Google Drive vs. The Competition Which It Right For You?

With the launch of Google Drive users may find themselves asking if its worth it to change from their current cloud based storage service or new users might find themselves asking which is the best option for them. So to help you decide we've done a quick break down on some of the top services to show you have each stacks up.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Total Disk Space: SkyDrive currently offers the most free storage at 7GB, and users who signed up before April 22 and install the new app will 25GBs free for a limited time.
• Monthly Cost: For users that want more than just the free offering cost is important and Google Drive undercuts all of its competitors on monthly pricing, but Microsoft's Skydrive--which doesn't offer monthly pricing-- is cheaper on an annual basis.
• File Size Limits: If you upload large files this is an important factor. Google Drive limits files to 10GBs which is more than most users would need and more generous than other services.

Google Drive, iCloud, DropBox, SkyDrive So Many Choices

Google Drive is the new kid to the block, joining Microsoft's SkyDrive, Apple's new iCloud and stand alone services like DropBox. There are of course several other options out there, these however are just some of the most popular. So which one will be best suited for you and your needs. To answer that question we've looked at a few things we want most from our cloud storage service. Compatibility, price and features.

Maximum Compatibility
In terms of overall compatibility Dropbox is by far one of the best options. The company was one of the earliest players in the cloud storage game which gives them a major competitive edge. Dropbox has the advantage of being compatible with almost every platform and is already available in several apps and services.

Downsides: The first major downside is that you start with only 2GB free, less than any other service we cover today. You can add more by referring friends to the service or paying, but it's still a poor way to start out. Second is the file size limit. Dropbox Files uploaded through the website (by pressing the upload button) have a 300 MB cap. In other words, each file you upload through the website must be 300 MB or less. This could hamper many users.

Best Free Options
For most home users we are going to go with the free options. For the most part this will give us the most bang for the buck (it is free after all). If raw space is all you want Microsoft SkyDrive with it's 7GB free and the backing of Microsoft make it the overall best option. If you are already a user you can upgrade to the additional space and get 25GBs free making it even more attractive. Of course, raw space isn't everything SkyDrive offers. You'll have the option of sharing an entire computer, Microsoft Office integration and of course Hotmail integration.

Downsides: Microsoft SkyDrive sounds like its might be the best bang for your buck but it does have some draw backs. For starters if you are a new user you are limited to 7GB free maximum. Currently there is no Android app, and other mobile apps look lackluster. We don't see nearly the same integration we see in DropBox.

Best Bang For The Buck: Our vote here has to go to Google Drive. You get more overall free space, more integration into things we use now like Google Docs and you have browser-based viewing and editing of several different file types. Another plus is you can share huge files, which means you can add some large presentations, video clips Mp3's ect.

Getting the Most For Your Money
Users wanting to step up from a free service and still get the best, or most out of their dollar have to ask themselves two questions. One how much space am I going to need and two realistically how am I going to use the service. For the absolute best pricing SkyDrive offers the best deal. You have the option of 20GBs for $10/yr or 100GB of space for $50/yr. Both options are a fair bit less than it would run you on Google Drive and considerably less than you'd pay for DropBox. Google does offer an additional 25GBs of Gmail storage with any purchase but who really uses that?

Downsides: Again, the best price for the raw space might not be the best option. If you are hosting files for a business and need a service that supports multiple devices Google Drive is going to be the better overall price of the three but DropBox might be the best overall for functionality.

So What About iCloud?
You may have noticed we've barely mentioned Apple's cloud based service and that is for good reason. Apple's service is strictly for Apple customers with iDevices. So we really can't make a competitive comparison to other services that are open to all customers. If you are a current Apple user and you need a cloud service it's a great deal. Your music and media are available anywhere on any of your iDevices or linked iTunes account and neither count toward the 5GB of space Apple gives you for free. The service is nicely integrated with OS X and iOS devices, as well, so it's kind of a no-brainer if you like Apple's other i-programs you should be using iCloud.

Conclusion
So, which service is the one to choose? To be honest there’s no one-size fits all solution here. For the most part I suggest trying them all and finding the one that best fits your needs. Something we might like about one service is something others might hate. For instance they all have varying interfaces that you might not find easy to use while we love.

Google Drive Officially Launched

Google has officially taken the wraps off Google Drive, the company's new cloud based storage bin of sorts where you can create, share, collaborate, or just store your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and more.

With Google Drive, you can:

• Create and collaborate. Google Docs is built right into Google Drive, so you can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Once you choose to share content with others, you can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video file, etc.) and receive notifications when other people comment on shared items.
• Store everything safely and access it anywhere (especially while on the go). All your stuff is just... there. You can access your stuff from anywhere—on the web, in your home, at the office, while running errands and from all of your devices. You can install Drive on your Mac or PC and can download the Drive app to your Android phone or tablet. We’re also working hard on a Drive app for your iOS devices. And regardless of platform, blind users can access Drive with a screen reader.
• Search everything. Search by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Drive can even recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Let’s say you upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping. You can search for a word from the text of the actual article. We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up. This technology is still in its early stages, and we expect it to get better over time.

To get users started Google is offering 5GB of storage for free. This should be enough to store plenty of high-res photos or tons of PDFs. If you need more storage you can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.

According to Google "This is just the beginning for Google Drive; there’s a lot more to come."

  For more info checkout the official Google Drive site at drive.google.com/start

Panda Security Releases Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.0

Panda Security Unveils First Cloud-Based Security Services for Home Users and SMBs

Panda Cloud Antivirus emerges from beta, offering consumers free protection with industry’s smallest footprint on PC performance

Panda Security, the Cloud Security Company, today unveiled the next generation of its cloud-based anti-malware services for home users and small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs): Panda Cloud Antivirus and Panda Cloud Protection. Emerging from beta today, Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.0 is the industry’s first, free thin-client anti-virus for consumers, now featuring an even lighter footprint on PC performance. Panda Cloud Protection is a fully hosted, managed security service for SMBs, which provides hands-off protection of endpoints and email. Both security services leverage Panda’s proven Collective Intelligence cloud-scanning system, which guarantees both SMB and home users with the industry’s fastest protection against the newest and most dangerous malware.

“In the cloud and security as a service have the potential for cost savings and for fast deployment, as compared with equivalent-capacity, premises-based equipment,” according to Gartner’s recent Hype Cycle for Infrastructure Protection 2009 report.

Cloud-Based Protection for Consumers

Since its successful beta launch in April 2009, Panda Cloud Antivirus has received acclaim from industry experts and consumers for being the lightest free anti-malware service in the world. As it emerges out of beta, Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.0 offers improved protection against new and unknown viruses with even less impact on users’ PCs. Cloud Antivirus 1.0 provides 100 percent cloud-based protection against malware, spyware, rootkits and viruses. Panda Cloud Antivirus works with Windows XP (32bits), Windows Vista (32bits & 64 bits) and Windows 7 (32bits & 64 bits) operating systems and only consumes 20 MB of RAM. The new service is available in 11 languages and can be downloaded from http://www.cloudantivirus.com.

Cloud-Based Protection for SMBs and their Managed Service Providers

Today’s security software solutions are too costly and difficult to manage for the vast majority of small and medium-sized businesses. Panda Cloud Protection is an incredibly lightweight managed security service that automates all maintenance tasks and allows SMBs to stay focused on their core business, while resting easy about safeguarding their digital assets and information. As a hosted service, Panda Cloud Protection optimizes resource consumption and eliminates the need for any investment in IT infrastructure. SMBs can benefit from a fully-outsourced security service, enabling them to easily monitor and maintain their own protection against malware from anywhere, anytime, or assign responsibility to a managed service provider (MSP).

In addition, by linking to the same Collective Intelligence servers used by Panda Cloud Antivirus, SMB users will benefit from Panda’s vast global knowledgebase of malware which detects and blocks new strains from the cloud in almost real-time.

“For the last 20 years Panda Security has successfully safeguarded our customers’ digital information and identities through creating some of the world’s most innovative security solutions,” said Juan Santana, CEO for Panda Security. “The launch of Panda Cloud Protection and Panda Cloud Antivirus represents an evolutionary step in our ability to combat cybercrime, and one we’re confident the industry will follow. Panda’s new and improved security services leverage our extensive R&D in cloud computing to keep our business and home users protected with as little effort and investment as possible.”

Collective Intelligence

Collective Intelligence, Panda Security’s proprietary cloud-computing technology, leverages the knowledge gathered from the community of millions of Panda users around the world to provide unparalleled proactive malware protection with minimal impact on PC bandwidth. The Collective Intelligence servers automatically detect, correlate and respond to more than 50,000 new malware samples every day. Each new file received is classified automatically within six minutes, a process that takes days for other antivirus products to complete.

Reviews

According to a recent PC World review of free anti-virus offerings:

"Among all of the free anti-virus software we tested for our latest roundup, Panda Cloud Antivirus was the best app at blocking known malware. The approach is intended to take advantage of the latest signatures without the need for signature-database updates–and if its excellent showing at detecting malware in AV-Test.org’s zoo of half a million samples is any indication, the approach works. Panda’s app produced an impressive 99.4 percent overall detection rate."

Notable new features and upgrades to Cloud Antivirus from the initial beta include:

• New and improved interface makes Cloud Antivirus even easier to use
• Improved performance with cache optimization and memory management lowers CPU utilization and memory consumption
• New website and Collective Intelligence Monitor give users access to a list of malware from the community that is updated in real-time
• Online support forums now available at http://www.cloudantivirus.com/forum/index.jspa

Source: Panda Security

Symantec GoEverywhere Beta Launched

Security vendor Symantec has launched a new cloud-based service called GoEverywhere. The new service which is now in beta allows users to gain access to a number of applications for free including e-mail, instant messaging, and office applications.

Below is the full press release from Symantec:

CUPERTINO, Calif. – Jan. 26, 2009 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the availability of the Symantec GoEverywhere beta, a secure online workspace that allows users to access their Web applications anytime, anywhere, using most any device enabled with a Web browser. GoEverywhere is an innovation from the new business incubator, a Symantec organization that invests and develops emerging business opportunities.

The GoEverywhere beta provides small businesses and individuals a secure, scalable and worry-free computing environment that reduces costs relating to hardware, software, storage and IT management. The beta service allows customers to reach their online Web applications from a centralized location and choose from a selection of third-party Web-based applications for word processing, slide making, spreadsheet work and Web-based email. GoEverywhere removes the need to switch between multiple websites to access preferred Web-based applications and eases online file management by providing a single aggregated view of multiple third-party online storage accounts. Other benefits include:

• Anytime, anywhere availability – workspace accessed 24x7 on almost any browser enabled device,
• Hardware and operating system independent – only an Internet browser is required,
• Maintenance free – no need for ongoing IT management to backup, install or update,
• Low cost – access free software and rich media content.

GoEverywhere’s approach to secure computing uses multi-level password encryption and two-factor authentication to access the GoEverywhere workspace from any computer location. GoEverywhere’s ‘Single Sign-On’ functionality provides simplified password management making access to online services convenient and easy to manage. Single Sign-On allows customers to securely log onto their workspace and immediately access most of their Web applications and accounts without additional log-ins or passwords.

“As the use of Web-based applications increase, there is a need for our desktop or computing environment to also adjust and become web-based. We believe this will lead to a paradigm shift in desktop computing,” said Don Kleinschnitz, vice president and general manager Symantec GoEverywhere. “The GoEverywhere beta is incorporating next-generation cloud computing and Web 2.0 concepts in innovative ways to enhance customers’ choice of how and when they want to access information.”

In the same spirit of innovation that launched Symantec’s first Software-as-a-Service offerings in 2008, Symantec continues to foster innovation with the beta release of GoEverywhere. Allowing for the organic growth and development of embryonic businesses, Symantec continues to invest in new technologies and businesses that will secure and manage an information-driven-world.

Beta Availability

The Symantec GoEverywhere beta is available for free trial in the United States at: http://www.goeverywhere.com. Beta testers are encouraged to provide feedback to assist in the ongoing development and advancement of GoEverywhere.

You can learn more about the GoEverywhere by checking out the Getting Started videos. To sign up for the beta you just have to provide a name and e-mail address. To sign up visit the create account now page.