricey. Using MS OneDrive as an example - to purchase just 200GB of storage is $100 / year. A recent check on Newegg shows you can purchase a 3TB Seagate Barracuda for under $110. Assuming you can get 3 - 4 years of life from a disk - that means that OneDrive is at least 15 times more expensive for the same storage and actually closer to 45 times over a 3 year life. Yes other services are less expensive - but none come close to the economics of local storage.
Second - it's slow when compared to local storage. Even though I have a 60Mbps Internet connection, it often surprises me how slow it is to upload or download content.
Third - Poor Music Matching apps - I have an relatively extensive music collection of some 8000+ songs. It's a mix of ripped CD content and XBox Live Subscription content. I tried to utilize XBox Live's "Cloud Collection" to match up my ripped content with XBox Live so I could sync content down to my Nokia when needed. Many albums were not matched and even content I "owned" via XBox Live purchase would fail on sync down to my phone. Now I haven't had as many problems with Apple iCloud - so obviously MS has some work to do - but it's symptomatic of some of the cloud services challenges. Honestly I was better off just connecting my phone via USB to my computer and manually copying over what I wanted.
Fourth - Inconstant mobile support. MS OneDrive on Windows Phone has one huge problem - the inability to simply click on a file in the cloud and download to your device. To me this is most basic of functionalities - but one that MS has failed miserably at.
Finally - Backup/Reliability - So while I have never lost any information placed in any cloud storage service, I have experienced some issues syncing content or sharing. And while these are all strong companies - there is inherent risk in replying on cloud services. In most cases I also end of syncing content back down to my local storage as the backup. So then question becomes - why use a public cloud for this ?
But if you use a local storage model - how do you keep everything in sync, backup and get access when travelling ?
First - You should rarely have to keep everything in sync. Only a small subset of your total content. For example - I have an extensive video collection in excess of 2TB - I really don't expect to keep that in sync to my mobile devices. But I would like access in case I want it.
Second - You can make your home desktop or server content easily and safely accessible from the road. Your choices include NAS Cloud software from WesternDigital or Seagate to open source products like OwnCloud or licensed products like Tonido. All of these have their pluses and minuses, but almost all have better overall functionality than many of the cloud offerings.
Third - when possible purchase mobile devices with SD expand-ability. One of the most recent trends in computing in general are devices with fixed storage sizing that is not expandable. This is especially true with smartphones, tablets and many of the ultrabook devices. This constraint along with owning multiple devices is what has driven the cloud storage market.
So you do have choices. For example.
My little Nokia 521 came with just 8GB of total storage and the OS took over 2GB of that. But the Nokia only cost me $72 to buy and came with SD expand-ability. A quick trip to Costco and I bought a 32GB SanDisk sdhc card for $24 and if I was willing to spend $44 I could have gotten 64GB. So all of a sudden I have a 40GB device with 38GB usable for less than $100. In comparison the Nokia 925 which is a fixed 16GB device can be had for around $200. So while the 925 is a very nice device and has features not found on the 521 - from a storage perspective is is 4.5 times more expensive. In fact the only reason I did not buy a 925 over the 521 was the lack of expandable storage.
So to give you an idea of what 32Gb will store - I have well over half of my 8000 song collection, several hundred photos and a couple of h.264 compressed movies with plenty of room to spare. If I had sprung for the 64GB card I could have had my entire music collection along with a dozen or so movies and maybe 1000 photos.
So sure you could argue - well if I buy a device with 32 or 64GB to begin with then I shouldn't have any problems. And yes you may be correct. But first you will pay dramatically more for that device and second you won't have the flexibility potentially upgrade the storage to 128GB or higher when those cards become available. I personally expect that in the next few years, you will easily be able to get 256 or even 512GB sdhc cards at relatively cheap prices when compared to the same amount of embedded storage.
Bottom line is this..
Cloud services are nice for things like auto-uploading of photos, syncing purchased content to multiple devices but they are not well designed or supportive of large scale content and are expensive and somewhat slow.
You are much better served purchasing large disks for your master content, building your own cloud and managing your mobile content by placing it on sdhc or sdhx storage.
Having accounts with MS, Apple, Box and Google I have access to several cloud storage providers. So all in probably 100GB or so of "free" cloud storage.
I do utilize some of automated cloud storage features for example my Nokia 521 Camera Roll is automatically sync'd with OneDrive - so kind of nice for sharing photos. I've also tried Cloud based Music storage (more on that below) as well as Apple iCloud for apps, music and other purchases that sync across my iPads.
But outside of those use cases, I don't rely on Cloud storage.
Why ? So several reasons.
First - it's expensive. While all of these services offer a free 5 - 10 GB allocation - buying anything more is pricey. Using MS OneDrive as an example - to purchase just 200GB of storage is $100 / year. A recent check on Newegg shows you can purchase a 3TB Seagate Barracuda for under $110. Assuming you can get 3 - 4 years of life from a disk - that means that OneDrive is at least 15 times more expensive for the same storage and actually closer to 45 times over a 3 year life. Yes other services are less expensive - but none come close to the economics of local storage.
Second - it's slow when compared to local storage. Even though I have a 60Mbps Internet connection, it often surprises me how slow it is to upload or download content.
Third - Poor Music Matching apps - I have an relatively extensive music collection of some 8000+ songs. It's a mix of ripped CD content and XBox Live Subscription content. I tried to utilize XBox Live's "Cloud Collection" to match up my ripped content with XBox Live so I could sync content down to my Nokia when needed. Many albums were not matched and even content I "owned" via XBox Live purchase would fail on sync down to my phone. Now I haven't had as many problems with Apple iCloud - so obviously MS has some work to do - but it's symptomatic of some of the cloud services challenges. Honestly I was better off just connecting my phone via USB to my computer and manually copying over what I wanted.
Fourth - Inconstant mobile support. MS OneDrive on Windows Phone has one huge problem - the inability to simply click on a file in the cloud and download to your device. To me this is most basic of functionalities - but one that MS has failed miserably at.
Finally - Backup/Reliability - So while I have never lost any information placed in any cloud storage service, I have experienced some issues syncing content or sharing. And while these are all strong companies - there is inherent risk in replying on cloud services. In most cases I also end of syncing content back down to my local storage as the backup. So then question becomes - why use a public cloud for this ?
But if you use a local storage model - how do you keep everything in sync, backup and get access when travelling ?
First - You should rarely have to keep everything in sync. Only a small subset of your total content. For example - I have an extensive video collection in excess of 2TB - I really don't expect to keep that in sync to my mobile devices. But I would like access in case I want it.
Second - You can make your home desktop or server content easily and safely accessible from the road. Your choices include NAS Cloud software from WesternDigital or Seagate to open source products like OwnCloud or licensed products like Tonido. All of these have their pluses and minuses, but almost all have better overall functionality than many of the cloud offerings.
Third - when possible purchase mobile devices with SD expand-ability. One of the most recent trends in computing in general are devices with fixed storage sizing that is not expandable. This is especially true with smartphones, tablets and many of the ultrabook devices. This constraint along with owning multiple devices is what has driven the cloud storage market.
So you do have choices. For example.
My little Nokia 521 came with just 8GB of total storage and the OS took over 2GB of that. But the Nokia only cost me $72 to buy and came with SD expand-ability. A quick trip to Costco and I bought a 32GB SanDisk sdhc card for $24 and if I was willing to spend $44 I could have gotten 64GB. So all of a sudden I have a 40GB device with 38GB usable for less than $100. In comparison the Nokia 925 which is a fixed 16GB device can be had for around $200. So while the 925 is a very nice device and has features not found on the 521 - from a storage perspective is is 4.5 times more expensive. In fact the only reason I did not buy a 925 over the 521 was the lack of expandable storage.
So to give you an idea of what 32Gb will store - I have well over half of my 8000 song collection, several hundred photos and a couple of h.264 compressed movies with plenty of room to spare. If I had sprung for the 64GB card I could have had my entire music collection along with a dozen or so movies and maybe 1000 photos.
So sure you could argue - well if I buy a device with 32 or 64GB to begin with then I shouldn't have any problems. And yes you may be correct. But first you will pay dramatically more for that device and second you won't have the flexibility potentially upgrade the storage to 128GB or higher when those cards become available. I personally expect that in the next few years, you will easily be able to get 256 or even 512GB sdhc cards at relatively cheap prices when compared to the same amount of embedded storage.
Bottom line is this..
Cloud services are nice for things like auto-uploading of photos, syncing purchased content to multiple devices but they are not well designed or supportive of large scale content and are expensive and somewhat slow.
You are much better served purchasing large disks for your master content, building your own cloud and managing your mobile content by placing it on sdhc or sdhx storage.
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