Protect your data in the Cloud

Trust and Security have been hot topics for the public cloud since its inception. Corporate IT departments and CIOs have repeatedly expressed concerns over the loss of control associated with moving various levels of sensitive data to a public cloud. At the same time, the overall benefits of a public cloud are tremendous and continue to gain momentum. This means that many organizations have a pressing need tomigrate to public cloud infrastructure in spite of ongoing concerns about security.

Encryption is one of the fundamental required tools for protecting data in the cloud. However, encrypting the data in the cloud, and then storing the encryption keys in the cloud in order to be able to access the data, provides only a very minor improvement over simply storing the data in the cloud in the first place.

Trust Services provides a unique combination of end-to-end application level encryption and power of the cloud to roam encryption keys in a totally secure way. It enables data driven applications to work with sensitive data, securely stored in different cloud-based storages while continuing to maintain control over access to this data.

• Usage Overview
• Getting Started Tutorial
• Glossary
• Request Registration Code

Use Trust Services

• Download “Trust Services” SDK
• Access “Trust Services” Portal
• Samples
• Programming
• Troubleshooting

Discuss

Please use SQL Azure Labs Support to discuss Trust Services, ask questions and provide feedback!
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlazurelabssupport/

You can also email Trust Services team about your experience with the lab, suggestions and kudos: TrustServC@microsoft.com

We are proud to announce the @Home with Windows Azure competition here in Singapore! Join us in this effort to give back to a very deserving cause, and get a solid understanding of the Windows Azure platform in the process. You will deploy an application to Windows Azure that directly contributes to Stanford University’s Folding@home effort, a distributed computing project that carries out simulations of protein folding. By simply running a piece of software, you can help scientists learn more about diseases like Alzheimer’s, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease and many cancers through banding together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world.

This distributed computing project was created by Stanford University researchers to help scientists unravel the mysteries of protein folding in hopes of helping cure diseases. Started by the US East Region DPE team, The @Home with Windows Azure project allows you to contribute to it by using your MSDN subscription or by using a free 3-Month Trial subscription to harness the power of Microsoft’s cloud computing platform.

Prizes & Dates

Your first prize will be the good feeling for contributing to a good cause! Also, globally, for every deployment of the @home with Windows Azure application Microsoft will donate $10 to Stanford University’s effort (up to $5,000 maximum). You also have the chance to win one of the following great prizes that will be randomly drawn between Singapore participants that enter before 11:59pm on 15 June 2012 and leave their solution deployed until at least 11:59am on 25 June 2012:

• 5 Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phones
• For entries submitted before 11:59pm on the 31 of May 2012 you have an extra change to win one Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone

So get started!
Full terms and conditions at the end of the post.

How to Enter

There are two parts to joining the cause and entering the competition:

(1) Follow the instructions on the @Home with WIndows Azure page to get setup. You can also enter if you are running Windows XP, Linux, or Mac! The 4 easy steps on the page should normally take you less than an hour and will help you
get access to a free 3-month Windows Azure trial (or just use your MSDN subscription allocation); get setup and download the Azure application; configure it with your settings; and finally deploy and run it!

(2) Once you are up and running, email us the live id of your account and the URL of your folding project running on Azure.

Some notes:

• Any 3 Month Trial or new MSDN Subscription activation comes with a $0 spending limit so you don’t need to worry about getting charged. The credit card step is for identification purposes and in case you switch to a full Azure subscription later or remove the spending limit.
• If using an existing subscription you are responsible for ensuring this project doesn’t go over your allocation.
• If you have an MSDN subscription and haven’t activate your Azure allocation, I would recommend going with that instead of the trial. This way you can leave your contribution running for as long as you like while your MSDN subscription is active; or if you have an idea for an Azure solution you will have your access all setup and ready to go!

To see what a deployed application looks like, check out my contribution. Here’s a printscreen of it working away:

Folding@Home with Windows Azure Competition – Terms and Conditions:

Eligibility

1. By entering this competition you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.

2. To be eligible for the competition, you must be a Singapore Resident using a Singapore based Windows Live ID.

How to enter

3. To enter you must:

(a) email a-neyap@microsoft.com before 11:59pm on 15 June 2012, with a link to your deployed folding solution, and the Windows Live ID associated with the Windows Azure subscription used; and

(b) leave your solution deployed until at least 11:59am on 25 June 2012, when the final prizes will be drawn.

4. Use of the Windows Azure website, including creating your account, signing up for new offers, and changing your contact and billing information is subject to the Windows Azure Terms of Use. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=161008&clcid=0×409

5. Prizes and award criteria:

(a) Early Bird: Each and every ‘early’ valid entry (deployed and submitted by 11:59pm on 31 May 2012) will go in the random draw to win a Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone.

(b) Final Prizes: Each and every valid entry (deployed and submitted by 11:59pm on 15 June 2012, and still deployed at 11:59am on 25 June 2012) will go in the random draw to win 1 of 5 Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phones.

6. You can only receive one prize, from the final prizes. Each entrant who receives a final prize is ineligible to receive an additional final prize in a later prize award category.

7. The ‘Early Bird’ prize does not count as a final prize – the winner of the ‘Early Bird’ prize is still eligible for the final prizes, if their entry is still ‘valid’ (still deployed at 11:59am on 25 June 2012).

General

8. Prizes will be allocated on the 26nd of June 2012, and winners will be notified by the 30th of June 2012, via the email address used to submit the entry to a-neyap@microsoft.com, as specified in clause 3.

9. Microsoft is not responsible for entries not received and incomplete, illegible, ‘hacked’ or otherwise fraudulent entries are not valid.

10. Prizes will be delivered to a Singapore address that each winner nominates, at Microsoft’s expense.

11. It is a condition of accepting any prize that the prize winner agrees to participate in publicity generated by Microsoft (or Microsoft’s marketing partners), and agrees to the use of their name, photo, and folding solution URL for promotional purposes.

12. Employees of Microsoft (and each of their immediate family members) and independent contractors of Microsoft (and each of their immediate family members) are not eligible to enter.

13. Prizes are not transferable or redeemable for cash. If you are unable or unwilling to accept your prize, Microsoft may award it to an alternate winner.

14. If you accept a prize you will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting the prize.

15. If for any reason an advertised prize is unavailable, Microsoft may substitute the advertised prize for another prize which has approximately the same recommended retail price.

16. If there is a dispute as to who submitted the winning entry, the winner will be the authorized account holder of the Windows Live ID associated with the subscription used to deploy the solution. Entries submitted in to the draw must be submitted by the actual owner of the Windows Live ID.

17. Microsoft Operations Pte. Ltd. is the promoter of this prize draw and may modify these terms and conditions without notice.

18. Microsoft reserves the right to cancel, suspend or change the competition or any element of the competition for any reason, including any cancellation, suspension or change necessitated by any event outside Microsoft’s control.

19. The judge’s decision in relation to the winners or any other aspect of this prize draw is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

20. Microsoft may disqualify, from participating in this prize draw, any person who tampers with the entry process, or submits an entry not in accordance with these terms and conditions.

21. Microsoft is committed to complying with the Government gift and ethics policies. Employees and independent contractors of the Government must adhere to gift and ethics policies applicable to them when entering this prize draw or accepting any prize.

22. Microsoft is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, servers or providers, or any combination thereof. Nor is it responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information caused by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilised in this prize draw, or by any technical or human error that may occur in the course of the administration of this prize draw.

23. To the extent permitted by law, Microsoft, its retailers, suppliers, associated companies and agencies will not be liable to you for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage whatsoever, including personal injury, which is suffered as a result of, or arising from, your participation in the prize draw or winning (or not winning) any prize.

24. Microsoft is not responsible for any credit card charges incurred as a result of, or arising from, the use of your Windows Azure account. We recommend that you use a new 3-month trial subscription, or activate the benefits of an MSDN subscription, for your entry. In both of these cases, a Windows Azure ‘spending limit’ of $0 will be enabled by default. Removing this spending limit, or using a Windows Azure subscription that does not have a spending limit, will leave your credit card open to incurring charges. Note that, once disabled, a spending limit cannot be re-enabled.

25. At Microsoft, we are committed to protecting your privacy. Microsoft will collect and use your details for the purposes of running this prize draw and to send you promotional material that may be of interest to you, as set out in clause 26 below. You can access or request correction of your details by emailing uptodate@microsoft.com.

26. By entering this competition, you consent to Microsoft Operations Pte. Ltd. sending you marketing and promotional material by email or using any of your other contact details Microsoft may have.

27. Microsoft reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to withhold the award of any or all prizes if entries do not meet the criteria set out in these terms and conditions.

We’ve been hearing a lot of talk about Metro, which is code name for a design language for Windows 8, Windows Phone 7, X Box and other Microsoft software. What’s Metro about anyway?

Metro draws from classic Swiss design, with its emphasis on simplicity, typography leading navigation and way-finding graphics found in transportation hubs. The bold, clear lettering and iconography are key to helping commuters find their way to subways and air travelers navigate to their boarding gates.

The key element in this design language  is to allow users to focus more on the content that is delivered, rather than the various frames that we are used to.

With its’ straight lines and rectangular tiles, it might appear that Metro design is easy to implement for apps, but the reality is that Metro was made for motion and content. The animations, content make a big difference when it comes to attracting attention to your applications.

Simply put, the content and images draw you to the application itself, while the animations help you bring it alive.

How do you go about designing an awesome Metro App? Here is a list of tips and resources you can refer to.

1. Get the tools to prototype.

MSDN has a good repository of templates, icons and styles that you may refer to. These include:

• Base layout: templates for fill, snap, full, portrait views (.psd )
• Project templates: dark and light theme page layouts (.psd)
• Common controls: dark and light theme controls (.psd)
• Common components: contracts, notifications, tiles, and keyboard (.psd)

2. Think Grid

The grid system is a design tool that helps achieve visual unity across different applications and features, while providing a structure for variation and maintaining user interest. The grid system is built into the developer templates.

Using the Windows 8 grid, type patterns, and layout patterns helps align your application with the rest of Windows 8. Controls and collections for Metro style apps are created with the grid system in mind. The grid system provides a fast and fluid experience for the user.

3. Think  Touch

The Windows 8 Metro UI will run on touch devices. This allows developers to think about how to integrate touch into their apps and make it more fun to play around with!

A. Responsiveness is important – every action must have a specific effect on the device. Gestures must take effect immediately.

Bi. Keep it consistent – ensure a good ‘transfer of knowledge’ and standardize actions.

C. Be Forgiving – when there is direct manipulation, there will also be accidental manipulation. Developers should remember that some people with stubbier fingers (like myself) have a harder time pushing buttons. That calls for forgiveness, which includes providing an undo, good visual feedback and allowing users to correct mistakes easily.

4. Start prototyping.

It is so important to prototype. Shane Morris, Director at Automatic Studio shared some great benefits of prototyping at #MSCampfire.

Prototyping allows you to:

• Validate the concept in concrete terms.
• Try out ideas at low risk.
• Identify issues before it’s too late.
• Sell the vision to stakeholders and investors.
• Bring the team together with a common vision.

Essentially, “its the journey between pages or screens, not the pages and screens themselves, that can cause the most problems for users. Problems with the journey are the most expensive problems to fix. Design the journey between states first, before designing the states.”

Do some user testing before you start doing any sort of coding!

5. Start Development

Along with the new release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, development tools that contains Visual Studio 11 Express Beta and Blend for Visual Studio are available. These are the tool to build Metro style apps for Windows 8. It includes the Windows 8 SDK, templates and enables access to Windows 8 APIs.

Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Beta has a new, simpler, refreshed UI, and it includes fully featured code editor, a powerful debugger, a focused profiler, and rich language support that you can use to build apps that written in HTML5, JavaScript, C++, C# or Visual Basic. Visual Studio 11 Express Beta for Windows 8 also includes a device simulator that you can use to test Metro style apps on multiple form factors.

The quick start by clicking on the Grid Application view lets you easily create an application!

Check out other interesting Design case studies here:

Design case study: iPad to Windows 8 Metro style app

Design case study: Website to Metro style app

We’re constantly thinking about how to make it easier for developers to get started with Windows 8 Development, so if you have any questions or tips, do comment and let us know what you think! Do share your development woes, wins and hacks with us as well.

Have fun with Metro and hope to see you for our Windows 8 Dev Camp tomorrow!

Consumerization of IT (CoIT) is a reality to many organizations today. Employees more and more want to use their personal electronic devices to do their jobs, and utilize the same technologies and applications at work that they use at home. This blending of consumer and enterprise technologies is the Consumerization of IT, and it boosts employee productivity and satisfaction. However, it can make it difficult for IT departments to ensure an enterprise’s data security and integrity.

Many people think CoIT is only about “Devices Management”. To have a successful CoIT strategy, we also need to think about People, Security and Management, , and Productivity. Microsoft IT built the support for CoIT based on following four pillar.

• Windows PCs and other devices: Classify what are enterprise-standard, consumer-standard, and nonstandard devices, and then determine the various support models for each.

Look at your support model, think about how difference devices will be supported and what level of support each kind of devices gets.

• Security and management: Determine how to manage and control these devices, and their users’ access to intellectual property, and then ensure data’s integrity and security once users place it on these devices.

Different people may handle different information, HR and Finance Department typically handle more sensitive data and information. Classify different data and information then build access and control polices around it. For example, highly business impact (Like HR and Finance records) data and information should be only accessed from managed devices. Low business impact data and information may be accessed through unmanaged devices to enable flexibility.

• Productivity: Determine which applications and technologies to support on employees’ devices to ensure that they continue to be satisfied and productive.

•Unified application development: Establish best practices for line-of-business (LOB) application development, and ensure a secure development lifecycle and marketplace for these applications

Below table (Click to enlarge) illustrate how Microsoft IT support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for both Windows and Non-Windows Devices. It also shows what kind of access each device can get.

Here is list of technologies that involved to build this approach.

• Active Directory
• Exchange Active Sync
• System Center Configuration Management 2012
• IPSec policies to control access to your most secure resources
• Network Access Protection – to ensure minimum standards
• A modern gateway – to present secure web access to internal resources
• Firewalls
• Remote Desktops and VDI – to provide a consistent fall back environment, or secure remote access
• DirectAccess
• App-V – to deliver virtual applications so that you can remove them easily when no longer needed

Let me know your thoughts around CoIT, simply just leave comments!

A few weeks ago, I was very lucky to have been invited by the NUS School of Computing to provide feedback to students for their project in Module CS4202. This module is focused on Human Computer Interaction and the teams were assigned to use the Kinect system for their projects.

All of the teams used the Kinect to some extent. Of course some utilized it better than others and it really shows through the projects. It was interesting to see how the teams approached the problems given to them and how they thought of incorporating the Kinect. It reminded me of a video released by Microsoft sometime back after it noticed how people are innovating on the Kinect. A cheap, yet powerful sensor that has infinite uses only limited by one’s imagination.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Prof. Sheng from NUS gave me the link to their blog and it shows all the projects that was presented. You can check it out here

A couple of projects that stood out for me were

Human Kinect Exhibit

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Human Kinect Exhibit focused on providing a fun learning environment for children to learn about the human anatomy. The game they created was fun and engaging and provided a learning environment for children to learn some information about bones. On first glance the project seems like a simple game but what really fascinated me was the reaction and interaction of the audience once they have set the application up at the Science Museum.

The feedback and the reaction of the users was very valuable for the team as this proves that their game is enjoyable and educational. For me, nothing beats getting your product out and getting people to try it out.

ChopChopMirror

Click here to view the embedded video.

ChopChop Mirror is a great concept. They treated the Kinect as an interface for your digital assistant. I think this will be a common feature in our bathroom mirrors as we enable more screens with touch and intelligence.

The concept itself is in it’s infancy but I can really see intelligent houses in the near future once interfaces and components become cheaper.

I liked the project because of their forward thinking and how they designed the interface.

Aside from that, it also reminds me of one video from Microsoft envisioning the future. Microsoft releases envisioning videos every year, giving us a glimpse of what the future has for us trough the eyes of the largest software company in the world.

This year’s envisioning video has something similar to ChopChop Mirror in some shape or form.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m really grateful to have been invited by Prof. Sheng to his class. I saw some great projects and realized how much potential a student has given the right technology. Looking forward to their future projects!

We’ve been hearing a lot of talk around Metro, which is at the center of the new Windows 8 experience. Shane Morris, ex-Microsoft User Experience Design Evangelist and currently Director at Automatic Studio, was recently in town and shared lots of great tips about how to navigate Metro design.

Code named ‘Metro’; this design theme is inspired by one of the most common sights we see in our daily lives – the Metro (or the MRT in our case!)

If you’ve noticed, the signs, guidelines at our Metro/MRT stations have a clean, clear, distinctive design theme. The straight lines, squares and circles make it easy to distinguish and identify the stations. This is the key objective of the new Metro User Experience with Windows 8 as well.

Shane shared that Metro is quintessentially a design that immerses users in the content. Instead of trying to re-create real life experiences on your tablet, it makes use of clean, modern and motion design to bring apps to life. This design also makes it easy to distinguish apps from one another – and if you as a developer make the effort to, you can easily bring your app to life with the ‘live tiles’ and attract users back to your application.

Here are Shane’s slides:

#MSCampfire was an amazing opportunity for us to gather developers, IT professionals, students and start-ups together.

Over the course of 3 days we saw 600 attendees come together to discuss and share about the latest in web and mobile technology, had the brightest student minds pit their heads together in the Semis and Final of Imagine Cup SG to tackle some of the toughest real-world problems and saw the grit and passion from start-ups in Singapore from the Singapore Satellite of Echelon by our partner E27.

All these wouldn’t have been possible without your support. Thank you so much for attending #MSCampfire and we hope to continually see you for the rest of our events.

For those of you who missed #MSCampfire, fret not! Our next event happening on 10 May is HTML 5 on Metro. During this session, we’ll speak specifically about how HTML5 is changing the way applications are designed and how best to use it to create Metro-styled apps! Register now at bit.ly/html5onmetro

Here are the slides from each session and the coverage on it.

10:30 – 11:30 Keynote – Rob Miles (Coverage by E27)

16:30-17:30 The Kinect Effect: Infinite Possibilities – Rob Miles

Slides and (mostly working) code from the presentations – here
C# Yellow Book, Windows Phone Blue book and other free stuff – here
.NET Micro Framework embedded development – here
Gadgeteer embedded development -  here
Three Thing Game student madness – here
Windows Phone development – here
Dreamspark, free software for students – here
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio – here
Kinect For Windows SDK – here

11:30 – 12:30 Prototype, Prototype, Prototype – Shane Morris (Coverage by E27)

13:30-14:30 10 Key HTML 5 Features you must know – Juha Paananen

14:30-15:30 Windows 8 Development – Hammad Rajjoub and Bruce Wang

15:30-16:30 The Metro Design Language; what it means to you – Shane Morris

Day Two

10:00-11:00 Gamification – Natalie from Hummingbird Interactive

11:00-12:00 Mobile Web Design - Sanjay from Replaid talking about good mobile design practices

(Slides will be up by next week)

Look out for our videos coming up next week!

We got a piece of good news and a piece of  bad news to update on the contest!

Let’s start with the bad news first.
We have our winners for all Starbucks cards and 4gb thumbdrives but we won’t be announcing it here.

GOOD NEWS is….
we are extending this contest till 11 May 2012! So start downloading System Center 2012 if you havent to stand a chance to win a Zenbook!  details are here >>

with so many good reviews on UX31 (http://www.engadget.com/, http://www.pcmag.com, http://www.laptopmag.com) I’m sure you don’t want to miss this!

Hint: Remember to sign up for MVA to triple your chances of winning!

We also like to take this opportunity to invite you to get your hands on IT at Private Cloud Immersion! Learn how Microsoft is delivering cloud solutions now and in the future. For more click here >>

Past couple of weeks, I shared at our community meetup and also partner briefings about some new fantastic features about Windows Server 2012 (formerly known as Windows Server “8″). SR-IOV is one of them.

SR-IOV stands for Single-Root Input/Output (I/O) Virtualization. It’s is a standard defined by the PCI Special Interest Group. If you work for one of the member companies who have access, and are after some light bedtime reading, the specs are available on their website.

To learn more, I want to point you to this outstanding 8 part blog series written by John Howard, a senior program manager on the Hyper-V team at Microsoft

Here are the posts for you reading pleasure:

Part 1: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/12/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-1.aspx

Part 1 discusses emulated versus software devices, the pros and cons and constraints of each and why Microsoft is investing in SR-IOV.

—————————————————————————————————–

Part 2: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/13/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-2.aspx

Part 2 discusses the SR-IOV standard, physical functions (PFs) virtual functions (VFs) and the hardware requirements to make SR-IOV even possible.

—————————————————————————————————–

Part 3: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/14/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-3.aspx

Part 3 discusses device drivers and how they function in an SR-IOV environment as well as screenshots of an SR-IOV NIC within a Hyper-V VM.

—————————————————————————————————–

Part 4: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/15/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-4.aspx

Part 4 discusses some of the low level necessary firmware and motherboard changes to make SR-IOV function and provides a pointer to an interesting presentation given 4 years ago at WinHEC 2008 by Jake Oshins that provides further insight into SR-IOV.

—————————————————————————————————–

Part 5: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/16/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-5.aspx

Part 5 explains the IO path with SR-IOV enabled, covers SR-IOV configuration via the UI and a deeper dive into PowerShell.

—————————————————————————————————–

Part 6: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/19/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-6.aspx

Part 6 discusses SR-IOV and Live Migration in detail. It covers the engineering challenge of making SR-IOV work with Live Migration (not trivial folks) and even includes a video that demonstrates a virtual machine with an SR-IOV NIC under load being Live Migrated. There’s even a link to a WinHEC 2006 presentation

—————————————————————————————————–

Part 7: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/20/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-7.aspx

Part 7 discusses SR-IOV and how it works with the new inbox Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming. Yes folks, you can team SR-IOV NICs in the guest.

—————————————————————————————————–

Part 8: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/21/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-8.aspx

Part 8 discusses debugging SR-IOV and includes examples in PowerShell and covers troubleshooting through the Event Viewer.

The recent announcements of Microsoft SkyDrive and Google Drive have thrown the spotlight on some of the most exciting changes in the global fight for cloud hosting services. As one of the most wired countries in the world, there is no better time to get onboard. Because like any true Singaporean, we all want the best value for our money. Even if it’s free.

Here’s a quick summary of five cloud services available in Singapore.

Microsoft SkyDrive

Microsoft’s recently re-introduced their cloud hosting service SkyDrive, available across PCs and the Mac platform. Tips on how to install it here. (Psst. Quickly opt in now to re-upgrade your account to a 25GB storage for a limited period of time. Steps are here.) The SkyDrive desktop application’s compatibility with Mac extends only so far as Lion, so if you’re on an older Mac you’ll have to access SkyDrive through your browser.

Points to SkyDrive must be awarded for its iOS app – photos taken on an iPhone were quickly uploaded and synced to my SkyDrive via an easy multiple selection screen. Around 30 photos took mere minutes to upload in their original uncompressed formats.

Google Drive

Image from https://drive.google.com/start

Although Google very recently made headlines for Drive (and we do mean recently – this article was rewritten because of it), it unfortunately doesn’t seem to be available in Singapore as of yet. Anyone have any luck finding anything other than a “Google Drive is coming.” page?

Originally, Google didn’t have a compiled cloud service per se. Sure, emailing files to your own email account might have done the trick, but your content was probably evenly spread among Gmail, Google Docs, Picasa, Google Calendar and so on. Some may argue that separate content requires separate services, but Drive, like the One Ring to Rule Them All, will probably be the consolidating platform that unites them. Watch this space.

Apple iCloud

Image from http://www.apple.com/icloud/what-is.html 

I would consider iCloud to be more of a behind-the-scenes sort of restore tool. You hardly realise it’s there until you need to use it. It backs up your mail, contacts, calendar and is needed to use native applications such as Find My iPhone.

Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever used it much. Because Singapore doesn’t have access to the content on the Apple Online Store (music, movies and whatnot), there is no local option to backup such content on the cloud.

Amazon Cloud Drive

Image from https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore

This one’s a bit of a mystery since the online Amazon store is also not available in Singapore. A bit of an iCloud problem, if you could put it that way – why buy/use the service if you’re denied access to its repository of impressive content?

I managed to log in with my Amazon account, but was slightly disappointed by its lack of features. Like iCloud, this service is closely tied in to the company’sproducts, so I would suggest giving this 5GB a miss unless you own a Kindle.

Dropbox

Image from http://www.dropbox.com

The only service that isn’t tied in with a larger parent tech company, Dropbox has been around for a while and its strength lies in seamless syncing across various operating systems. There’s even a Public Folder option where you can generate a link to your uploaded files for public downloads. I’ve lost count of the times when I wanted to share a file quickly, then simply dragged and dropped and gotten an URL to copy and paste in a pinch.

The Good News

My advice? Why choose when you can literally have it all? Use SkyDrive for uploading photographs from your phone on the go, Dropbox for file-sharing with friends, Google for organising and editing group projects and Amazon Cloud Drive for… well, when you run out of free online storage space, I guess.

Remember to upgrade your Skydrive to 25GB for a limited time too!