store everything in the cloud?

[randallcreasey]

what is the best service for me to store everything in the cloud? i mean everything - around 500 gb to 1 tb. including itunes and iphoto? what do you think would be the best solution? dropbox, box.net, wuala, sugarsync, or spideroak?

i don't want to deal with hard drives. it's far cheaper in the long run to just stream everything.

[v5point0]

Have you thought about the instance in which the company loses your 500GB/1TB or part of it.

You can opt for a local backup but then again you just mentioned you don't want to deal with HDs.

Every good cloud based service I know and use have some sort of localized backup option in a form of an app. For instance Dropbox and Evernote, you don't have to install them if you don't want to and can operate from the web interface, though it is much easier interacting with the software then the web counterparts.

I have not tried the others you have mentioned and Dropbox I have only used as a free user but have 6GB of storage from invitations. So far, Dropbox has been amazing and files sync has seem great if you have a good connection.

[maflynn]

Originally Posted by randallcreasey

i don't want to deal with hard drives. it's far cheaper in the long run to just stream everything.

Its your data and your responsibility. Giving up that responsibility may bite you in the end. What happens if they have a hardware failure and lose your data. It doesn't matter if they have a written guarantee, because you're data will be gone. Also what about data security, against intruders. If you keep your credit card, bank info there.

Personally, I want to be the one responsible for the backup, safety and oversight of my data. Its too important not deal with it.

Also another thought, what happens if you lose your internet connection for some reason. You'll not have access to your data.

Cloud computing is the flavor of month, every company is using the buzzwords and saying its the next best thing since sliced bread but people are rushing to embrace it without really knowing the full ramifications.

As for cost, hard drives are much cheaper then contracting with a cloud service. I can get a 500gb high end hard drive for 80 bucks. If want to pinch my pennies and find a cheaper model, that cost drops to 50 bucks.

[roadbloc]

The highest cloud storage package Dropbox is 100GB at £240 or $383(ish)
The highest Apple's MobileMe offers is 40GB at £100 or $149, but you get a lot more integration with your OS and some other useful features.

But seriously, everything on cloud storage? You're bound to go over you're internet allowance fair usage policy, not to mention the risks of loosing all your data. And what happens if you're offline?

[toolbox]

I am against the whole idea of the cloud computing because of the following

(these are my opinions)

1. If you have all your information stored online, what happens when you come in the following morning and the internet is not working? How are you as a individual or business supposed to function when all your data is only accessible over the internet?

You would have spend a few thousand in upgrading your internet infrastructure to insure that there is no loss of downtime or finding a ISP that boasts a 99.9 percent uptime.

2. So you host your information - How do you know of the company your choosing to host with is not snooping through your confidential information and passing it of to another company?

[Stella]

The 'cloud' isn't just for storage, it can be used as CPU processing power.