Yeah, I know that Cloud computing and document storage became all the rage years ago and that I'm probably late to the game with this story. But, you'd be surprised at how many people don't know that they can get free documents storage with Dropbox, or that Box.net is one of the best services for professionals who need to share myriads of files. Next time your friend asks you about Cloud solution for her stray documents, send her here.
Alright, so Dropbox is typically the preferred cloud storage service, primarily for the fact that it places itself on your hard drive, so it's there for easy access, and your files are literally accessible from anywhere you've got internet. You could even host a webpage on it if you wanted to, and easily share links with friends if you've got a big file you need to pass along that your email client can't handle. The service starts you out with a 2GB basic account for free, but you can also upgrade to 50GB for $9.99 a month, or 100GB for $19.99 a month.
Box.net gives you 3GB more room for free, though there's a 25MB cap per file. And unlike Dropbox, you upload files through a browser-based interface, though there are apps that work around this. The service is typically marketed to business professionals who need storage space to share with up to 500 users, and they can pay $15 a month for that capability (and 500GB of web storage). If you decide to use the service for documents (the only files that are typically under 25MB…) it's a worthy service to employ, if only because of the larger storage space and link sharing capabilities.
Sugar Sync offers 5GB a month of free storage, and if you want to bump it up to 30GB, it's only $4.99 a month (or 100GB for $14.99!). The service automatically syncs the folders you select to the cloud, so whenever you update your Documents or Pictures folder, SugarSync will delightfully (and sweetly! With sugar on top!) sync it to the cloud.
I really just wanted to mention it because it's worth if it you need this much space on hand but you're on a serious budget. Sorry that it's not free. Next!
Need 5GB of free online storage? Want a place to store your songs, documents and photo? Amazon gives you 5GB of free storage and automatically uploads your Amazon mp3 purchases. Yhe service only allows you to upload files through its web interface and the cloud storage is more for personal use rather than sharing files and documents with you friends. But, if you really don't care for the features that other cloud services offer, you might as well utilize your Amazon Cloud Drive.
