國產零零戚 / Made in China

My Mobile Me account is about to expire soon and I’ve spent a considerable amount of time evaluating various alternative cloud-based storage and synchronisation systems out there. The services they offer vary considerably and many of them offer several differently priced subscriptions. I didn’t want to spend too much money on this so I only evaluated the lower end (ie. cheap) products, with most emphasis on the free versions (were available). Please note that I have not included any trial offers with limited availability in the list:

Box.net is targeted more towards business users and people with money. But to be frank, if you are someone with money, don’t pay them. Their pricing structure is so out of date that you get crappy conditions for a high price. Verdict: definite nay

Dropbox is one of the better services out there. The installer will create a folder on your computer that automatically syncs all its content with the cloud. If you have an iPhone, Dropbox features an excellent online interface that allows you to access all your data on the go. I subscribed to the free version with 2GB and was surprised by its reliability and fast sync speed. Referring people (like I’m doing now) will also increase your storage capacity by 250MB per referral (both you and your friend will get an additional 250MB). So, if you want 2.25GB of space sign up using this link. Verdict: definite yay

Humyo prouds itself by emphasising the security of its data centre, apparently located in a former vault of the Bank of England. Their prices are incredibly competitive – their only paid price plan charges only USD $80 for a 100GB account. Unfortunately – and that’s the only downside – they have no OS X nor Linux client yet (promised for some time this year). Verdict: yay

Mobile Me is Apple’s cloud service product for the normal customer. Signing up will give you 20GB that you can use for email and files. The good thing is: if you are on a mac it will integrate more than just email and allow you to store files. It will also allow you to syncronise your calendars and your address book with the cloud. Since Apple scrapped .Mac and introduced Mobile Me the service has steadily improved. However, even were it to work at 100% peak performance (which it is not), it’s still massively overpriced. Verdict: nay

If online backup is all you need from an online storage service, Mozy is definitely an alternative. For about $60 they give you unlimited storage to backup 1 computer. However, this means you can’t backup your desktop computer AND your laptop. Nor can you synchronise between them. Verdict: nay

I spent a lot of time evaluating SugarSync because they give you an excellent 45 days trial. The basic (cheapest) plan gives you 10GB of storage accessible from everywhere for only $25/year. iPhone users will be particularly happy as they have released an iPhone app last year, allowing you to access all your content on the go. Another great advantage is the way you can tell the system to back up this particular data without synchronising it to all the other computers. This means the file is still available for download but doesn’t unnecessarily clutter up disk space on your netbook. Verdict: definite yay

Wuala was definitely fun to evaluate but hard to compare with its competitors. While its promise is the same as all the other providers mentioned so far, it’s approach is totally unique. In addition to its own servers it utilises idle storage capacity that users are willing to share. The user can thus trade in additional storage for free. Of course it’s also possible to simply pay for additional storage. For 10GB you pay only $25 a year. Verdict: yay

On first sight, Zumodrive appears like any other online storage service. You get 1GB for free, 10GB will cost you around $36. There is an iPhone app that allows you to conveniently access your files on the go, similar to SugarSync. On your computer, Zumodrive will look like another hard disk drive and thus allow for easy access. Verdict: yay

Final verdict: Reacting to what to my own personal requirements are in this case, there are two clear winners and one candidate with a lot of potential. The two clear winners are Dropbox and SugarSync. Dropbox wins the free category, whereas SugarSync wins in the paid category. Wuala deserves a special award from me for its innovative approach.

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