Thursday, June 07, 2012

Free Online Cloud Backup Solutions

There is no longer any excuse for losing your data!

There are now several online services that offer you free data storage that can be used for backup. They vary a little and so I am going to go over some of them here and explain the differences. 

These are in no particular order, as I think they are all great services. *





Firstly if you are looking for a fast and secure way to backup one or multiple computers and your mobile devices, then Spideroak is one of the simplest options.

Just download their clients onto your computers & phones and then select what you want to sync. That's it! No complicated schedules or doing anything at all.  It means you can also access the same stuff from multiple machines, and share files too.  They give you a free account with 2GB storage for life, but if you use the link here, you will get an extra 1GB for free!


Get a free online backup solution, which includes Full Encryption of your data, together with dual keys for extra security. The free account comes with 2GB of space for life. Use the link below to sign up and get 3GB Free!

Spideroak is enterprise grade software and includes clients that automatically sync your data. It works with all computer operating systems and mobile phones too. If you find you need more space 100GB is around $10 so there is no excuse not to back up all your data now!









Dropbox are better known, they offer a cloud hosted solution that lets you sync one or multiple folders from your machine. They don't encrypt your data like Spideroak and so it's up to you to make sure that you have enough laters of security around anything sensitive. 

Dropbox also have clients for most operating systems and phones.

Dropbox give you 2GB of free space, but you can get an extra 500MB by using the link below:



Other Options....

There are also other cloud based services like Ubuntu One and Google Drive that offer free space. Both these options give you 5GB of free space for life when you sign up.
The Ubuntu service integrates nicely with the OS and also your mobile devices.


Google drive is the new name for Google Docs, it's early days yet, but presumably they will have some decent clients and backup options out soon.




And my favourite Operating System is?

My personal OS recommendation for most people is Ubuntu. It is fast and stable and dynamic, but most importantly it is FREE. I have not used Windows (except to play the occasional game) since 2006. You don't need Windows, there is a better life after Windows, seize it!




Ubuntu is much more than just a single OS. It runs on virtually any hardware. It comes in different flavours that are optimised for Servers, or Graphic Design or Education. 

If you are using Ubuntu One you can add extra storage space for just $29.99 per 20GB per year.



*Except for this one! 
(There is also the Micro$haft Skydive option, but given their history of mediocre security and locked down products I would avoid it like the plague. It also requires a windows live account *shudder*)



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