Cloud Storage

[phorsley]

Does anyone have any recommendations for Cloud Storage for my photos, not sure which one is the best.

thanks

Paul

[Krawuntzel]

Hello Paul
excuse me to be of no use to your request, but my recommendation -security!! - is to never use a cloud storage system, if it is not my own or not controlled by me.
Erwin

[Nate]

I currently use Google Drive. It's a little more effort as you either have to drag/drop files to be backed up to the website or a virtual drive but it's cheap ($2 USD per month for 100 GB) and I like being able to access my images anywhere via the web.

I've also used Carbonite in the past which I thought had good tools for monitoring and automating back ups but at the time didn't have much of a web presence.

[KingsHockeyFan]

Does anyone have any recommendations for Cloud Storage for my photos, not sure which one is the best.

thanks

Paul

How accessible do you want your files? Are you looking for storage that is for easy file viewing/access from any location like Google Drive or Flikr, or are you looking for storage that is more geared toward back-up/recovery operations like Carbonite and BackBlaze?

[Donald]

I have looked at a number of them and could never quite make sense of them. Also, I was put off by the slow upload speeds that we have.

However, I have just taken out a subscription to Microsoft Office 365. That comes with 1TB of free storage for each of the 5 users that the subscription covers, in Microsoft's 'One Drive' cloud. So, as I write I have 965 files remaining to be uploaded from the batch I have started with.

And I'm still struggling to learn how to manage it. It seems to have a mind of its own and starts uploading stuff. It's to do with 'syncing' and whether it starts automatically when I open Windows. But, I'll get there.

[Geoff F]

This reminds me. I've got to remove my few photos from Just Cloud and then forget about the idea! When I tried this system I unwisely signed up for three years because it was much cheaper.

Might work if you have a few fairly low resolution Jpegs which have been resized solely for internet use but when I tried uploading full size Raw images, or worse still edits in Psd, my upload speeds were so slow it was a total waste of time.

However, some parts of the world have much faster internet speeds than remote areas of the UK.

I would certainly keep copies on an external drive or discs as well.

And I use a photo sharing site to store selected images at internet size. I use P base but there are many others.

[IzzieK]

1 to Erwinn's comment...I do not trust anything that will store my files outside of my computer. Harddrives cost is no longer an issue...they come cheap too nowadays.

[Donald]

1 to Erwinn's comment...I do not trust anything that will store my files outside of my computer.

That's a position that I used to take, but I am now satisfied that the concept of Clouds is so well established and being utilised by major commercial enterprises all over the world, that it is the way to go to securely store data. I no longer have any concerns about that question of trust in having data stored outwith my PC

The one remaining big issue for me is that of upload speeds. In the UK at the moment, there is a big push on to extend the availability of Superfast Broadband. We are due to have it in Glenfarg by July 2015. From speaking to one of the engineer's installing the equipment just next door to my house, the big noticeable difference is in upload speeds.

[Brownbear]

Just to say I use http://www.backup500.com/ for Cloud storage. (as well as an external hard drive back up). I haven't researched any other cloud systems but I'm delighted with this one. The company is based in Mexico which is where I signed up for it. It took about six weeks to upload all of my files there (slow internet upload speed) whereas in Vancouver it took just one day. The cost is 500 pesos per year ~ $40 CAD

I can see and access/manage all of my files from my computer with ease, and access pics/upload new pics from anywhere in the world.

Once again, I can't compare it to any other Cloud systems but it is inexpensive and easy to manage without any support needed from techies.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I'm with Erwin on this one.

[Shadowman]

Supposedly, MyCloud through Western Digital doesn't have any access or storage fees, you just pay the cost of the transfer device.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1140

[loosecanon]

One of my "back up drives" is located in my brick shed away from the house. The files on it can be loaded via the web from anywhere and also looked at. It is password protected. After the cost of setting up it costs me nothing. It has copies of raw and jpeg images on it, as well as other important files. Currently about 1¼ tb. The plus point is at home I can load material at the full speed of my network rather than over the www.