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Dropbox VS Google Drive

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Dropbox VS Google Drive

Gone are the days when everyone relied on tape disks for storing data. Cloud storage has completely revolutionized the way we stored data earlier, like Dropbox VS Google Drive. When it comes to cloud storage, there are a huge number of providers these days, but four providers have made a strong impact and are considered industry leaders: Box, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

But users are often baffled when faced with choosing among these four. We have already compared Box vs. OneDrive, so here we’ve put together a comparison between Dropbox and Google Drive to ensure you get all the information you need to make the right decision.

The competition between Dropbox and Google Drive heated up when Dropbox partnered with Microsoft last November to offer their customers Office Online integrated with their Dropbox accounts. It should heat up again now, as Google announced on Google Photos last Thursday, on Google I/O.

Let’s see the main differences between these two services.

Pricing and Features

Dropbox

Dropbox offers three plans for both individuals and business users. Here is a summary of the features it offers along with pricing.

Dropbox Basic

It’s a free plan and some of the features it comes with are:

  • 2GB storage space
  • File sharing
  • Reliable backup
  • Access from anywhere

Dropbox basic is a perfect plan for those who are just starting out with cloud storage. If you need more storage space, then                                                                   it has another plan available named Dropbox Pro.

Dropbox Pro

Here are the features it comes with:Dropbox plans and pricing

  • Costs $9.99 per month
  • 1 TB storage space
  • 30-day file versioning
  • 256-bit AES and SSL encryption
  • Additonal sharing controls
  • Remote wipe

For business users, Dropbox specifically comes with a business plan:

Dropbox for Business

Here is a quick snapshot of its important features:

  • Costs $15 per user per month starting with five users
  • Comes with a free trial for 14 days
  • Unlimited storage space
  • SSO and Active Directory
  • User-activity monitoring
  • Unlimited file recovery and revision history
  • Remote wipe and account transfers

Google Drive

Like Dropbox, Google Drive also comes with plans for both individuals and business users.

It offers 15GB of storage space for free, and if you need more than that, it offers five plans starting with 100GB storage at $1.99 and going up to 30TB at $299.99.

Total storage Monthly rate
15 GB Free
100 GB $1.99
1 TB $9.99
10 TB $99.99
20 TB $199.99
30 TB $299.99

This puts Google Drive a bit ahead of Dropbox as it offers more storage for free as compared to the 2GB Dropbox offers, and it offers a wide variety of storage options, making it a highly tailored plan for those who may need more than 15GB storage space but not as much as 1TB. However, both providers offer the same pricing for 1TB storage space: $9.99 per month.

Google Drive for Work Unlimited Cloud StorageGoogle also offers a business plan, Google Drive for Work. Here are the features it comes with:

Google Drive for Work

  • Costs $10 per user per month
  • Unlimited storage space
  • 30-day free trial as against the 14 days offered by Dropbox
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • eDiscovery, and real-time collaboration
  • Customers get 30GB of storage space, and if they need unlimited space, they can upgrade to Google Apps Unlimited to access this feature.

Similarly, Google Apps for Work administrators need to purchase a Google Drive storage license for additional storage space.

Security

Security is a concern for all types of users, so let’s find out which provider has a better security system.

Dropbox

Dropbox has a stolid security system, some of the security features it comes with are:

  • Dropbox Your stuff is safe with DropboxSSL/TLS for file transmission and 256-bit AES encryption for file storage
  • Supports forward secrecy and enables HSTS for better protection
  • 30-day file versioning
  • Unlimited recovery ( business users only)

When it comes to streaming media files from Dropbox, those are not encrypted because not every mobile media type supports encrypted streaming.Also, those who need unlimited recovery can buy the add-on offered under Dropbox Pro and Classic plans.

In April 2015, Dropbox launched a Bug Bounty program to reward researchers who can find flaws or bugs in its applications. It shows how committed Dropbox is to ensure better security for its customers.

Google Drive

Google Drive doesn’t stay behind when it comes to security. Here is a quick snapshot of some of its important features.

  • Encryption for both the file transmission and storage (256-bit AES).
  • Compliant with most region and industry-specific regulations such as HIPAA, FISMA, FERPA, and Safe Harbor Privacy Principles
  • Data centers are ISO 27001 certified, SOC-2 audited, and SSAE 16 / ISAE 3402 Type II
  • Comes with some powerful tools to manage users better, set sharing permissions, secure devices with mobile device management, and with advanced reporting

In Feb 2015, in honor of Safer Internet Day, Google announced that it would offer an additional 2GB of storage to those who go through a simple security checkup on their account to bring awareness about online safety.

And in March 2015, Google released a set of new tools for both Google Drive for Work and Drive for Education to offer greater control over data sharing both internally and externally.

Mobile AppsDropbox Download the mobile app

Mobile apps are an inevitable need in this age of mobile digitization.

Let’s see which service offers better features.

Dropbox

Dropbox offers mobile apps for every major mobile OS, including iOS, Android,     and Blackberry. A couple of interesting functionalities offered are:

  • Access and navigate files from Dropbox accounts directly
  • Photos taken using a mobile camera can easily be saved directly to Dropbox account
  • Bookmaking facility to store files for offline access
  • Business users can connect both their personal and work Dropbox accounts but with a separate access system from the same app

In Feb 2015, Dropbox released an update that will allow users to easily open any shared link within the app itself.

Google DriveDropbox vs google drive

Google Drive offers mobile apps for both Android and iOS that help preview more than 40 popular file formats with Drive such as images, videos, PDFs, and MS Office documents and spreadsheets without any additional charges or software. Further, users can edit any files within the app itself.

In March 2015, Google announced an auto-backup feature for the images stored locally on iOS devices. This feature will help Google Drive users to better control their iOS-powered photo management setup.

It also launched a new feature for Android that will help share recently uploaded content directly from the notification that appears as soon as the upload is completed.

A recent update from Google, which was just announced last week on Google I/O is new service called Google Photo, which offers unlimited storage for your photos and videos. Each photo uploaded to Google Photos is immediately backed up on Google’s servers and can sync with your Google Drive account. After uploading a photo, Google Photos brings your most recent upload to the top of the app, making it easy to find the last photo you captured. In an effort to get everyone to use Google Photos, Google also announced that the service and app features free “unlimited storage”, allowing you to upload as many photos and videos as you’d like.

This new service is definitely a game changer in the competition vs Dropbox which dream was becoming your one-stop storage destination. 

No matter which service you choose, keep in mind that even though it is in the cloud, you still need to backup your data online, especially if you are an IT manager responsible for your company’s online data. Read more on how to prevent data loss in the cloud HERE.

 

Why Backup Online Data - FREE overview

Download our FREE overview on data loss in the cloud: what causes it and what you MUST do to prevent it.

How to recover your G Suite?

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Lost and found part 2: How to recover your Gmail/Google Apps drive, contacts and calendar.

This is our 2nd article on how to recover lost online data on Gmail/Google Apps. On the 1st part of “Lost and found” we discussed recovering lost Gmail/Google app emails. In this second and last part we will explain how to recover lost online data in your Drive, lost contacts and deleted calendar events.

Let’s get to it!

As before – first ask your self: When did you delete it? If it hasn’t been that long (no more than 30 days) follow the next instructions.

How To Recover Gmail Contacts

Google has a built-in system that saves older versions of contacts for some time to help recover any contact data that is lost accidentally. Here is how you can use this feature to recover your Google contacts.

Step 1: Click on “Gmail” in the top left corner of the window, then select “Contacts” in the drop down menu that appears.

Step 2: On the Google Contacts page, click on the “More” button on the top left part of the screen, and select “Restore Contacts” from the dropdown menu.

 

Your recently deleted contact data should be restored under a new group with the current date as the title. However, Google deletes Contacts’ data as well after 30 days, so make sure you recover contacts sooner, rather than later.

How To Recover a Deleted Calendar Event

If you accidentally delete an event, you may not be able to recover all your details, but can retrieve some information through an XML feed.

Step 1: Click on the Undo option right on top that appears as soon as you delete an event. It stays there for a few moments so you need to be quick about it, otherwise, you’ll have to recreate the calendar event.

Step 2: If you missed undo link, look for any invitations you might have sent for that event in your Gmail’s Sent folder.

If you can’t find any invitations, you’ll have to recover the data the hard way. If you’re not well versed with Google Apps or aren’t an apps administrator, it would be better to simply recreate the event.

How To Find Calendar’s Public XML Feed

Step 1: Change your domain’s calendar sharing settings in the Google Admin console to Share all information, and outsiders cannot modify calendars.

Step 2: In the list on the left, click on the drop down option of your calendar, and select calendar settings.

Step 3: Scroll down until you see Private Address column with two sections, XML, and ICAL. Click on XML.

Step 4: You should see a popup with a URL on it. Click it.

Step 5: Once clicked, add the string “?showdeleted=true&showhidden=true” to the end of URL in your browser’s address bar. You should see an XML feed with all the event details in your calendar, including the ones you just deleted.

You can see limited information about your events such as a brief description and the event title, but the invited guests’ information isn’t recoverable though.

How To Recover Deleted Files from Google Drive

Step 1: Go to your Google Drive and click on the  Trash option on the left.

Step 2:  Once there, select the file you want to recover and click the “Restore” button.

Step 3: In case you can’t find the files there, go to the Google Admin console and navigate to the users section.

Step 4: Find the user in the list, and then go to their account page. Once there, click on the three vertical dots on the top left corner, then select “Restore Data” in the drop down menu.

Step 5: Select the date range for when you deleted the files, and check the box for Google Drive files, then click Restore. That should do it.

If you are a Google apps user, ask your admin to recover your data. Google Apps admins can recover data from the prior 25 days.

If you took all the actions above and still can’t find that lost Google App data (Drive, Contacts, Calendar)  you were looking for, then you must have deleted it over a month ago, and them you can’t recover it, since Google automatically erases it after 30 days.

If you are using CloudAlly, then you can easily recover your deleted data, even though it was permanently erased by Google:

 Recover your deleted email with CloudAlly

a. Log in to your account in CloudAlly dashboard

b. Go to the Google account you would like to restore and click on it

c. Search for the data type (email/drive/calendar/contacts)  and date you want to recover

d. Click on restore/export

c. Get your recovered data to your account or desktop

It’s really simple and easy to restore lost online with CloudAlly automated backups for Google Apps. Next time, if you are using CloudAlly, you can skip all those steps, log in to CloudAlly and recover your lost data. As simple as a click.

Read more on “How to backup Google Apps” Here.

 

Why Backup Online Data - FREE overview

Download our FREE overview on data loss in the cloud: what causes it and what you MUST do to prevent it.

How to recover Gmail/Google Apps?

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Lost and found part 1: How to recover your Gmail/Google Apps email?

You have thousands of emails in your Gmail inbox, which you deleted because you didn’t want to bother sorting through them all. Sounds familiar? I’m sure it does. We get so many emails each day, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with it, so we simply erase what we think we don’t need. So lets discuss: how to recover your Gmail/Google Apps email?

One day, you are looking for an important email and you just can’t find it. Suddenly, you realize that you probably deleted it, and end up scratching your head with panic, wondering how you can recover that data!

So – don’t panic we’re here to explain how you can recover your lost emails.

First is first: Ask your self, when did you delete it? if it hasn’t been that long (no more than 30 days) follow the next steps:

Step 1: Type in the keyword, preferably a long-tail one, related to your email in the search box.

In order to find and recover lost emails, you need to know some relevant keywords related to those emails, as with the dates they were sent or received. This will help narrow down the search.

Step 2: If you don’t find the email you’re looking for, scroll down to the bottom and look for the deleted message link.

Step 3: Click on “View It” and it will show you all the messages related to your keyword in the trash

Step 4: If you’ve found the email you were looking for, make sure you move it to the inbox as Google automatically empties the trash folder, after 30 days.

All you need to do is click on the check box for the email, and then click the “Move to Inbox” button. You can also go directly to the Trash folder to search for and move emails to the inbox.

Step 5: If you still didn’t find what you’re looking for, click on the spam folder on the left-hand side of Gmail and search with the same keyword in that folder.

Step 6: If you find the email you were searching for, make sure you click on the corresponding checkbox and mark it “Not Spam” to move it back to the inbox.

Step 7: If you still can’t find the email, try looking through your custom labels, if you’ve created any. If you still can’t find it, chances are, your email was deleted by Google permanently.

If you are a Google apps user, ask your admin to recover your data. Google Apps admins can recover data from the prior 25 days.

If you took all the actions above and still can’t find that email you were looking for, then you must have deleted your email over a month ago, and them you can’t recover it, since Google automatically erases it after 30 days.

If you are using CloudAlly, then you can easily recover your deleted email, even though it was permanently erased by Google:

step 8: Recover your deleted email with CloudAlly

a. Log in to your account in CloudAlly dashboard

b. Go to the Google account you would like to restore and click on it

c. Search for the email/date you want to recover

d. Click on restore/export

c. Get your recovered email to your inbox or desktop

It’s really simple and easy to restore lost emails with CloudAlly automated backups for Google Apps. Next time, if you are using CloudAlly, you can skip all those steps, log in to CloudAlly and recover your lost data. As simple as a click.

Read more on “How to backup Google Apps” Here.

Read the second part of  how to recover Google Apps: Deleted Contacts, Calendar and Google Drive!

Cloud Backup Infographics Roundup

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According to a forecast by Computerworld, 42 percent IT leaders plan to invest more on cloud computing this year. There will be an 11 percent shift of IT budget toward various cloud computing versions as a new delivery model by 2016, as per IDC predictions. That’s an impressive statistic and proof of how shiny the future of cloud is.

While the majority of enterprises plan to embrace or use cloud more, they often underrate the security part. What if the data stored in the cloud gets lost due to some virus attack, phishing, or accidental deletion. How can it be recovered? An inevitable solution to prevent data loss is back up.

In this article we are going to list the top 10 infographics that will help visualize why backups are important – be it a cloud or a cloud-to-cloud network, how it evolved, and where it stands now. Let’s get rolling then.

1. What Can Cause Data Loss?

Before, we talk about backup; we should talk about what causes data loss; viruses, phishing scams, hacking, or something else? Here is a detailed infographic about that.

2. How Data Loss Could Be Deadly for a Business

Here is an informative infographic from DSS Datacenter that depicts what data loss could cost a business. It has some shocking data loss statistics that will convince any business to implement cloud backup today.

3. Evolution of Backups

To protect a business from data loss, backups are crucial, but what brought around the concept in the first place, and how did it evolve? This infographic from Axcient explains.

Evolution of backup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Women Are More Unlikely to Backup Their Data Than Men – Seagate Study

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and Seagate, 30 percent of the women that participated in the survey acknowledged that they do not back up their data at all! Curious about what men do? Here is an interesting infographic with more information.

5. What Can Cloud Backup Do for You?

An excellent infographic  and a revelation for companies that are unsure about whether they need a cloud backup solution, and how it can influence their business, by Acronis.

6. Why Companies Are Moving to Cloud Backup Solutions

Cloud backup solutions play a significant role in a company’s data recovery strategy and an increasing number of businesses have started realizing this as of late. So, why is cloud backup the toast of the town? This infographic from CloudBacko explains.

7. How to Ensure Business Continuity With Cloud Backup

Business continuity is crucial for every enterprise. Wondering how cloud backup solutions can help ensure zero downtime?

8. Is Backup Reliable?

By now, it is clear that data recovery and backup solutions are important and can’t be ignored. However, are they reliable enough so that businesses can focus on their core needs without worrying about data loss anymore? Here is an interesting infographic from Kroll On track on what you need to know.

9. The CIO’s Essential Checklist for Cloud Backup

Cloud storage and backup can bring elasticity and agility but it is critically important for CIOs to address the basics of cloud backup first, including access control, availability, data encryption, and uptime. Druva made this job easier with an excellent security checklist for CIOs.

10. Look for a Cloud pro, Not a Poser

Many cloud solution providers claim to have a stolid security system that is ideal for securing enterprise data, but the fact is, they don’t have adequate knowledge and experience required and like other industries, they are self-claimed gurus. How can a business identify the posers? Here is an interesting infographic from Autotask that can help distinguish the good from the bad.

There are many other infographics on Cloud Backup, these were our top 10 favorite ones. The awareness to Cloud Backup is enormous by now, every business has a backup, and if they didn’t migrate it to the cloud yet –  they are probably considering  it. What about Cloud To Cloud Backup? Do you know you must also backup your SaaS applications? If you are not familiar with it, you should read our overview  “Why Backup Online Data” and learn why we all need to backup online data (YES! although it’s already in the cloud)  before it’s too late.

Download the FREE overview on "Why Backup Online Data"

Learn what is “Cloud to Cloud Backup” and why you need to backup your online data.

Anthem Security Breach – A Wake Up Call

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Healthcare Security Breach

The security breach at Anthem is the largest health care breach to date as pointed out by Mandiant, and we believe it’s in the top 5 security breaches of all times across any industry. This and recent breaches such as Home Depot and of course Sony Pictures Entertainment, is a clear sign that even companies with extremely robust IT infrastructure are at risk of potential attacks and malicious destruction or theft of personal data, especially for healthcare security breach.

Health care data is extremely sensitive and the issue of protection is already very important and governed under HIPAA rules.  The fact that so many dollars have already been invested in HIPAA compliance are proof that protecting this data has been taken very seriously. But keep in mind that today’s attack was not about health care or financial information, it was clearly aimed at getting personal data. We believe the big story here is that this represents 80 million potential identify thefts.

All of the major players including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Samsung have world class IT infrastructure and  security systems firmly in place. Apple surely deserves a credit for trying to limit the use of personal information for data mining, but that really addresses the marketing and spam issues, not these types of sophisticated attacks. Unfortunately it’s a never ending battle as new systems and new features will almost always introduce new vulnerabilities that can be exploited by sophisticated hackers.

It’s unlikely that these types of attacks will stop regardless of how tight a security system is, but the key take away is that security is an ongoing process that needs to continually be refined and improved over time. Companies of all sizes need to take security seriously, have the necessary software, people and processes in place, and make sure that each employee understands these processes and their individual role in securing the company’s data. And it’s no longer just companies with large data centers that are at risk. As companies move to cloud based services such as Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce and Box, they need to ensure that the data stored in these services is secure and available for recovery in the event of accidental or malicious destruction of data.

Read more on data loss in the cloud and why do we need to backup online data

Read CloudAlly’s comment featured on the Fast Company article about the Anthem Breach 

 

3 Reasons You Should Add Cloud-to-Cloud Backup Service To Your Portfolio

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Backup Services for Office 365

Every business wants to satisfy its clients and win more customers. But the question is how? For most, quality service is necessary. But is that everything that can be offered? The competition is tough and you have to stay ahead. So, the key to success is to know your competition, use the findings to your competitive advantage, and offer rich value.  Backup services for office 365 are essential for your success.

You may be a reseller of Google Apps, Office 365, or Salesforce like your competitors, but have you ever thought of offering added -value services like cloud-to-cloud backup to your customers? If you hadn’t, you must be wondering now how it fits in. If you have, but didn’t add it yet, then you should have another thought about it. Let’s see how it can help you stay ahead of your competition:

Stand out from the crowd

The success lies not in what type of cloud services your company offers, but how the offering is unique as compared to others. It is very important that you have a Unique Selling Proposition that gives your customers enough reasons to come to you rather than look at the competition.  Any service becomes unique when it is bundled with unique products or services that prove to be valuable in the market and there is a need for it.

Cloud-to-cloud backup service is a good example of a unique offer that can work as a key differentiator between you and your competitors and make you stand out from the crowd. With a cloud-to-cloud backup service added to your list of services, you can be an “all in one place” service for your customers – for example, Google App/Salesforce/ Office 365 implementation/migration to management, support and 100% backup.

Whether it’s Google Apps, Office 365, or Salesforce,every product comes with a time-bound backup feature. You have the opportunity of adding a competitive edge to your company with offering automated secured daily backups like CloudAlly.  knowing the importance of backup to the business continuity of your customers will prove you are on top of your game, and will win you new customers.

Win Customer Trust

Winning customers’ trust is very important. If you offer a solution that appears to be a compelling one, but in fact it really isn’t, your credibility gets hurt and that leads to customer attrition. It’s not just losing one customer, but also losing the opportunity of referrals as well.

Let’s take the example of Google Apps. Google keeps any deleted data for only 30 days. Now, what if a customer deletes data accidentally and never realizes that it needs to be backed up within 30 days—what happens next? The data can never be recovered and Google can’t even help with that. Won’t your customer get frustrated in that case? However, if there is an active backup of that account, data can be recovered pretty quickly. This will not only help you win customer trust, but also establish your credibility in the market.

 Increase Revenue

Increase in revenue also depends on your higher transaction value strategy and understanding what related products or services your customers might be interested in. That means the more diversified your services are, the greater opportunity there is for sales. You can also offer cloud-to-cloud backup solution as a standalone service just by partnering with us, and you can offer value by strengthening customer data protection strategy, and increase your sales.

Another way out is the number of repeat transactions generated from the same customer. If you offer a backup solution additionally as a value-added service, your customers will be satisfied and that would help you to retain a customer for a longer period of time which of course also means increase of revenue.

If you are interested in making your business distinct from your competition by adding cloud-to-cloud backup service to your portfolio, read more about CloudAlly’s Partner Program .

You can also further read more about “Why Backup Online Data” and on “Why do we need to backup Office 365” or “Google Apps misconceptions”