Cloud storage is hot. Large numbers of GB’s for free, many providers, many security breaches. Ever tried running a powerful server 24×7 on a high speed internet connection for free? Not possible. So the new and independent providers will either disappear or ask more money. What about Google, Microsoft and Dropbox? With Google it’s the same storage as used for Gmail, with the same conditions: “you’re the product”. The Google business model is clear and I’m okay with that. For Gmail there aren’t many alternatives, but for cloud storage there are.
Microsoft’s OneDrive gives you currently 15GB for free. That’s a lot. Since Microsoft was a little late at the game, I can understand that. Getting people into something often starts with giving away something for free. Their Onedrive is already build into Win 8.1. The “ecosystem” business model with focus on Cloud and Mobility that Microsoft is currently pursuing is a good one. Their cloud system is solid, but focussed at Office 365. Changing a file in Onedrive does trigger an upload. But the other client (I only tested the OS X client) notices it after quite some time. Maybe that’s the time it takes getting home after work…
If you want immediate sync, you need Dropbox. To me, they are the sync heros. Only Dropbox can sync a part of a file. For that to work, each file is cut into 4MB chunks. Also it gets copies via the LAN. No other Cloud provider is able to do that… Their free offering is luckily limited to 2GB, pushing their paid and business offerings forward. This all might end up with Facebook however…
Then we have the network drive systems, like Strato’s HiDrive. No network, no data, so not for me. Strato’s answer to this architectural limitation is using “Offline Folders”, which unfortunately is a Windows only feature.
Finally all these cloud provider tests and reviews are limited. List all features, but only loosely mentioning the difference between a WebDAV drive and syncing a local folder. No performance benchmarks. No tests where two clients try to change the same file. Do the file versions that Dropbox keeps, count for your used GB’s? Delete a file on Dropbox. Then a day later, you changed you mind and upload the same file again. Now Dropbox uses the copy it already has and your upload is suddenly impossible fast… What about bad network connections, how are these handled? All things that might be important to you, depending on your usage. It’s like testing a car by driving around on a dry race track, useless…