Floppy discs of the 3.5 inch variety have, suffice it to say, died out due to their limited storage capacity (1.44 mb). These days, this media type couldn’t even store a single MP3. We’ve since moved on to blank media like DVDs, CDs and USB thumb drives to store important documents and access them on different computers (home to work or desktop to laptop). Even these blank media options are becoming increasingly irrelevant and incompatible (if you don’t often misplace them) with the smart phones and tablet devices we carry with us ­– a trend that will continue for the foreseeable future. The answer to your data storage woes is quite simple: it’s in the cloud.

Evernote is awesome! All my projects and notes are filed quickly and efficiently. I have access from my computer, iPhone and web. For free!

-Travis Franklin

Cloud services effectively allow you to store important files on a protected third-party storage system that can be accessed from any internet-connected computer or mobile device. So imagine being able to access a synched document you began working on at your home office in your work environment without having to track down that ever-elusive thumb-drive. Here’s a roundup of a few services we’re using.



Dropbox.com – Free, 2GB (paid upgrades available)
Dropbox offers 2GB of online storage free as part of their basic service. You can upgrade to 50GB or 100GB for $9.99 and $19.99, respectively per month. Any changes or additions you make to your computer’s Dropbox content, is automatically synched across all devices linked to your account. The tiny bit of software acts as a regular drive on your computer, so there’s virtually no learning curve. Dropbox is available for Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

Amazon.com – Free, 5GB (paid upgrades available)
Amazon this week recently launched it’s own online storage solution for everyone. You’ll get 5GB free, and they are currently offering a promotion for 20GB free when you purchase an MP3 album from their music store, which will be available to you for one year from the date of purchase. After that, your account will revert back to the basic 5GB of storage. Amazon dubs this as a music storage solution (coupled with their new cloud player software), but this would be a formidable solution for any file type you need access to on the go. This solution is new, so the software and accessibility need some work, but it is an otherwise useful option if you need additional free space.

Evernote.com – Free (paid upgrades available)
If you’ve ever done research or tried to keep projects organized from the notes, web pages and other pieces of information you’ve gathered, you’ll likely know the headaches involved in keeping all of these items organized.Evernote helps you keep track of everything throughout ‘notebooks’ that you can access from anywhere. You can even add voice memos to help you keep things organized. Evernote is available for Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad and Android devices.