Introduction:  Have you ever lost an email, or deleted a file months ago that you could really use now?  Or have your computer crash, just before you made another backup?  Today, the advances in cloud computing as a place of storage and processing power can help reduce risk and increase productivity when done correctly.  Whether you work from home, or in a large corporate environment, these tips will reduce time, increase security, and secure a ready to use backup in the eventual (and inevitable) fatal crash of your computer.

Email: If you belong to a large organization, most likely your administrator uses Exchange or other mail server and has already put in place regulations for holding emails.  Using Exchange is a great place to store emails, as long as that is where you will be working for eternity.  And given the high probability that you will fit the statistical norm of 5 to 6 careers, you probably do not want to keep all email correspondence locked up in a place that someday you will be denied access to.  So, create your own free email address (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.).  Then add it as an IMAP (not a POP) new account to Outlook.  Then create a new folder under your new account called “Personal” or “Reference”.  Now, anytime you receive a personal email through your corporate exchange account, you can just drag and drop it in your new folder in Outlook, and Outlook will automatically move a copy of that email to you free account.  Now, even when you switch jobs, you can take all the valuable personal emails with you.  And best of all, these emails are available whether from your Outlook, your phone, or the web browser.

Document Storage and backup– The best place to store anything is a place that is A) safe, B) secure from theft, and C) easily accessible.  There are two web-based applications that I use to help facilitate all my personal and professional work.

The first is Evernote.  Evernote is a perfect platform for storing, and retrieving all documents.  Evernote has several features which rank it high in the category of online document management.

Some of Evernote’s features include:

i.   Desktop Management (Mac, PC, and smartphone)

ii.  Seamless cloud integration

iii. 250 MB a month transfer  with no ceiling for free

iv. Native OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

v.  Tagging Capability to link notes across topics and projects

vi. Ability to share folders with others

The other application is Dropbox.  It’s is much easier to understand, and easier to use.  When you install Dropbox, a new folder called “Dropbox” appears in your “Documents” library on your Mac or PC.  This represents your free 250 MB of online storage space.  All you need to do is move something to that folder and it immediately saves a copy of that file, regardless of type or size (fitting the 250 MB overall limit).

Some of the features of Dropbox include:

i. Easy document syncing across computers

ii. Easy to access files from other programs directly

iii. Share folders with others.

Which leads to the question, “Why use both when they do many of the same things?”  The answer is I use Dropbox for storing documents and items that I am creating – word docs, spreadsheets, Illustrator drawings, Photoshop presentations, etc.  This is because I can quickly open the files from within the program I am working.  Evernote does not have this capability because of the way it is structured.  However, I love Evernote as the repository of all my notes.  I have thousands of notes including scanned copies of bills, car repair receipts, bank statements, favorite recipes, future business ideas, logins, passwords, etc.  Between these two applications, I never forget a thing, and I can work anyplace in the world connected to the internet.

Pictures – Google’s Picasa  or Flikr are excellent choices.  The quality of both is about the same.   Both offer good security allowing the user to select the publication level of the pictures, i.e. to friends, all, or private.  Which you choose will be based solely on personal preference to style, ease, etc.  Both have free limits with additional storage for a price.  Picasa at $5/yr per 20GB and Flickr at $24.95/year for unlimited.

Video– Picasa, YouTube, and Vimeo allows users to post videos for online storage and the security settings are similar to the picture hosting sites already discussed.

Vimeo – Hosts videos up to HD and

upload capacity of 500MB/wk for free.

YouTube – Free storage of videos up to 15 min* (You can increase the amount if you verify your identity and have a clean record of posted videos).  They have an unlimited upload amount.

Picasa – Same rules as YouTube (both are owned by Google) but it is better for keeping home videos and home pictures in the same place if that is what you are looking for.  However, unlike YouTube, you cannot increase the 15min per video limit.

Online Backup – You really could not have a complete system without a way to back up your complete computer in the (inevitable) event of a disaster to the computer.  Disasters can happen at any time.  An external hard drive plugged into the computer does not eliminate the threat of physical damage.  A fire/flood/theft of your computer and the backup will most likely be gone as well.  A routine off-site backup service is needed.  I suggest BackBlaze, but Mozy and Carbonite are good options as well.

Review:  Now that I have my set up complete, I have no valuable information on my computer besides the programs I need to work.  All of my documents, ideas, notes, and emails have been captured and stored online.  By doing this, I can access my information anywhere I am, and anytime I need to.  This allows me to work much more efficiently by having all of my work in the cloud.  And security, each program I use has security equal to that of banks, and yes, banks have their records, i.e. your records, online too.

Article by: Carrington Johnson

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