I decided to write this brief post to explain why you need to have personal cloud storage. I recently heard from a client that lost ALL of the data on her hard drive because the hard drive failed. She lost everything that she had on the computer.
What is the Cloud?
The “cloud” is basically referring to storing data, applications, hosting out on the internet. Rather than storing a file on your computer, you store it on the “cloud”, which is just a fancy way of saying “a computer somewhere out on the internet”. The good thing about that, is that most cloud storage companies have reliable backup procedures in place. This would be complicated and costly for you to set up yourself. There are even applications that run on the cloud. Google Docs is a good example of this. You don’t need to buy and install Microsoft Office on your computer. Rather, you can create, edit, share all of the same types of documents out on the cloud… and not tie up hard drive space. Oh, and you won’t lose it if your hard drive crashes.
Why do I need Cloud storage?
Here are a couple of compelling reasons:
- There are FREE options out there
- You can’t afford to lose important files
I use Dropbox for saving and syncing all of my important business documents. I save files on my one computer, then Dropbox does the work of saving it to the web (cloud), and also syncing it to the other computers on which I have Dropbox installed.
Dropbox comes with 2GB of FREE storage. You can earn more free storage by referring your friends, family or co-workers to Dropbox. They will allow you to get all the way up to 18GB of total storage, for FREE! If you need more space, and don’t want to bully your friends into using Dropbox, you can pay for more space. Check Dropbox Plans for the latest rates.
I even share files with clients via Dropbox. You can easily create a folder, place files in it, then share that folder with your client. That way, both you and your client have access to the latest and greatest version of the documents that you’re sharing. This is a good way to share layout files, contracts, etc.
Even if you don’t have important business documents on your computer that you need to back up, you might have some pictures, or other personal documents (resume) that needs to be backed up. Dropbox makes this easy, and you don’t even have to worry/think about it.
So, as you can see, there’s really no reason to lose the important files that you have on your computer. You can easily and cheaply back-up your files and data to the cloud using a service such as Dropbox. There are other services out there, but Dropbox if one that we have come to like a lot at theBrewRoom. We hope that you try them out, so that you don’t lose those files that you want to keep safe.