HEAD IN THE CLOUDS

Cloud Storage means little to me, so I thought I'd take the time out to do a bit of investigating. I went to How Stuff Works to find out more information, and once there, I discovered that cloud storage is basically a way for computer users to store and backup their files onto a remote database. So instead of running out of space on their hard drive, the user can backup their files and data onto a cloud storage system. Once the files are stored, the user can then access the data from any location that has access to the Internet. There are many different providers of cloud storage, some of the more popular providers include: Dropbox, JustCloud, Zip Cloud and Google Docs to name a few. I have already been collaborating with my fellow students for some time by using Google Docs on a semi-regular basis, so I will bypass this particular provider and look at exploring other providers I have never used before.

JustCloud seemed to be one of the better providers, and was free, so I decided to have a look at this particular storage system and see what all the fuss was about. I was lured by the claims of "unlimited storage space", "encrypted security", and "24/7 customer service" - well, I was rather disappointed! After I registered and created an account, I then started to backup my files and was notified that I only had a maximum of 15 MB of space. And If I wanted to continue backing up my files, I would need to upgrade and pay only $4.95 a month to use the service. Well that put an abrupt stop to my experience of JustCloud! 

** My short-lived JustCloud homepage** 
 image taken from: https://my.justcloud.com/

Undeterred by my bad experience of using JustCloud, I thought I might as well look at Dropbox, as this provider seems to offer a free service (hopefully with no strings attached). In order to learn more about how to use Dropbox and its features, I downloaded this interesting YouTube video tutorial.

Well, I am pleased to say that I persevered and ventured cautiously onto the Dropbox website and after reading a little about the provider, I decided to install the program onto my computer. I then created an account and followed the basic onscreen instructions for setup, and hey presto, it worked and I was rearded with 2 GB of free storage space, as opposed to the measly 15 MB that JustCloud provided. I must say, in comparison to JustCloud, I was much more impressed with the useability and functionality of Dropbox's interface: the drag and drop function was a breeze to use, as was the share file function and the photo album creator and viewer was a nice touch. Dropbox is definitely an indispensable storage tool for the information manager as it not only allows the user to store important documents when space is an issue, but also enables the user to simply drag and drop files, share files and create links to documents for other users to access. 

** My Dropbox account **  
image taken from: https://www.dropbox.com/home

So, I have since become a bit of a Dropbox convert. I was curious to find out whether it was possible to obtain more Dropbox storage space for free - I did locate several YouTube videos, but I wasn't sure about the legal implications of this, so I decided not to pursue this avenue of inquiry.