Dropbox

Founded in 2007 in the US, this one almost feels like the granddaddy of cloud-based file storage facilities, as it approaches the grand old age of five years old. It has more than 25 million users now, six per cent of which are in the UK, and it has come to have been well recognised in the world of business.

Certainly one of, if not the, most straight forward of the file sharing options outlined in this feature. Its interface and functionality are both simple and so too are the services which it provides. Dropbox simply allows a user to store files in a shared, centralised, online location. You can create subfolders to help organise and categorise your files. Accessible from pretty much any device, as you update a file it syncs automatically elsewhere to ensure version control problems are a thing of the past.

In essence, Dropbox epitomises the basic benefits of file sharing. No, it may not sync with your calendars or email, and it makes no distinction between whether it’s a word document, PDF, MP3, video file or whatever else, but it allows you to store and share files from anywhere and across any device, thus improving your agility and flexibility.

You can also invite other people to share entire folders with you and you can issue public links to allow somebody to download a specific file from your account.

No fancy frills but gets the job done. And with a package for over 350gb of data storage, it also caters to larger organisations too.

Cost: Free for Basic package (2gb), $9.99/month for Pro 50 (50gb), $19.99 for Pro 100 (100gb) or quotes available for 350gb and more – Teams.

Devices: You can download Dropbox apps for iPhones, BlackBerrys and Androids or download Dropbox to any other device you may be working from.

iCloud

It’s hard not to suspect that Apple is probably going to take over this market at some stage. Its iCloud went live earlier this year but will now be propelled fully into the limelight with the release of the iPhone 4S a couple of weeks ago.

Apple is one of the biggest innovators in the world. Yet so much of creation – be it art, business or technology – is about appropriation, and the late great Steve Jobs and the global power brand he created have been fully aware of the merits of this over the years. Apple has certainly borrowed the basic framework for its iCloud – in fact it’s borrowed two, perhaps even three and amalgamated them. There’s bits of Dropbox, Spotify and even Google’s Android syncing system in here.

The iCloud stores your music, photos, documents, and more and then also wirelessly pushes them to all your devices, rather than just storing them in a hard drive in the cloud. Thus it helps keep important data such as music, mail, contacts and calendars, synchronised via the cloud, across all devices.

The one beacon of light for its competitors is that Apple is somewhat the Manchester United of the computing world. It has legions of fans, the world over, and it will defeat its competitors more often than not. Outside of its fan base you’ll find that most people respect what it does and recognise its talent but there will be many that make a conscious effort to avoid it and even plenty that display a high level of disdain for it, owing simply to its size. However, there won’t be many forecasts of thunderstorms where the iCloud is concerned.

Devices supported: iOS (iPhone, iPod, iPad etc), Mac OS, Windows.

Cost: £14/year for 10gb, £28/year for 20gb or £70/year for 50gb.
 

Evernote

Having been released on various beta versions since its inception in 2008, Evernote’s first full release came in April of this year. It is slightly anomalous to the others in this list in that essentially it is a web-based service designed for notetaking and archiving. However, for a fee, you can store files as well. The syncing is the same as with the other applications, with Evernote available on three devices in the basic package, more if you pay.

You can create ‘notes’ which can then be tagged, sorted into folders, annotated, edited, given comments, searched and exported – like carrying round an electronic pad of Post It notes with you.

With its logo as an elephant’s head, Evernote are trying to offer you a system that won’t require to you have the proverbial memory of the largest of all land mammals. The company now boasts over 11 million users who can download the Evernote software to create, store and share notes or, when they are on a device without the necessary software, can still access their stored notes via a web interface.

Although it may not be a household name, it has proven to be a popular and well produced concept.  www.download.cnet.com gave the service a five star review, saying it is “functional and useful, Evernote goes beyond its architecture and is also interesting. Everything you do on your phone and on your computer gets synchronized to your Evernote account on the Web. Since it synchronizes as soon as you log on, and regularly thereafter, reinstalling the software or losing data because of a crash are nonfatal problems.”

Cost: Free for 60 MB/month, $5.00/month for 1gb.

Devices supported: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Android, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, iOS, WebOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone 7.
 

Sugar Sync

If Dropbox is the Granddaddy then Sugar Sync is practically prehistoric. Created in 2004, the application has been making steady progress in the file storage industry and is certainly among the big boys. The California-based startup, formerly known as Sharpcast, specialises in data synchronisation software. SugarSync's online backup, file sync, and sharing service are designed to make it easy to stay connected by offering secure cloud storage for all your files.

www.onlinefilestoragereview.com stated that “SugarSync sets out to backup your data immediately after installing the desktop app. The desktop really does two things: it coordinates the backing up between your computers to the cloud, and it allows you to interact with the cloud via the app, as opposed to using the web browser’s interface.” Although not blown away by the product, the site gave it a solid three out of five stars.

Cost: Free up to 5gb, $4.99/month for 30gb, $9.99/month for 60gb, $14.99/month for 100gb or $24.99/month for 250gb.

Devices Supported: Windows, Apple, iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian.
 

Microsoft Windows Live SkyDrive

SkyDrive is one of the broad range of services which come as part of Microsoft’s Windows Live suite. SkyDrive is a file hosting service that allows users to upload files to the cloud and then access them from a Web browser. It uses Windows Live ID to control access to the user's files, allowing them to keep the files private, share with contacts, or make the files public as they see fit.

Of course, along with the iCloud, this product has the distinct advantage of being part of giant brand which most of us already have an affinity with. Since its launch in August 2007, SkyDrive has undergone many changes, many of which have been focussed around integrating it with other Microsoft products such as Office, Hotmail and Bing.

In its review, www.download.cnet.com said: “Windows Live SkyDrive is a free online file-storage system. For each folder you create, you choose who has access to it. Add new folders, rename them, or change who has access at any time. It is available from any computer with Internet access; it offers personal, shared, and public folders -- you decide who has access to each folder; and it works well on any Windows or Macintosh computer with Firefox 1.5 or higher, or Internet Explorer 6 or higher.”

Cost: 25gb of free online cloud storage.

Devices Supported: Any computer or phone with Internet access, although feature availability and functionality vary by phone.