[cloud] Storage Wars

Over the past few months, I've been trying out several different cloud storage providers. Actually, I've been using Amazon Cloud for a couple of years with my Kindle and it's still a favorite.  Since the price war broke out between Google and Amazon, I benefit from a much lower price per GB.

In this post I'll give some of my impressions of each service along with some of the pros and cons.

Amazon Cloud

• Low price plans for budget-minded folks
• Excellent support for music storage and MP3 Cloud Player
• Integrated seamlessly with the Kindle for music and photos

- No Linux support (browser only, single file uploads)
- No Blackberry support

Dropbox

• Great integration for eBooks (O'Reilly, Smashwords, others)
• Productivity integration (Nozbe, IFTTT)
• Support for every platform that I have: Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, Blackberry and Kindle
• Mailbox and Carousel apps for Android and iOS gives you extra free storage
• Has a Python tool for running on a headless Linux installation, great for moving files up to the server

- High price per GB

Box

• Better suited for business with integrated apps
• Support for Blackberry

- No client for Linux
- Highest price of all services reviewed

Copy

• Support for Linux, but the client seems to be buggy
• Developed a client for the Raspberry Pi
• Can split the cost of a shared account between users
• Mid-priced, could be better

- Finally had to give up on the Linux client since it caused the system to lag so badly

iCloud

• Windows, iOS and Android clients

- Pretty much geared for Apple devices

Google Drive

• Native integration on Android devices and Chrome OS
• Lowest price of all services I reviewed
• Works best with Google+ accounts, photos, Google Docs

- No Linux support (browser only)

OneDrive

• Native support for Windows 8, Windows Phone, good for Win 7
• Supported clients for iOS, OS X and Android work well
• Mid-price, can earn free storage using Bing as your search engine

- No Linux support
- No Blackberry or other support

 So, the bottom line is that I'll eventually consolidate everything on Dropbox. The biggest selling point was the available clients for all the devices that I use.  Works fine on Linux, Kindle and Blackberry, which were the hardest to find support for.  Will probably keep the Amazon Cloud since it's dirt cheap and still enjoy using the MP3 music streaming on the Kindle.

Moving away from UbuntuOne Cloud Storage

How strange a coincidence is this? Just a few days after I decided to try Dropbox (motivated by my need to share documents from a laptop to my Kindle), UbuntuOne announces they are dropping the music and file sharing service.

I really enjoyed the ease of sharing my documents, music and photos between a laptop running Ubuntu and my Windows 7 laptop for free (I had earned 25 GB of cloud storage from UbuntuOne by buying some music from their service).

Is it worth upgrading the free 2 GB plan on Dropbox to the 100 GB level?  That's the smallest plan they offer and really more than I need.

Throw in the mix that I've got free space on Apple iCloud, Microsoft's SkyDrive and have been using Amazon Cloud Drive for several years now.  Amazon's service works great between the Mac and Windows ... can I find a way to integrate it with Ubuntu and Linux Mint?

More to follow, I'm sure.

Using DropBox for your eBooks and other documents

I have no idea why I waited so long to try DropBox.  I already use Amazon's cloud storage and of course have an iCloud that's linked to my iTunes account.  But these services are geared to mainstream Windows and Mac users.

What I never realized was how easy it is to synch across different platforms like Linux and Kindle using DropBox.

Throw in the fact that several eBook sites are now starting to link up with DropBox for delivery and synching your purchases.  I've already tried it with O'Reilly and Smashwords.

You can try it for free ... and using this link, get an extra 500 MB of storage!