Item: Apple iCloud
Rating: 10
Author: Rene Agredano

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

After much debate over what kind of cloud storage to use, we use Apple iCloud to store all of our photos and videos for Tripawds.com and our other business endeavors such as writing, website management and consulting. We are full-time RV travelers and knowing that our data is safely stored in the cloud gives us the peace of mind we need as nomads.

Pros and Cons

Intuitive format for retrieving data.
Makes it easy to see if your most recent files have been backed up.

Integration with my iPhone layout can be clunky: I sometimes have a hard time finding out how much data we have in storage.
I would like to receive occasional reminders about how much storage is being used up.

Return on Investment

We don't need to keep buying hard drives to store data.
We save time retrieving long lost files.

Alternatives Considered

Sungard Availability Services Managed Cloud - Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon AWS interface is clunky and too unintuitive for me. It's like going from a Mac to a Windows machine. YUCK. I realize that Apple iCloud is really just relying on Amazon AWS servers for data storage but it's so much nicer to work with the Apple interface for my daily data storage needs.

Support Rating

I've honestly never needed to use it.

Key Insights

Do you think Apple iCloud delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Apple iCloud's feature set?

Yes

Did Apple iCloud live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Apple iCloud go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Apple iCloud again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Adobe Acrobat DC, QuickBooks Desktop Premier, iMovie, GIMP, LibreOffice

Likelihood to Recommend

As I mentioned, we are nomads and our entire life is stored in our RV. We travel year-round and used to rely on hard drives to store all of our data, while only occasionally putting backups in a storage unit in our home state. Since deciding to migrate our data storage to the cloud we have enjoyed peace of mind like never before. We also don't need to drive three states away (or more) to pull up a file we really need!

I think it's less appropriate for huge companies to rely on.

Apple iCloud Gives Nomads Like Us Peace of Mind

Overall Satisfaction with Apple iCloud