Personal file storage, file hosting, or cloud storage are some of the names that are given to various services that allow one to upload files to an Internet-based hosting account. Most, if not all, offer a set amount of storage for free. These services do more than just save your files on some remote server. Features include:
- You can copy/paste local files and entire folders into these accounts
- You can collaborate on a project with friends and colleagues
- You can make certain files publically accessible
- You can synchronize files in these accounts across multiple computers
- These accounts have File History or Previous Version capability
- Multiple device access
- Encryption capability
There are many companies that provide cloud storage services and there are many types of cloud storage accounts. Some are focused on photo sharing, some are backup oriented, and some are focused on file hosting. To be honest, this topic can be quite confusing and difficult to choose the “right” service for your needs. For this article, I am focusing on general file storage and access for personal use.
For some, file hosting services may just be a way to have a copy, or backup, of important files. Digital Photographs are an excellent example of what someone may want to have a remote backup of. For some, collaboration is important. Terry and I use such a service when we are working on one of our ebooks. Some simply use an account such as this for sharing files among friends and family. For those who share photos, there is a whole subcategory of photo sharing websites. I can go on and on; the point being that there is a multitude of reasons why people have these accounts and a multitude of ways they make use of them.
I have accounts in several of the major players, among them are Box, Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive. I also have iCloud, Amazon Cloud Drive and Wuala accounts. At some point, I intend to go through each service and provide the pros, cons, feature sets and related specifications. However, today I wish to take a quick look at the one of those services, namely SkyDrive.
SkyDrive is a file hosting service provided by Microsoft Corporation and the topic for today revolves around
- What it is.
- What it can do for you.
