Cloud-based applications are rapidly overtaking the mobile market, as they bring large amounts of storage space and excellent functionality to mobile devices. Their infrastructure is stored on remote servers, which saves a device’s disk space but still enables it to keep all the files you may need. This is why smartphones and tablets love the cloud and iOS platform is no exception. In times when Apple fans use more than a single iOS device, it has become an absolute necessity to have an app – or two – that will make your files constantly available to you.
Though cloud-based apps vary in purpose, some of the most popular ones are definitively cloud storage and syncing services, as they allow easy document management across multiple devices. Here are the top 4 among them:
iCloud
iCloud is definitively the first cloud solution an Apple lover will choose for data storage and backup. It is seamlessly integrated with other apps developed by Apple and provides easy sharing, syncing and upload. With the iCloud free account, you get 5GB of storage space to keep track of your documents, Photo Stream or iTunes. Once you send your files to iCloud, they are automatically synced with all the other devices you have the app installed on. Thus, you can have your whole personal cloud in a single folder and have it accessible all the time and from all your devices.
Dropbox
The leader in the ‘personal cloud’ space is definitively Dropbox, with more than 50 millions of registered users. Its main advantages are its intuitive interface and general ease of use, which are applied to the iOS app as well. Dropbox enables you to store different kinds of documents and share them with individuals via a web link, or with friends on your social network profiles. You can edit files inside the Dropbox app and have all the changes synced across your other devices in real time. As opposed to iCloud, with Dropbox you get only 2GB of storage for free, but you can always upgrade through Dropbox’s excellent referral program which provides both you and the friend you invited with additional 500MB for free.
Box
As opposed to the previous two apps, Box is rather oriented to people who use their iPhone or iPad for business. The Box app includes plenty of sharing and collaboration features, and offers 5GB of storage space for free accounts. It has special pricing plans for professional users and keeps working on enabling smooth business communication and file sharing among the employees. File sharing options within the app are designed to prevent sensitive business files get into the wrong hands. This is especially convenient for large organizations and teams of professionals, as they can set different file viewing and editing permissions and be sure no one outside the team or organization will be able to access them.
SugarSync
SugarSync for iOS is a neat app that has gone through a major redesign only few months ago, to bring its new simplistic interface to iPhone and iPod Touch, running the version 5.0 or later. SugarSync is frequently considered one of the major Dropbox alternatives, but it was often said to have quite a complicated interface. Luckily, SugarSync team has solved that with the version 2.0, so that the users can have a better experience with this feature-rich cloud storage app. SugarSync’s major advantage over most of the other cloud storage apps is the fact that it lets users upload the whole folders to the cloud and sync them with their other devices.
About the Author: Olivia Still is a blogger, technivore, marketing consultant, and cloud computing enthusiast. She is currently closely collaborating with Crucial Cloud Hosting Australia.
