{"id":48785,"date":"2013-12-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/5-things-to-consider-when-choosing-a-cloud-drive\/"},"modified":"2013-12-18T11:55:14","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T11:55:14","slug":"5-things-to-consider-when-choosing-a-cloud-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/2\/29691\/trends\/cloud-computing\/5-things-to-consider-when-choosing-a-cloud-drive","title":{"rendered":"5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Cloud Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"
A client of mine recently purchased a Samsung tablet and wanted to view files from two devices, the tablet and a Windows 8<\/a> laptop. In this case, accessibility to files from multiple devices when traveling was the highest priority requirement, but it got me thinking. There are many different cloud drive<\/a> services to choose from, each with varying features. Add to that that any one person will have differing requirements and you get a bit of a recipe for complications. Want to set up a cloud drive that’ll work the way you want it to? Here’s a list of considerations to help you make the right choices. <\/p>\n Keeping your data secure is important and each cloud offering has built-in security<\/a>. With storage of any information, the key question to ask yourself is how sensitive the data is and what the impact would be (to your business or your family) if that data were compromised. For example, if someone gains unauthorized access to personal information, that’s likely to pose a greater risk for you than if your stored music files are hacked.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve answered that question, look at what features your shortlisted cloud drive suppliers offer:<\/p>\n How do you want to access the data in your cloud drive and where do you want to access it from? There are two ways you could use the cloud storage from your device:<\/p>\n With new devices appearing all the time, you should also check that the specific ones that you are using are supported by the cloud drive supplier. In the case of my recent client, SkyDrive<\/a> was already integrated with Office 2013 on the Windows 8 laptop, while Google Drive and Dropbox were already available on the Samsung tablet. What we needed to do was to consider which would best to support how my client wished to interact with the files being stored.<\/p>\n Think about how much storage you need now and also in a few months\u2019 time. How will your data grow? All of the cloud drive suppliers provide a specific amount of storage for free, but check the price plans should you need to go beyond this, so that you understand the possible costs. Otherwise, you might find yourself looking to change suppliers because the costs have risen unexpectedly.<\/p>\n It’s good practice also to periodically review what files you have in the cloud and remove those you no longer need. Be disciplined in doing this. It will cost you less money and it will reduce your risk if any data breach occurs.<\/p>\n Recent outages to cloud suppliers have attracted headline news. It\u2019s possible that there will be outages to any service. But remember that your access to the cloud is granted via other services; Internet service providers and wireless access points may also suffer failures. Ask yourself what the impact will be if you can’t access your cloud drive when you need it.<\/p>\n If the answer is "No big deal, I can wait and try again later," then that\u2019s one end of the scale. But if the answer is "I absolutely need it when I need it," you’ll have to take some steps to mitigate the risk that you won’t be able to gain access. Make sure your files are available locally so that if your cloud drive is not accessible, you can still get to them. (This is just one drawback of cloud storage. Read about more in The Dark Side of the Cloud<\/a>.)<\/p>\n A number of cloud drive suppliers include productivity tools to support working with stored files. For example, Google Drive includes a very functional office suite, removing the need to have other software licensed and installed on your device. SkyDrive access is provided within Windows 8 and Office 2013 to make file synchronization easy to set up. It also integrates with online versions of Microsoft Office (Office365). <\/p>\n Cross-check any included add-on features with your Availability and Accessibility considerations. While these may be convenient, make sure they also suit how and when you want to work with your information.<\/p>\n As with many things in life, one feature or aspect of cloud storage can catch our eye and become the greater part of your decision making. In choosing a cloud drive, include the above considerations in your deliberations to determine which is the most important for you. It will help you select a solution that works the way you want it to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A client of mine recently purchased a Samsung tablet and wanted to view files from two devices, the tablet and a Windows 8 laptop. In this case, accessibility to files from multiple devices when traveling was the highest priority requirement, but it got me thinking. There are many different cloud drive services to choose from, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7601,"featured_media":48786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[545,586,553],"tags":[],"category_partsoff":[],"class_list":["post-48785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud-computing","category-emerging-technology","category-storage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSecurity and Privacy<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Accessibility<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Cost<\/span><\/h2>\n
Availability<\/span><\/h2>\n
Add-Ons, Features and Other Doo-Dads<\/span><\/h2>\n
Cloud Storage, Here I Come?<\/span><\/h2>\n