The World According to Mitch

A few weeks ago Bauke Roesink, a fellow blogger, reached out to me to ask for a blub for a piece he was doing on Cloud Storage.  He asked me to write up what platform I use to share large files, and why.  The results would be featured in a piece he was doing, that eventually became Transfer Big Files – 44 pros reveal how to send large files.

I did not have a single answer; I use several different platforms, and that is what I wrote up.  Is one better or worse than another?  Probably not, depending on what platform you need to use it from (OneDrive certainly integrates more seamlessly with Windows 8 than the others because it was developed by the same company; I would expect Google Drive wins hands down on Android devices).  I listed the four that I use (I excluded FTP, even though I do use that from time to time) and the reasons I use them.  I list my favourite as OneDrive, and I explain my reasons.

So if I prefer OneDrive, you may ask, why don’t I just stick to the one?  Simple… not all of the people I share files with use it.  I have been supporting DropBox and Google Drive for several months since I joined Yakidoo in August, but I only created a DropBox account for myself when one of my colleagues at Taekwondo told me he was using that platform to share videos and information that I will need to prepare for my upcoming test, as well as videos of our demo team.

I only heard about Box recently when I was at an event on the Microsoft Campus and one of the presenter’s machines had an icon for it in their task bar.  A few days later I found out that one of the companies I work for was investing heavily in a PoC on Box, so I was instantly introduced to it.

The article was published this week and I read it (I did not read all of the bits about why people use which platform) and I think it is a great exposé… with one glaring inaccuracy.  The article lists the 15 best cloud storage services.

Aside from the fact that a number of the options listed are not actually cloud storage services (e-mail certainly would not be classified as such, nor BitTorrent Sync), I am wondering if a more accurate title wouldn’t be ‘the 15 most popular cloud storage solutions.’  If there is one thing that Windows 95 taught is it is that Best and Most Used are not necessarily one and the same.

Nonetheless it is certainly an interesting read… I am not surprised that many of us noted that we use more than one service (if we can agree that OneDrive and OneDrive for Business are two separate services, then I use four).  In some cases we list that it is the features we like, often it is the price.  Some list that they have aligned with a vendor and use that product exclusively.  Who is right and who is wrong?  None of us.

I am always concerned when I hear that one or the other service has been hacked or otherwise compromised, and am glad that to date my favourite has been secure.  What will the future hold?  Who knows.  In the meantime, I only keep files on-line that if they were to be made public would not actually ruin me.  What should you use? You decide!