Android Cloud Storage Apps

Android has some great apps to help you add more storage to your smartphone or tablet. These apps connect to the “cloud,” which you can access from your computer and/or mobile devices, as long as you have an Internet connection. Why store things in the cloud? We are increasingly creating digital content—from documents, pictures and more. File sizes vary, and soon our smart mobile devices fill up with stuff, then we have to find a place to put it. That’s where cloud storage comes in. 

Cloud storage brings pictures of nice fluffy, white clouds to mind—and we picture our digital content floating somewhere above our heads, stored until we need it again. Well, sorry, but this is not what “cloud storage” is. Cloud storage is way to store digitized content online, at a hosting company’s onsite server. When you send something to cloud storage from your phone or tablet computer, it is delivered via WiFi to the server where your storage account is located. 

Here is a list of benefits to cloud storage:

• No need for physical storage, i.e., CDs, DVDs, pen drives, external hard drives.
• Maintenance and backup can be automated.
• Convenience: you have more storage space for photos and other digital content, while saving memory on your mobile device.
• Many cloud storage apps work across all your devices—smartphones, tablet computers and desktop and laptop computers. 

Potential problems with cloud computing and storage include: 

• Security:  hackers, malware and other problems can attack your digitized data, and even cause you to lose sensitive data or favorite photos. 
• Availability and reliability:  area networks may be out of range, the hosting company may have problems keeping their service up and running most of the time.
• Potential exists for your uploads to be intervened and stolen by hackers and others.      

Here are some of the most reliable and safest cloud storage apps in Google's Play Store. These apps can help you bring quick and easy ways to store digital content for business or personal uses.

The Dropbox app has a free account available, with up to 2GB of storage space, that you can use for as long as you need or want to. The pro plan is $9.99/month for 50GB of storage, while the Pro 100 plan is $19.99/month for 100GB of cloud storage. There is one more plan option, the Team Plan, with gives you a large, shared quota, centralized admin and billing, etc. The basic price for the Team Plan starts at 1TB of storage for 5 users, at $795/month. This app can be installed on your Android device’s SD card, and you can lock the account with a four-digit pin code. Dropbox is easy to use. 

Dropbox will work on all of your mobile devices, and also on your office and home computers. This app also allows you to share files with your contacts via email or SMS. You can download files for offline access. Dropbox offers a download size of 2.8 MB, with an upload file size limit of 300 MB. This is a free app, but it’s ad-free.

The SugarSync app is another cloud storage option that is easy to use, reliable and safe for your digital content. However, SugarSync offers a free account of 5GB, up to 500 documents, 2,000 photos and 2,000 songs. The next storage plan is 30 GB, for $4.99/month or $49.99/year—you can do a 30-day free trial of this account. And it goes on up from there. A 100 GB cloud storage account with Sugarsync will be able to accommodate 10,000 documents, 20,000 photos, and 15,000 songs. Doesn’t that stagger the imagination? It does mine. 

SugarSync will also work on all of your mobile devices and is accessible from your home and office computers, as long as you have an Internet connection. The download size is 1.1MB, however, I couldn’t find the upload file size information. Sugarsync will allow you to download files for offline viewing, and make changes to files on your mobile device or computer, and Sugarsync will automatically snyc to save the new version of your file. Sugarsync can also be accessed via web browser on your computer or Android mobile devices.

The Box app is another popular safe, easy to use and reliable cloud storage service available on the Android Market. Much like Dropbox and Sugarsync, Box offers different plans. Box offers plans categorized as Personal, Business and Enterprise IT. You can start off with a personal plan for free, up to 5GB of storage. Box allows you to view and access files anytime, and on all of your devices, as long as you have an Internet connection. You can share files, a whole folder and receive real-time updates when anyone’s viewed, edited or commented on a file. Online collaboration is easy with Box, as you can invite others to share and edit, post comments and have discussions and more. 

Box has an upload limit of 100MB and I couldn’t find the download information. You can save files directly to your device’s SD card, or to your home or office computer. Box even offers a widget for your mobile device’s home screen, for easy and fast access to your cloud storage. 

There are so many new options available for cloud computing and cloud storage that's it hard to keep up with them all. I'll keep watching for new options available in Google's Play Store, and will post them here. It's fun to watch all this tech stuff changing right before your eyes, evolving every day!

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