iCloud Imminent

Overlooked in all the hype surrounding the new iPhone 4S is the announcement that the Apple iCloud service will debut tomorrow. Much of the service is aimed at consumers who want to share and store music, photos, video and so on. More interesting to the masses could be Documents in the Cloud, which, as the name implies, lets you store documents in the cloud.

Enterprise workers who spend their days stuck to a seat and then go home, watch TV and drink beer tend to have backup at work. But most of us these days work in various places -- airports, offices, home offices, back porches and sometimes beaches. And when it comes to home and remote offices, IT is not always able to offer enterprise-class backup. Some, like me, use a service such as Carbonite. At $55 a year, it is about the same price as an external drive, but Carbonite is automatic so you really can't forget to back up.

Free services such as SkyDrive and now iCloud could be a nice solution for those who are often remote, maybe use multiple machines and don't have a half-terabyte they just have to back up. 

One cool iCloud feature? The storage comes with access to Apple iWorks so you can edit and create remotely. It can also be set up, through iCloud Backup, to back up files you specify. At an entry-level basis, iCloud is free. If you need more than 5 gigs -- and who doesn't -- you'll pay $20 a year for 10 gigs and double that for 40.

Posted by Doug Barney on 10/11/2011 at 12:47 PM