Tiered pricing discourages usage: Typically, these services have tiered pricing, meaning you pay for the amount of data you store with the service, or for tiers of data that you are allowed to use.While cloud sync is great for giving you 24/7 access to your files and enabling collaboration, it is not a trustworthy backup solution. In either scenario, the file is always synced no matter where you access it from. You can also share that file with another user and they can make changes from their computer, which will in turn appear on yours. What this means is that you can access a file via a sync service on your computer at home in the morning, make changes, then head to work or a friend’s house and access the same file with all those changes that were made on the other computer. Services like Dropbox, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Google Drive sync (short for “synchronize”) folders on your computer or mobile device to folders on other machines or into the cloud, allowing users to access a file, folder, or directory across different devices. But, while both types of services require similar infrastructure, they are very different in how they function. The cloud is perfect for sync and backup services, because they both require a lot of space (in the form of servers) to store the data that is being synced or backed up, and a lot of bandwidth (all of that networking equipment) to make sure that data flows to and from the services rapidly. That networking equipment also connects these data centers to the outside world, where customers can interact with the service providers inside the data centers. These computers (typically called servers, or in Backblaze’s case, Storage Pods) typically live in large buildings known as data centers, where they are fed a constant supply of power, are kept in environmentally controlled rooms, and are connected to each other with incredibly fast networking equipment. Put simply, the cloud is a set of computers that someone else is managing on the customer’s behalf. The cloud is still a term that causes a lot of confusion, both about what it is and how services utilize it. The word “cloud” only adds to this confusion, leading people to believe that all “cloud” services are doing the same thing. When considering sync and sharing services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or the slew of other options, people often assume they act as a backup solution as well. Since we’re in the business of protecting people from data loss, we wanted to offer a little more information about the differences and similarities of sync and backup, so that you can make the best, most informed decision about how to adequately protect your data using either or both service types. But there’s still confusion about what these services do, and that leaves some users in a vulnerable state. As it happens, using both sync services (from platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.) and backup services (like our very own Backblaze Computer Backup) for your Mac or PC is now a computing best practice. Having the right tool for the right job is something any building contractor will tell you is imperative, and the same guiding principles apply to computer usage. Which is best to use, and what makes them different? But from our perspective, the “versus” should really be a “plus,” as the two are complimentary. backup: It’s a face-off we’re asked about a lot. Read on for the latest guidance on the difference between cloud sync vs. This post was originally published in 2019 and has since been updated with new information.
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