Top Six Free Cloud Storage Centers

“Free” is one of my favorite words  so when I have the option to get something for free, I will allocate a reasonable amount of time figuring out how I can apply that to my life before I determine if I should adopt it, or if it’s worth the extra few bucks for the paid version, or if it isn’t worth my time at all.

Backing up data is as important as securing your data, so I back up in multiple places, some of which are free and some that charge a fee.

Here are the freebies:

Google: For Windows, Mac, iOS. Up to 10 GB free space. Designed to store documents in Google Docs, photos in Picasa. Google storage is scattered. It’s only effective for documents and photos.

iCloud: For Mac, iOS, limited functions for Windows. 5 GB free space. Designed to automatically back up all your Apple devices wirelessly.

Amazon Cloud Drive: For Windows, all Adobe Flash enabled devices, not for iOS. 5 GB free space, then $1 per extra GB. Designed for manual upload and backing up media.

Windows Live: For Windows, Mac. 25 GB free space. Designed to store anything you want.

Dropbox: For Windows, Mac, iOS. 2 GB free space, then $2 per extra GB. Designed to store anything you want. It’s the only cloud storage that seamlessly and automatically syncs all your devices in one place.

YouSendIt: For Windows, Mac, iOS. 2 GB free space. Designed to store anything you want. Allows for sending links via email for downloading.

Each of the above cloud storage spaces fits a certain need based on the systems and devices you have. If all you need is a data dump, then Windows Live is it. If you need synchronicity across platforms, go for Dropbox. If you are all Apple, then iCloud is your service. YouSendit is the only one that allows for emailable links to download files, which I use a lot.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto. Disclosures