Note: The following article has nothing to do with genealogy, DNA, or any of the other topics normally found in this newsletter. If you are looking for genealogy and similar articles, you might want to skip this one. However, this article references a recent article in ZDNet that I think all computer owners should read.

From an article by J. Vaughan-Nichols published in ZDNet at https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-cloud-storage/:

"Free and cheap personal and small business cloud storage services are everywhere. But which one is best for you? Let's look at the top cloud storage options."

Vaughan-Nichols then goes on to list 8 of the largest cloud-based file storage services available today. He then writes:

"With so many of us working from home, having reliable cloud storage is more important than ever.

"Personal cloud storage all started in 2007, when Drew Houston, Dropbox's CEO, got sick and tired of losing his USB drive. So, he created the first individual, small business cloud storage service. It was a radical idea in its time, and everyone loved it. Today, there are dozens of cheap or free cloud storage services. But -- beyond giving you storage -- they're very different.

"How do you choose which one is right for you? You could just pick by how much free storage space you get. That's simple, but it's only part of the story. A cloud storage service's real value comes from how well it works for you or your business. As you'll see, some work much better with some operating systems and business plans than others."

The article gores on at some length to describe the largest cloud services in some detail. You can find the article at: https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-cloud-storage/.

Comment by Dick Eastman: My belief is that everyone has any information on their computer(s) that needs to be saved should should be using one or more of the cloud-based file storage services.

I have accounts at several of the companies listed by J. Vaughan-Nichols. However, the one service I use daily is the last one on his list: pCloud.

Based in Switzerland, pCloud offers privacy (as dictated by Swiss laws), clients for Linux, macOS, and Windows as well as Android and iOS smartphones, and "lifetime" subscriptions at reasonable prices. I have found the service is also very reliable. I have never experienced an outage.

I have almost 2 terabytes of data stored on pCloud and every file on my desktop and laptop Macintosh systems is backed up to pCloud within a few seconds after it is stored on my computers' hard drives.

All in all, I can say I am very pleased with pCloud. However, I also will quickly admit that the other 7 services listed in the article all have excellent reputations and I doubt if you will be disappointed by any of them.

Again, you can find the article at: https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-cloud-storage/.

By the way, I am not compensated by pCloud or anyone else in any way for writing this article. I am simply a user who spent his own money to subscribe to pCloud and is very thankful that he did so.  I'd like to share my story with anyone else who may be interested.