Purchase status: None
Best offers 1TB (yearly price) - deals found on the internet
$ 25 Microsoft Office 365 Personal
$ 55 Microsoft Office 365 Home (actually 5 TB because 5 users with each 1TB), but it does not count.
($ 60 Amazon) seems not to work with my account comes in at $ 400.
$ 100 Dropbox
$ 100 Copy.com
$ 120 Google
$ 120 iCloud (2015-09-18)
What are my preferred Vendors
Apple iCloud
Google Drive
I have to use both as I use multiple products of each company. Apple I only would consider because of the Photos Library. But I learned how to live without it. I use Google Photos free cloud storage of unlimited photos and videos if I need access on the road.
Runner up: Microsoft OneDrive. In the last few months they gain momentum. Office Mix, Snip, OneNote. Free, as in you pay for storage, for the best office suite for me.
Why I would need it
Photos and Videos - 500 GB Photos library, photos and videos, increasing growth
Books - 10 GB PDFs and ePubs
Documents - 10 GB of Documents (.docx, .xlsx., .pptx, .mm, .pdf)
Presentations - 10 GB of Presentations (Cisco Live, Microsoft TechEd, Citrix, VmWare ....)
Music - 10 GB of iTunes Library
(2 TB of movies and videos) today not considered cloud material, although Google Photos once did upload them all! And stored them at no cost!
What you get
Microsoft seems to be the coming back. Surface Pro 3, currently the best affordable all in one Computer (touch, pen, software). Office is still mandatory and the 2013 and 2016 are getting better all the time. OneNote will rule them all, if Microsoft keeps up the feature updates. Evernote will be gone. (Apple is not really committed to improve Notes drastically).
My current view is that you get the cheapest storage (not performance or availability considered) and then you get for free the full Office Suite with automatic updates and if you are like me and don't really have mobile subscription that covers all my telephony expenses then the Skype minutes look also very promising (although I'm a big time user on FaceTime audio). But I will always end up using my 500GB high speed unlimited Internet by day 10 of the month or so, and the Internet calls are not fun anymore afterwards. So Skype does not really count and I still despise the ring tone and the software in general.
Comments
iCloud, the price will go down to $120 per year, but as of today I still only see the $240 option.
For me it is still to expensive. The price point to go for it would be around $60 per year but only if Photo Library sync is included.
Today's workaround
Photos and Videos
reasons to use cloud: Immediately sync photos of devices, have access anywhere (web or clients)
- fully cloud enabled using the following: Google Photos
- mainly taken with iPhones
- synced for free to PhotoStream
- on an iMac synced to Google Photos for free
Books
reasons to use cloud: quickly check some facts or re-read some parts in books, get a new book on the go
- partially cloud enabled using iCloud drive and Gdrive.
- books must be DRM free (or Adobe ID), never Kindle, rarely iBooks
- books should be PDF or ePub
- manage all books with Calibre ((except Adobe ID), but would prefer iBooks on steroids)
- keep Calibre library partially on cloud drive, or partially on Gdrive (would prefer to have all)
- use Calibre server to access books in house (could use VPN to Home to connect but currently not in use)
- import books from iCloud drive or Gdrive into iBooks then delete individually again.
Music
reasons to use cloud: Family of 6 (more than 10 devices) that all want their Music everywhere
- fully cloud enabled using Google Music.
- Store all music on family iMac using the family account.
- Use Google Music uploader to sync all content to family account on Google Music.
- When to many devices registered try to clear all and start over or use a 2nd account for some members of the family, duplicating music. (manually, clear with Google worked last time, let's hope not to many device changes and that my younger family members don't need access)
All music service seem to neglect on purpose a family of 6 or more that have many devices, at least 15 devices from iPod, iPod touch, Samsung, iPhones from 4S to 6. All the legacy phones are gone, everyone has a smartphone for better or worse. Then one computer for each and multiple for some.
Documents and Presentations
reasons to use cloud: access from everywhere to anything
- no workaround implemented. Some on OneDrive, some on iCloud Drive, some on Gdrive, some linked in OneNote to their original place on the internet.
- OneNote is dangerous, could be a game changer, especially the clippy (Clip to OneNote Full page or article)
Movies
same reasons as always.
Google Photos could become an alternative, by mistake I set the wrong folder to upload and I had x number of full length movies in the cloud not counting against storage limitations of Gdrive. Not sure why or what happened. Removed them all, but might reconsider when going on holiday or so.
Purchase history
$48 200 GB iCloud, but I cancelled it after only 5 months
Update history
2015-09-11 online list
2015-09-19 Apple reduced prices
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_online_backup_services
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/onedrive-dropbox-google-drive-and-box-which-cloud-storage-service-is-right-for-you/
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