Cloud storage remains an established type of service in our lives. They experienced rapid growth, experienced market oversaturation, when new “clouds” opened almost every week, and experienced a recession when these same “clouds” began to close one by one. And now we are faced with simply a type of service that has become established and has become commonplace, has stood the test of time, taking into account the features and speed of the modern industry.

There are quite a lot of cloud storages. Each has its own characteristics and its own audience. Some people choose only one “cloud”, others use several at once. We have chosen the ten most interesting of them. One of the criteria for this top is a free plan with free cloud space so that every user can try it out for themselves. No trial, just a free plan with free space.

10. pCloud

Quite an interesting and rapidly developing cloud. The cloud blog is updated almost every week, and it is clear that the developers are actively working on it. They give you 10 GB for free, but only after a few simple steps. You can get a few more GB. There is a referral system that will also allow you to increase your free space. It’s also interesting that pCloud, in addition to the monthly and annual subscription fee for advanced features, also has a one-time purchase plan, you just pay a certain amount and increase the volume of your cloud, forever, it’s hard to remember what other cloud does this.

9. MEGA

Encrypted storage from Kim Dotcom. There were rumors that the cloud was taken away from him, about other unpleasant vicissitudes in the management of MEGA, but this does not prevent the cloud storage from developing and existing. The cloud is built on a fairly high level of encryption; to make working with the web version more comfortable, it is better to install a special browser extension to make the decoding process much faster. There are applications for all popular operating systems. The main thing that attracts many is that MEGA gives 50 GB on the free plan. This volume was at the start, and it remains so to this day.

8.MediaFire

One of the oldest services in this top, it works well, but is developing quite slowly. There is no version for computers, so you have to use the web version, but the mobile apps are fine.

MediaFire started as a file hosting service, but in time it realized the decline of such services and repurposed itself into cloud storage. Old users and those who managed to get caught up in the promotion have 50 GB of free space, while others are given 10 GB, but sometimes it becomes possible to increase the amount of available space for free.

7.Box

Another time-tested cloud storage. Box was originally focused on business and this has allowed it to survive to this day and have a loyal user base. They give 10 GB for free, and sometimes there are promotions to get 50 GB of free space. But the free plan has many limitations. All these restrictions will be removed if you upgrade to a subscription.

6. Cloud Mail.Ru

Mail.Ru Cloud launched with 100 GB of free space, then there was a promotion where you could get 1 TB for free, then the volume was significantly reduced, and new accounts are given a meager amount of space. The cloud has received a built-in audio player, integration with Office Online and continues to receive new features and support for new formats, but instability with free volume does not allow it to rise higher in the ranking.

5. Yandex.Disk

Surprisingly stable, in terms of volume, cloud storage from Yandex. At launch they gave 10 GB of free storage. Several years have passed, and 10 GB remains, but there are constant promotions when you can either temporarily get free volume or increase your cloud on an ongoing basis. Let's add here support for a large number of formats, integration with Office Online and constant development of applications.

At the end of 2017, Disk also spun off. Everything you upload to Yandex.Disk from your phone will not be taken into account when calculating the total volume. Apparently this is not a promotion, since no deadlines are given. There are also no size restrictions, which makes this feature even better than Google Photos.

4.iCloud

If you love Apple technology, then you have definitely come across this cloud storage. Many applications work through it, backup and synchronization occur. You can also use iCloud as your usual cloud storage. Let's add here a screwed-on office suite from Apple and an application for Windows and we'll get a good cloud storage with a loyal fan base.

But if you don’t use Apple products, any other cloud storage in this top would be a better option for you, since it will give you more options.

3. Dropbox

It is Dropbox that is considered the service that started the “explosive” growth of cloud storage. Dropbox was one of the first to popularize this type of service, and although it is not having the best of times, the service continues to develop and gain new opportunities. Dropbox only gives you 2 GB for free. Promotions increasing the free volume have not been carried out for a long time, and the restrictions of the free tariff do not allow using the cloud to the fullest. Unfortunately, Dropbox is no longer the ideal cloud storage solution.

2.OneDrive

Cloud storage from Microsoft. There is tight integration with the Office Online office suite, which is also integrated into other cloud storage services, with the consent of Microsoft. By default, it is integrated into Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The format support is also quite extensive. Working in this cloud, many users can safely abandon the full-fledged Microsoft Office suite or Microsoft Office 365, which provide only advanced capabilities for more professional tasks.

When purchasing a subscription to Microsoft Office 365, you are also given 1 TB of OneDrive space as a bonus. So many simply do not expand the cloud volume on a paid basis, but simply purchase a subscription to Office, and at the same time increase the cloud space.

1. Google Drive

Google cloud storage has the largest number of supported file formats, which can be expanded with additional cloud extensions. Small office documents, as well as photographs and videos with a small extension, are not taken into account when calculating the available space in the cloud. And this space is 15 GB.

The cloud is integrated with the Google Docs cloud office suite, which has a simple and user-friendly interface, which is why it is preferred by many for use as the main office suite. More recently, the Google Drive and Google Photos apps have been combined into one app called Google Backup & Sync. There were rumors about an application for Linux, but so far many continue to use unofficial clients and this is almost the only serious drawback of the leader of the current top.

Box is a high-speed virtual storage aimed primarily at corporate clients who require operational stability and a high degree of protection for their stored data. However, private users can also take advantage of all the benefits of the service - a secure file sharing algorithm, sharing folders for other users and changing office documents without installing additional software.

Possibilities:

• stable data storage;
• secure information exchange algorithm;
• 10 GB of space is available for free (the size of each file is no more than 250 MB);
• mobile clients for common platforms;
• integrated document editor.

Principle of operation:

Before using the Box Sync object synchronization application, you must register on the developer’s website. Using the utility is very simple - you just need to drag objects onto the image as a folder, and the program itself will add them to the “cloud”. You can cancel automatic synchronization by clicking on the slider button (located just below).

Pros:

• high speed access to objects;
• advanced encryption algorithms;
• built-in document editor (in browser version).

Minuses:

• partially localized Windows client interface;
• small amount of free storage space.

The service is used by leading companies in the world. Box developers are proud that they were entrusted with the storage of their information by Pandora, Proctor&Gamble and GAP. The free plan has a relatively small amount of space - only 10 GB. However, for most users it should be enough. If desired, you can increase the virtual space to suit your business needs. Individual users are offered 100 GB of space for 8 euros per month.

We also note a good web-version document editor that uses Office 365 tools.

Analogues:

• Mega is a popular virtual container;
• Cloud Mail.ru is an information storage with a free space of 25 Gigabytes.

Who among us has never stored files on the Internet? Probably, now there is not a person who, even with a minimal level of computer knowledge, that is, receiving and sending mail, chatting with friends on a social network, does not save information on the Internet for quick and convenient use. This could be data storage on the same social network, on an email server, or in such a newfangled method of data storage as cloud storage. We will skip the two previous methods, since they are known to everyone and are quite unsuitable for storing large data, and we will focus on cloud storage. Cloud storage provides free space to store data online. You may ask why this might be necessary. After all, everything you need can be saved on a personal computer, disk or flash drive. You can save it, but getting quick access to information on hard media is very difficult, since you won’t be carrying everything with you (although this is an option). But in order not to bother yourself with extra load, cloud storage is used.

There are quite a lot of similar storages, the same world-famous Dropbox, SygarSync and Box.com. If the technology for working with the previous two is described in sufficient detail on the Internet, then for some reason all the nuances of working with Box.com are not particularly known, although this is also a very convenient cloud data storage. Therefore, in today’s article I propose to consider a cloud data storage service called Box.com

Cloud storage Box.com positions itself not only as a regular storage service for individuals, but also for companies and businesses; this technology is implemented using an API. According to representatives of Box.com, when storing data, they pay special attention to the integrity and safety of user files.

If you take a quick look at the service interface, you won’t see anything special in this user data sharer. But, as usual, we will dig a little deeper. And what we see. We have access to a very convenient function of viewing our data directly in the browser, as well as editing office documents online directly in the browser (it is very convenient to edit Word files). This function of the Box.com service is carried out directly online - that is, it is based on approximately the same principles as communication technologies via cloud technologies. That is, these technologies are widely used not only for storing files, but also for the unified operation of many computers on the network. Or even organizing telephone communications in an organization, which provides sip telephony - fast communication of all employees of the organization via the Internet, provided by Mango Telecom.

The service also has its own text editor, which is not very functional, but has all the necessary functions, such as text formatting, inserting HTML images, changing the font and everything else. Nothing special, but the text edited in Box.com can be immediately shared with other users, which is very convenient in the joint preparation of any document.

Next on the list of Box.com features is the function of setting the user's access level to various documents. That is, you can prevent certain people from viewing this file, others from viewing it, others from leaving comments, and still others (your assistants or colleagues) from even the ability to edit and make their own changes to the document. This function is ideal if you want to quickly familiarize clients or employees with a presentation, document or some other file.

It is very convenient to use the service for the first acquaintance. There are well-organized directories by category where you can put different types of files, there is a function that allows you to assign certain tags to both files and file directories, that is, a very fast search and navigation throughout the entire storage. There are also widgets that allow you to quickly share files with users via social networks such as facebook or twitter. It is clearly noticeable that the service is aimed at a business audience, nothing superfluous and everything is very functional. But don’t think that if it’s for business, then everything is paid; Box.com allows you to use 1 GB of free space absolutely free, which is quite enough to store not too large files.

All in all. If you want a simple and very functional service for storing files on the Internet, then Box.com is your choice.

Or . But you, our readers, are faced with tasks that we simply do not see, or simply do not have such needs. Our friend Arseny Finberg @myshyak told us how, having upgraded box.net to 50GB, he was faced with the problem of mounting the resulting “cloud” into the file system of his desktop OS.

Yesterday my wife set me an interesting task. She has accumulated 20 gigabytes of photographs over many years and they are all stored only at home: “Please upload them to me somewhere in the cloud.”

First of all, I started looking for where. My favorite dropbox, even after upgrades, gives up to 10GB for free, but for this task this is not enough. I found an interesting option. Box.net - when registering from any smartphone (Android, IPhone) it immediately gives you 50 Gb for free.

One problem is that the desktop client is only available in a paid version. But, having delved into the depths of the Internet, I found a mention that free users have access via the protocol WebDav. Then the matter is simple - as it turned out, both Windows and MacOs have built-in support for this protocol, and external storage from Box.net can be connected as a regular network drive. I'll tell you how I did it on Windows 7.

1. Right click on the network environment → Add network drive. We get a window like this

In the path field, enter http://box.net/dav (or https://box.net/dav). Click “Next” - we get a window for entering your login and password:

We enter the data that we used on box.net. And voila - another disk appears in the standard “My Computer” window.

It can be connected to several computers at once and used simultaneously. Windows XP may require a special patch from Microsoft to function properly.

It's easy on macOS too: In Finder, press Command-K (or Go -→ Connect to Server). In the Server Address field, enter https://www.box.net/dav/ and click Connect. Next, enter your username and password, and everything will be fine too!

I, however, prefer to use Total Commander, which also has

What should you do if your smartphone or tablet does not have enough built-in memory, and a memory card is not provided in the design? Moreover, it is impossible to clean up space by deleting old data. That's right, in this case the only hope remains is cloud storage.

The last review was devoted to such services as Google Drive, Yandex.Disk and Cloud Mail.Ru. In the new material, we will look at three other applications in a similar way: Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox and Box. And the logical conclusion of the cycle will be summing up the study of cloud storage for iOS devices.

The following devices were used as test equipment:

• Smartphone Apple iPhone 6 (operating system iOS 11 installed);
• Smartphone Apple iPhone 5S (operating system iOS 11 installed).

Microsoft OneDrive

Acquaintance

Microsoft usually makes fairly high-quality products, one of which is the popular free cloud storage Microsoft OneDrive.

Microsoft OneDrive utility functionality:

• Quickly open and save OneDrive files in Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote;
• Easily find photos with automatic tagging;
• Receive notifications when a shared document changes;
• Share albums with your favorite photos and videos;
• Highlight important text, annotate and sign PDFs in OneDrive;
• Work with important files offline.

Beginning of work

To use Microsoft OneDrive, you need a Microsoft account. As a rule, everyone who owns a computer running Windows 10 or uses the Office 365 application package has it. However, registration is as simple and straightforward as possible.

Immediately after launching the application, we will be offered to purchase advanced features for Microsoft OneDrive. At the moment, they cost 460 rubles per month and include a full-fledged Office 365 package and about 1 TB of cloud memory. Agree, not bad, considering the “online office”. And for 600 rubles they give us 5 TB of memory. In my opinion, the maximum package has the best price/volume ratio on the market.

It should be noted that with the free basic package we get 5 GB of free cloud storage.

Next, we will be told about the utility itself and its functions, including automatic photo synchronization. As the MS developers point out, you never know what can happen to our bright photographs, but in this case they will be completely safe - on cloud servers.

This function is available in many applications and, as practice shows, it is really useful and can help out more than once.

The cloud interface is presented as simply as possible: all available files are simply located on the main screen. For convenience, you can choose to display it as a list or large icons, and also set your own sorting option. Comfortable? Certainly!

Additionally, there are separate tabs with photos, recent and shared files. This is so that everything is located in the appropriate categories. There is also a search and a basket - also very necessary things.

Microsoft OneDrive allows you to store any type of file and opens pictures, music, videos and office files. To edit the latter, you need to install the appropriate proprietary MS Office applications, which is logical.

There is a separate section with personal information, which displays the total number of our files, statistics on free space in our cloud, data on shared documents, and so on.

Settings

If we talk about installations of the Microsoft OneDrive utility, we can say that there are practically none. There are only five parameters: automatic sending of photos, secret code to launch the application, preview of documents, downloading files via a mobile network and clearing the file cache. That's all.