How to manage your Cloud

The traditional methods of storing data such as hard drives and USB sticks or memory cards have been around for many years. While they have their advantages there are also a number of pain points, what happens if the hard drive breaks or the little USB stick gets lost? The rise of the smartphone over the last decade has also brought with it a more innovative method to store your precious photos, videos and documents – The Cloud.

So, what is ‘The Cloud’? In the simplest of terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data like your photos and videos, over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive. The cloud is just a metaphor for the Internet.

There are a number of free cloud storage options available these days, here we highlight some of our favourites.

Android – Built In or Google Play Store (free)

iOS - Apple app store (free)

Google Drive, for Android users is the best known cloud storage service as it is built directly into your device. This is Google’s own service and offers an impressive 15GG of free storage from the get go! Other storage plans are available should you need more space. Google Drive is super easy to use for uploading all of your pictures, it also links in great with Google Docs.

Android – Not available

iOS – Built In

If you're an iPhone or iPad user, you most likely use iCloud to back-up at least some of your data. It's well integrated into iOS and also runs on Mac and Windows computers, and automatically updates and stores your files across all connected devices. The free version comes with 5GB of storage which you can use to backup photos, videos, mail, notes, calendars, app data, contacts and documents.

Android –Google Play Store (free)

iOS - Apple app store (free)

Microsoft One Drive is as you have guessed, Microsoft’s cloud storage service, it was formally known as SkyDrive before a rebrand. Similar to the other services mentioned its super easy to use with a clean looking interface. The free service comes with 5GB of free storage, with higher plans available. The great thing with One Drive is its seamless integration with your Windows computer.

Android –Google Play Store (free)

iOS - Apple app store (free)

Dropbox is one of the most popular cloud storage options for users of both Android and iOS owing to the time it has been available. Again, the app is very intuitive and functional for all your storage needs. Dropbox offers 2GB of free storage, which is a little lower than the others mentioned above however there is a lot more functionality opened up with a trial of the premium service which gives a huge 2TB (Terabytes) of storage.

So, these are just some of the best cloud storage options available to you across all your devices. Let us know if we have missed any in the comments below.