Online Storage Options

[Zach Wingo]

I've seen Scott's posts about using Dropbox but wanted to share some alternatives which I've mentioned before.

We all know about Dropbox and it remains my favorite, but just as a heads-up, they just sent out an email saying they've upped the maximum limit you can get free from referrals to 16GB.

Box.net as already mentioned allows like 5GB free but if you sign-in using any LG Android phone or tablet between now and the end of the year you'll get 50GB free. But I can invite others using the same domain as my email and they also get 50GB free. So, all I have to do is create accounts like, ministry@mydomain.com, tech@mydomain.com, myname@mydomain.com, etc., and each will have 50GB free.

Finally, I really like Amazon S3 because of the control it gives me over my content, especially if you will be sharing it on a website. It's also dirt cheap at about $0.14/GB per month. To upload files you can use the web and upload files individually. I use Transmit 4 (for Macs) and it mounts my S3 storage as a directory/drive so I can simply copy files to it and it's automatically uploaded to my account. I have a script that syncs several directories with my S3 account so it works just like dropbox but better because I'm not limited to just one folder. It's also far more secure than any of the other services. I currently have 28GB on here and it's costs me $4.20/mo.

As for Amazon S3 being better for managing content, I can create a CNAME record to work with my website domain so all I have to type is something like cdn.athleo.net/myfile.txt instead of something like this cdn.athleo.net.s3.amazonaws.com/myfile.txt.

[Jon Twitchell]

I've seen Scott's posts about using Dropbox but wanted to share some alternatives which I've mentioned before.

We all know about Dropbox and it remains my favorite, but just as a heads-up, they just sent out an email saying they've upped the maximum limit you can get free from referrals to 16GB.

Box.net as already mentioned allows like 5GB free but if you sign-in using any LG Android phone or tablet between now and the end of the year you'll get 50GB free. But I can invite others using the same domain as my email and they also get 50GB free. So, all I have to do is create accounts like, ministry@mydomain.com, tech@mydomain.com, myname@mydomain.com, etc., and each will have 50GB free.

Finally, I really like Amazon S3 because of the control it gives me over my content, especially if you will be sharing it on a website. It's also dirt cheap at about $0.14/GB per month. To upload files you can use the web and upload files individually. I use Transmit 4 (for Macs) and it mounts my S3 storage as a directory/drive so I can simply copy files to it and it's automatically uploaded to my account. I have a script that syncs several directories with my S3 account so it works just like dropbox but better because I'm not limited to just one folder. It's also far more secure than any of the other services. I currently have 28GB on here and it's costs me $4.20/mo.

As for Amazon S3 being better for managing content, I can create a CNAME record to work with my website domain so all I have to type is something like cdn.athleo.net/myfile.txt instead of something like this cdn.athleo.net.s3.amazonaws.com/myfile.txt.

Zach... for the average user, what would be the benefits/drawbacks between AS3 and Amazon Cloud Drive?

I see that any paid plan with ACD now includes unlimited storage of MP3s. This would be a big deal of any backup plan... since I've spent hours ripping CDs. $20/year is a small price to pay for 20GB of storage PLUS all my MP3s.

I realize it doesn't have the same sort of flexibility as AS3, but the price seems attractive as well... $20/yr for 20GB, $50/yr for 50GB, and so on.

[Zach Wingo]

There isn't really any drawbacks for the average user and the unlimited storage for musics makes it a far better deal for most. The only downside is ACD doesn't have a way to upload files except through the upload form in a browser whereas S3 has been around for awhile so there are applications that can make it appear as another drive and thus copy/sync files to it. The other major difference is the S3 service is a pay-for-what-you-use service.

[Gary Creely]

I just got an email from drop box that my 50gig plan is now 100 gigs.

[Zach Wingo]

With Amazon offering a desktop application now, i am seriously considering it but it's still not as complete as Dropbox or Google's app. It's $1 per gigabyte per year so 50GB is $50 a year with unlimited storage of music I have about 40 GB of music so this is nice. On the other hand I love Google Docs and their interface seems nicer to work with. I will probably use Amazon for backup/storage and Google Drive for daily use. It will be interesting to see what happens to Dropbox in all this but I highly suspect that Amazon will purchase Dropbox.

[Bruce Nuffer]

This is exactly what we do at The House Studio. We use Amazon's online storage for really large files and archiving, and Dropbox/CX/Google Drive for daily use.