You may recall that fateful day in January when iconic photography mogul Kodak filed for bankruptcy. With the filing came the end of an era. Film rolls and negatives are slowly becoming things of the past as SD cards and digital drop boxes carve out their niche in the photography world. As a parent versed in the digital photography ways, you have a new responsibility that your parents did not. While mom and dad had to worry about sun and heat damage, moths and grummy hands, you get to add even more potential problem points to that list; data corruptions, viruses and computer crashes.
As on the go photography becomes more and more prevalent, it is not at all uncommon for most new parents to snap their son or daughter’s first step on their phones or digital cameras. If you are like most Americans, you then keep these photos in one central folder maybe on a thumb drive or external hard drive, even on our computers. So what happens when this folder becomes corrupted, or that motherboard decides it’s processed it’s last piece of information and whizz, bang, pop, that blue screen of death shows up, alerting you that, unfortunately, all those pictures are gone now?
Unfortunately, when it’s reached this stage, the only thing that can be done is to bring that piece of equipment to an electronic repair specialist and hope for the best. This can often translate to a lot of money and no guarantee. But if this dilemma hasn’t befallen you yet, there are a few preventative measures you can take to make sure your name isn’t added to the list of people who have lost everything.
Up in the Cloud
There are a lot of misconceptions about what cloud storage is and is not. For people who have not read up or done their homework, the idea of storing these important photo mementos in the “cloud” can be an idea met with apprehension. When using a cloud service provider, you are essentially loading your photos, videos and important data files to a secure server in X location (dependent on the service provider you use). These service providers than encrypt your data and make sure all the latest rules and regulations are being followed to keep them safe and protected.
What the Cloud can do for You
Using a good cloud service provider to back up your family’s important photos and videos has an array of benefits, some of which you might not have even thought of.
Worrying about data loss or corruption doesn’t have to be a concern anymore if you use a good cloud computing service. Almost all cloud service provider will be more than happy to supply you with facts and statistics about the safety and security of their servers. Most even boast a zero downtime philosophy, ensuring you that there will never be a moment when you don’t have access to your files and data.
Taking advantage of cloud computing also gives you the benefit of being able to access your information on the go. That means next time you find yourself at your Aunt Sally’s and your knee-deep in a photo share-a-thon you can just login to your cloud service providers website and instantly get in on the action with that great birthday shot from last year.
The mobility and ease of access are another great benefit of virtualizing your photos. Many of the popular service providers offer smartphone apps to go hand in hand with the service they provide.
So Many Choices
So now that you know the ins and outs of online storage what service provider should you choose? This all comes down to what you are or are not willing to pay and how much you need to store. Many providers offer an initial chunk of data for free, ranging anywhere from two to five gigabytes of free storage, with additional space costing you more, generally on a monthly basis.
If you aren’t concerned with the privacy of your photos, hosting sites like Facebook, Shutterfly or Image Shack are great choices. With these free providers often comes the sacrifice of quality as they generally shrink or modify a photo or video to meet the requirements set out in their terms of service.
Google Drive is a great provider for those who want to seamlessly go from their Gmail accounts or Google Docs sheets right to their online storage. Google offers an initial 5GB of free space before you need to start paying. Packages then start at about three bucks and move on up depending on how much space is desired.
My favorite provider in the cloud computing world would have to be Dropbox. Dropbox is great for the family that has photos and videos spread across multiple devices and operating systems and is perfect for the first time cloud computing user. Dropbox creates a folder on any of these platforms that can be accessed and even shared with those who have the proper permission. Dropbox can even recognize when a new photo or video is added to your smart phone and can instantly back these files up to your folder, eliminating the need for you to even have to. You also won’t have to worry about the safety of all your precious files in the case of a computer malfunction either as all your information is stored on Dropbox’s secure servers.
What about you? What have your experiences been with cloud computing? What providers do you use? I’d love to hear what you have to share.
David Rocke is a self-professed computer geek and tech savvy blogger and writer for the Chicago based company, Vanguard Archives. He writes and blogs on a variety of topics from digital rights to records storage.
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