One of the more popular backup services for photographers is CrashPlan. That's the best price I've seen for online storage anywhere. cloud backup services are getting all the time, prices are coming down and bandwidth, both for uploading your images and restoring them in case of a disaster is becoming easier. With CrashPlan you can back up unlimited personal data from one computer for under $50 per year. It's a virtual space where the content of your iPod can be sent and be synced up with your Macbook so that calendar entry on your handheld will also appear on your Mac. LayerOnline On a smaller scale, Cloud technology can be used to make a storage of all your files so you can have a central source of everything you have. Automated backup No need to make sure the external hardware is connected and turned on at the right time. Just set it and forget it. Just keep your Internet connection on (something you probably do anyway), and your system will be automatically backed up as often as you need it to. Your cloud storage account will come with some default settings and you can change them if you want. You can back up your system once a day or even several times a day. Verizon provides free 4 gigs of data per month and I've never gone over that. If I need another gig of data, it's only $10 a month and I'd never go over 5 gigs. If I want to do anything on any of those devices via internet, I just turn on the smartphone hotspot. I've used Spring, AT&T, Virgin Mobile, and a few others. I've tried a few other provider plans and wifi cards, but the problem with those has been slow and intermittent connectivity. I came close a couple of times when I was doing web and course design work and working with a lot of multimedia. My smartphone hotspot provides internet access on my tablet, laptop, and notebook. Hard drive space is continually shrinking. If computers are running out of anything, it is hard drive space. That room that is saved from using the Cloud services can be used for storage of important information (in paper form if necessary). Therefore, keeping some of the information in information Clouds makes a lot of sense. A business should use online storage because it is less prone to accidents. If they store information locally, then they have to worry about their hard drives. My spouse has a Windows Phone and loves the integration with SkyDrive. A great benefit of Microsoft's product is the ability to edit and even create Office documents right from the internet in SkyDrive. It is also nicely integrated with Windows Phone (I know, what's that?). Additionally it is very cheap to upgrade. The pictures she takes on her phone are immediately available on the pc. cloud drive Microsoft's SkyDrive offers the most free storage with 7 GB. Zip Cloud is a relatively new player in the online backup marketplace. Zip Cloud is one the most user friendly online backup services you will ever use. Originally from the UK, they now have an online presence in the US. The beta Windows Live Sync is the love child of LiveMesh and the original Windows Live Sync. Basically Essentials is the shabang for Windows 7 encompassing photo, video, mail, etc into one organized package. The two previous programs were so similar that they decided to merge the two together this year. Sync can be downloaded alone or within the Windows Essentials package. You have access to data that lives in the Cloud from any online interface, PC, etc. regardless of where you are. All you need is WIFI and your trusty web browser. This is a huge advantage for those of with a more mobile lifestyle. The hundreds of companies using Commission Junction and ClickBank each have their own sets of rules and guidelines, though the companies on ClickBank seem to have a much more anything goes feel to them. The Big Name Companies always have long lists of terms and often require that these terms be updated from time to time so they can add new restrictions. I am currently testing one new cloud backup service called ChainVault, and I can really say that it does the job. Do the backup of your website. Do the local backup, do cloud backup, do hosting provider backup solution. The examples with my bank and with my investment company have helped reassure me that they are proactively trying to minimize the risk of loss. However, it is not obvious that your risk of loss is any greater in The Cloud than it is anywhere else. There is no guarantee of security. My confidence in reasonable security in The Cloud is based upon my doing business over the Internet since the early 1990s when the Internet opened to commercial sites. You can reshape clouds, move them from left to right, or even drill a hole in an overcast sky to let some sunshine through. cloud backup Cloud magic is simply the art of moving clouds around in the sky. Below are 4 simple steps you can use to begin practicing cloud magic. Cloud magic teaches you to extend and use your energies, which you can later develop when working with the winds of the four directions and larger weather systems.