Online Storage

"Online storage? To store back-ups and other archives?" No, no, no. Not that kind of online storage. I'm talking about the kind that runs as a remote access drive, in real-time, allowing you to access your files from anywhere. In this post I'll talk about the benefits you could enjoy by switching to online storage and we'll look at a couple companies that offer this kind of service.

I recently started looking for online storage solutions to host my music library, have it stream to my iPhone over the 3G network and eliminate the need for me to sync with iTunes libraries which can be a real pain and cause a big mess.So I tried using DropBox (which also has an iPhone app).

DropBox installs itself as a folder, but all of it's content is accessible through the DropBox website and to who ever you decide to share a folder with. The free accounts offer 2GB of disk space, with an additional 250MB for every friend referral. If that's not enough space they also offer a 50GB and a 100GB plan which run at $9.99 and $19.99/month respectively.

I had issues with streaming music to my iPhone through DropBox and I wasn't exactly ready to put that much money into online storage so I kept looking.

Another online storage solution I found is ZumoDrive, which mounts itself as a remote drive.

ZumoDrive's free plan only has 1GB of space but they offer 10GB all the way to 500GB starting at $2.99/month. ZumoDrive also has an app for the iPhone so I signed up for a 25GB plan.

ZumoDrive works the same as DropBox by allowing you to share folders and also by having an interface for you to see your files through their website.

But I recently stumbled upon Online Storage Solutions which offers a much more interesting price. Their website says that they support file sharing and give you unlimited storage for $19.99/year. The service supports WebDav folders, FTP, transfer over SSL, backup with rSync, unlimited drive mount and claims to have a 99.9% uptime. What a deal!

Check out all the specs:

The only downside is they don't have an iPhone app for the service, which would require you to get ezShare lite (free) or ezShare Pro for $6.99 from the iTunes App Store. EzShare supports WebDav folder connections and can stream files to your iPhone, with the added capabilities to connect to Google Docs, FTP servers, Amazon S3, MobileMe, iDisk, Box.net and a couple others...

I think I'll be signing up with Online Storage Solutions soon. Having all of your files online means you don't need to worry about backups and they can be accessed from anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection. Combine that with a 16GB flash memory netbook and hello cloud surfing.