Cloud storage is not a new technology, but for some people it can be confusing to understand. Storage data “in the clouds“It feels like your data could be floating around the web somewhere. While your data can be accessed over the internet, it actually resides in massive, redundant data centers. When data is stored in the cloud, it means that you can access them anywhere you have an internet connection.

Next, you’ll want to know exactly where your data is and who has access to it. if you are using mailbox, one of the most popular cloud storage services, is stored in Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) in various data centers located throughout the United States. Amazon S3 servers are secure and reliable. With multiple data centers and redundant operations, it’s more reliable than keeping backups at your home or workplace. Dropbox and Amazon claim that data stored in S3 is completely secure, but you and I know that it’s only as secure as the password of an employee who has access to it. There is always the possibility that anyone’s data could be compromised. Yes, it is still quite safe. But if you are going to store sensitive data in any cloud storage, you need to make sure to encrypt it first.

Now you probably want to know how difficult it is to set it up. Actually it is very simple. Again, let’s use Dropbox as an example. Head over to their website and click the big blue Download Dropbox button. Once you have completed the download process, click Open or Run. There will be some instructions on the screen to guide you. Make sure you choose the option that says “I don’t have a Dropbox account yet.” You will then need to enter your name, email and a password. Make sure you use a good password: no less than 8 characters, uppercase and lowercase letters or even at least 1 number or symbol. Do not use a password that you have already used before. Next, choose the size of data storage you’ll need. I would just choose the free 2 GB to start with. Choose the typical configuration and you are done. It’s installed! There is a little trick to help you get started. The basic thing though is that you have created a new folder location called Dropbox on your PC. You can now save and copy files to the Dropbox folder for cloud storage. Also, there is some timing that you can set up – the tour will do it for you.

One cool thing about having this cloud storage connected to your computer is that after you have files stored in the cloud, you have access to them wherever you go, as long as you have an internet connection. Want to show photos of your children or grandchildren to a friend at a party? Take out your iPhone or Android phone (with the Dropbox app installed) and open those lovely images stored in the cloud. What? Is it your lunch hour at the office and you want to work on your shopping list? Save it to your Dropbox account, it will be on your PC when you get home. Plus, it’ll be on your phone when you’re in the store. How convenient is that?

Now that you know the basics about cloud storage and Dropbox, here’s a little sneak peek to help you compare your purchases to other cloud storage providers: Google Drive, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, and SugarSync.

google drive offers 5 GB of free storage instead of the 2 GB you get with Dropbox. It’s also relatively inexpensive to add extra space for storage. Google includes a cool feature that allows you to scan an image and if there is text in the image, it will find it and make it searchable within your storage. Are you religious about saving receipts? That could be a great use for this feature.

SugarSync it also provides you with 5 GB of free storage. Just one benefit of their product is that it allows you to choose multiple folders to sync to the cloud, which most others don’t. You could potentially sync “My Documents”, “My Pictures”, and “Desktop” to make sure everyone is safe.

Microsoft SkyDrive offers the most free storage with 7 GB. Also, it is very cheap to upgrade. A great advantage of the Microsoft product is the ability to edit and even create Office documents directly from the Internet on SkyDrive. It is also very well integrated with Windows Phone (I know, what is that?). My spouse has a Windows Phone and loves the integration with SkyDrive. The photos you take on your phone are instantly available on your computer. Nice!

Dropbox is probably the easiest to use, but when you get over the free 2GB, it’s much more expensive to buy additional storage compared to Google Drive and SkyDrive. For those who have a large amount of data that they would like to sync to the cloud, SkyDrive will be your most affordable option. And if you want to sync multiple folders on the spur of the moment, SugarSync has what you need.