The Best Free Online Storage Services

Most areas of the UK qualify for faster Internet connections these days and things are only going to improve. Because of this, the so called 'cloud' is becoming more and more viable. Many businesses are moving their data and applications into the 'cloud' because their own Internet connections are good enough to make access possible and workable.

Keeping data in the cloud means that there is always a remote backup, and it becomes accesable no matter where you are, so long as there is a decent enough Internet connection.

However, there are now many free to use 'cloud' services which are of some benefit for home users. What this means is that people can copy their important files, pictures and documents up to these cloud based storage locations thus removing the worry of something happening to their local hard drive, and potentially losing everything. And, many of these services are free up to a point. Here are some of the most popular ones;

Microsoft SkyDrive
SkyDrive dates back to 2007 when it was then released to a limited audience when it was known as Windows Live Folders. It allows up to 7GB of online storage free of charge but additional capacity can be purchased from Microsoft for £32 per year for 100GB.

Users who sign up to the service do need to have either a Hotmail or Live mail email account but again, these are free to use services.

Data can be uploaded or accessed by either downloading some client software (availabvle for just about every platform, including smart phones) or via a web broswer, so is extremely versatile.

It is also possible to created shared and public folders as well as secure and private ones.

Apple iCloud
iCloud is Apple's online storage and backup service for those people who have an Apple device with an associated account. It boasts 5GB of storage which is included free of charge.

Devices connected will automatically upload any setting, pictures, internet favourites and even text massages to the iCloud which means that it is easy to restorte a device from a backup or transfer all of this to a newly upgraded device.

Extra storage is available for £14 per year for 15GB, £28 for 25GB or £70 for 55GB.

Google Drive
Google drive is another great way of keeping information in the cloud and is a must for those people who use Gmail.

Like iCloud, it comes with 5GB of free storage and has a client for all popular devices, operating systems and amrt phones, including Android and iPhone.

Google Drive also work in conjunction with Google Docs, which means that if you're working on a project in a shared environment, then any changes will be replicated for all users automatically.

Additional storage can be purchased and there are a number of different plans.

Dropbox
Dropbox has been around since 2008 and is one of the worlds most popular free online storage solutions.

It is available to anyone and does not insist on a user having a specific email account.

It boasts a friendly and easy to use uinterface, can be accessed by eithe client software or a web browser and has private and shared folder options.

A stagdard account comes with 2GB storage which is free. More can be purchased but the account does get topped up if you refer a friend.

Amazon Cloud Drive
This is the newest of the bunch and like Google Drive, it offers 5GB of free storage.

However, unlike the others, as well as the data storage, it also has a free 'Cloud Player' service. This allows for up to 250 songs to be stored which can be then played back by any number of compatiable devices which are connected to the Internet.

Again, additional storage plans can be purchased for anything from 20GB right up to 1000GB.


In summary, this is just the start. Internet connections will become faster and more reliable and storage costs will come down, resulting in more space being availbe for less cost. Who knows, at some point in the future local data storage could become  a thing of the past.

One final thought - where is the 'cloud'?

Free web hosting for 10 Yorkshire charities

At CCS Leeds we are always keen to support local good causes and as you might have seen from recent newspaper coverage we are now offering to host websites for ten West Yorkshire charities for free!

We are already hosting the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Charitable Foundation website for nothing and we are now looking to offer the same free service to a further 10 local charities.

Nick Ryder, technical sales manager at CCS, says: "Like most charities the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Charitable Foundation relies on the generosity and support of the general public. We’ve been working with the Foundation for several months now and after finding out more about the amazing work they do, we decided that helping to cut their running costs was the least we could do.

"On the back of that, we have decided to offer the same service to other charities too. We would like to invite charities to apply for free web hosting and we will initially choose 10. The charities must be based in West Yorkshire and will have to meet certain criteria, but in the first instance we would like any charities who are interested to get in touch with us and we will take it from there."

The Leeds Teaching Hospitals Charitable Foundation is run by a group of independent trustees who manage all the charitable funds raised for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals. The Foundation raises funds for various appeals with the two major appeals at the moment being The Yorkshire Cancer Centre Appeal and the Leeds Children’s Hospital Appeal.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust has created a new children’s hospital on the Leeds General Infirmary site which resolves the problem of seriously ill youngsters being transferred across the city for treatment.

The Foundation needs to raise money to make every child’s stay as wonderful as possible by providing toys, DVD players, art work for the walls and ‘put up’ beds to enable parents to sleep by the side of their child. This is in addition to the state-of-the-art medical equipment that all staff would like to work with.

Any charities who are interested in receiving free web hosting should email nick.ryder@ccsleeds.co.uk or ring 0113 2946699.

New data centre opens at CCS

CCS’s Peter Knapp, Giles Falkingham and Nick Ryder in the company’s new data centre

After several months of hard work by the CCS team we are delighted to announce the opening of our new data centre in Leeds – this will ensure we continue to deliver the service in business server collocation and cloud computing.

The centre, which went live last week , forms part of a major £150,000 investment by CCS and which can house up to 4,800 servers cooled by an eco-friendly air conditioning system which will significantly reduce the company’s energy costs and carbon emissions.

The reason for the choice of location is multi-threaded. Our new data centre on the Leeds Ring Road at Seacroft gives us the space, power, carrier availability, visitor facilities and most importantly gives our staff instant access to server equipment to ensure it runs uninterrupted 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

The data centre also benefits from a so-call ‘N+1 configuration’ which means multiple uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) are in place to ensure there are no outages or down time. It is also connected to the CCS’s core London network via a direct dual link, with a third carrier link due to come on line in the next couple of months.

We have also upgraded our security on the data centre which means new and existing clients can ensure their data is safe.
At a time when many companies are cutting back on capital investment, at CCS we believe it is vitally important that we continue to invest in the best IT infrastructure to ensure that existing and new clients benefit from the best possible service.

All the funding for the new data centre came from CCS’ own internal resources and we have not looked outside the business for third-party finance.

The site has been planned from the ground up to allow expansion without disruption to any customer, including pre-configured provision within the power systems for additional suites to be brought on line with no service interruption. Moreover, further UPSs can be brought on line at the same time as we expand cooling systems with no impact on customer service.

In due course we hope to have an official opening so keep a look out for your invite.