This has meant that the idea of cloud storage is becoming a much more accepted one for both home and office users – however, it’s still a bit of a minefield when it comes to choosing what’s best for you.

It’s important to know that what’s right for one person or business might not be right for you/yours-so let’s give you a quick overview of what’s out there and what each service offers.

(N.B. These services have been listed in alphabetical order, not rank order.)

Apple iCloud

iCloud isn’t really promoted as cloud storage – it’s marketed more as an API built into iOS and OS X. Applicationslike iWork)supportiCloud and synchronisation across all the user’s Apple devices. The downside with this service is that even though, handily, synchronisation does just happen automatically, this can also result in documents that you want to keep off the cloud will be shared to it – which you might not want if you’ve got any particularly sensitive information store. Also, cross-platform support is poor – but you’d expect this with any Apple product.

Box

This is the priciest and most corporate-focused cloud service. It offers various additional apps that use the Box service, and its plans include LDAP supportand Active Directory. Due to the fact that this service naturally enables online storage across multiple platforms, your business is less disposed to game-changing service changes that might arise due to a policy change from one of the big companies. However, now that Google and Microsoft have decided to join the cloud party, will companies like Box be able to compete? This industry factor is definitely one to watch…

Google Drive

This service is merely an extension of Google’s online office suite – not really a full-blown online storage service… Although users do have the opportunity to upsize their storage capacity to 16TB – however, if you really required that much storage, it’s likely that there are other, more specialist services out there that will cater to you better in terms of service and security. In terms of downsides, users are unable to edit offline, plus Google will probably trawl your data to personalise your advertising – just like it does with your emails.

Dropbox

Users can save a file to their Mac or PC’s Dropbox folder, which will automatically sync everywhere, even to iOS and Android mobile devices. The assimilation with Mac and Windows is great with this service, and it also offers fantastic apps on the supported mobile platforms – i.e. Android and Apple – no Windows Phone 7/8 yet. The downside with this one is that its security record isn’t flawless.

Egnyte

Egnyte offers a user-friendly file-sharing service, as well as smartphone compatibility,a good varietyof pricing plans to choose from, plus a number of access options – and one of the soundest, most comprehensive security plans of all the cloud storage services. While Egnyte isn’t necessarily the least expensive service around, users can rest safe in the knowledge that their files are secure – hence the higher premium.

SkyDrive(Microsoft)

Like Google’s Drive service, SkyDrive is merely an extension of Microsoft’s other online applications.Document formats remain same on the web as they are the desktop, which means that it can be edited offline with no problems. The downside with this one is that there’s no Android client – not yet, anyway.

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Let’s explore more about some of the latest innovations here in this article.

High Resolution Displays

iPad 3

 iPad 3, one of the most anticipated  product from Apple is all set to be released with high resolution display of 2048×1536 along with a pixel density of 264PPI. The total number of pixel in this device will be 3.1M. The display of this device will be added with an A5X dual-core processor along with improved quad-core graphics capabilities to enhance its displaying capabilities. Hence, there are high chances for high resolution displays to be implemented on mobile phones and computers as well.
Samsung Series 9 desktop with 27in PLS (Plane Line Switching) panel uses a maximum resolution of 2560×1440 pixels. With this technology, it would become possible for these devices to hold not only super sharp videos and apps but also e-books. This desktop comes with 9 premium monitor and with a widescreen called the S27A970. Samsung announced this desktop model in the month of January 2012.

Predictive Technology

Predictive technology forecasts behavioural patterns for future by analyzing and discovering data of the past. This technology is widely used for marketing purpose. Amazon.com is one of the earliest online retailers to use predictive technology to predict consumer’s behavioural patterns based on online transactions made by consumers. List of merchandise is then put up for customers based on transactions made. DARPA’s proposed (TIA) Total Information Awareness system uses this technology to study for any suspected terrorist activities and also to avert possible attacks by collecting mass information about individuals. This new technology is used in other areas such as stock markets, study of weather conditions, epidemiology, traffic patterns and consumer behaviour as well.

Technology has no limits. Its growth is drastic and is dominating its stand in every field. Soon devices such as computers performing activities or duties for its customers will automatically record the requirement and intimate users about it. This is called as the predictive technology. The application of this technology totally depends on the type of business and is not specific. Hence, this technology can be used extensively however small the utility might be.

Ford is currently using Google’s technology to develop a navigation system to predict where you have to go during a specific time. This sort of prediction will use Cloud computing. Through Ford Sync, ford is already using cloud based services. Hence, we can expect a lot from this promising technology.

HTML 5

HTML 5 – the next version of HTML will have place for interactive content and rich videos. Although HTML5 is considered less efficient than Adobe Flash, it is actually the best tool for the automotive industry. The new Cadillac XTS sedan uses HTML 5 for its dashboard interface and hence does not require depending on a specific code base to design new apps.

Some of advanced features of HTML5 are

• Improved code and semantics
• Playback of audio and video without any Plug-ins
• Local data storage
• Faster mobile access
• Cheaper developmental costs
• Faster online data validation

Business Using Speech

Siri Technology in mobile phones

Technology that can understand your context and pass on message to others automatically will soon become a common tool used almost everywhere. Siri, the latest personal assistant developed by Apple can actually understand user’s context. The process is simple. You are only required to pass on your message to this tool for your message to be picked up. It then sends your message to a set of assigned people. However, you have to be connected to Wi-Fi or 3G signal in order to get Siri follow the commands for you.

Siri technology can,

• Read out text messages for you just on an instruction
• Fix appointments
• Hold on call
• View maps
• Find for anything on giving commands through voice

Social Analysis

Social analysis is made simpler with certain tools that help you understand your position in business. Few tools like Sprout Social help one to understand his status particularly when you connect to others. You can know your follower status or your reputation on socialising.

Sprout Social tool allows you to,

• manage teams, assignments and tasks without much difficulty
• manage conversations easily
• monitor performance of your brand and industry across social media and the web
• easily engage with customers
• effort measurement – of your analytics and reporting
• deliver messages from Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Linkedln and Articles

thismoment tool

Yet another tool called the thismoment collects data from Facebook Insights, Google Analytics and others and shows how well your company is performing in business. You can thus be aware of your business status too.

Brand monitor, a platform for social media analytics and monitoring provides the followings benefits.

• monitors social media conversation
• tracks messages across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, LinkedIn, news, video, discussion forums and photo sharing sites
• identifies influencers of your business or brand
• provides analytical reports of volumes, voice, geographic distribution, demographics and sentiments

Storage Options for Business

While businesses are working hard to bring about cloud storage methodologies into them, several other storage techniques are implemented in industries as well. One such cloud storage is Apple’s Drop Box app which is free for users. This app allows you to store photos, videos and docs to be accessed on your iPad, iPhone and on the Dropbox website itself.

Drop Box

Features of Drop Box

• Save all your stuff in this app and access them wherever you go
• Share your photos and videos with others
• Email attachments can be saved on Drop Box
• View your photos offline by adding files to your ‘Favorites’

Another service called as the Huddle provides safe cloud based services by offering secured external access through the Firewall. This not only provides tight security but also team accounts and security. Huddle is available on Blackberry, iPhone and iPad.

Few advantages of Huddle are:

• Centralised data management system
• Customization
• Data security
• Customer support
• Guaranteed training for users

Data storage these days have become a tedious task as it is impossible for people to manage very huge data in the order of petabytes, exabytes and zettabytes. Such huge data is termed as Big Data. Hence, cloud computing is being implemented to tackle this situation with ease. However, thorough study of the current situation and availability of space are necessary to deal with crowded data systems.

Technology is here to create innovations. Hence, let’s wait to welcome more of such creations to make our life even more productive. Hearty congratulations to scientists behind these great innovations! Cheers!

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You can also embed Dropbox forms created using Jotforms on your website. The forms are fully customizable and you can fully control what fields you want to show, choose templates for your Dropbox form and more. After creating a form using Jotforms, you can easily integrate it with Dropbox to use it as a Dropbox Form. with your Once you authorize Jotforms from Dropbox, a new folder called Jotforms will be created inside your dropbox account. All files uploaded via the dropbox forms will be uploaded to the folder.

A Dropbox form created with Jotform is secure because people can only send files under a specific folder in your Dropbox folder. Besides that, Jotforms also checks if any uploaded file is free from virus. Jotforms is a handy utility for integrating forms with Dropbox.

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