Top 5 Storage Apps for People On the Go

Storage Week 2014

Anyone that has stored anything anywhere has wished they could get access from somewhere else. The cloud and the browser have made those wishes come true, and the tablet and smartphone have extended them to ubiquity. Here's a look at some cool smartphone apps for storage, including some made by NAS companies as they get into the act. It's part of Storage Week 2014.

Dropbox Carousel

Forget the "drop Dropbox" campaign; the company's latest app is a keeper. In early April, Dropbox started up Carousel for Android and iOS, which provides a private way to display and share photos and videos without attaching them to an email. Carousel acts like the camera's own photo roll, sorting digital assets by date and permitting them to be shared individually or as collections of images with anyone in the contact list. Each share also gets a text thread. Photos on the device are synced with the Dropbox account, which acts as an automatic backup.

SurDoc

If lots of free storage of relatively static data is what's needed, SurDoc might be just the ticket. This easy-to-use document management and viewing app for Android and for iOS supports Office, PDF and other file formats, and includes 100 GB of free cloud storage. A component for desktop and browser clients make it easy to initially populate the cloud account with files. The free version limits file size to 10 MB for viewables, 5 GB for binaries, and viewing activity to 30 docs a month.

pCloud

If restrictions on file size or activity are deal-breakers, pCloud for Android and for iOS has none, and offers as much as 20 GB of storage for free. It also provides real-time PC sync, offline access, easy file sharing with contacts, no speed limit on file I/O, and a way to let contacts upload files of any size without having a pCloud account. Pay plans start at $50 per year for 100 GB and max out at $500 for 1 TB.

Disk & Storage Analyzer

When it's time for some spring cleaning on a mobile device, Disk & Storage Analyser for Android could be the perfect helper. This free tool visualizes data stored internally, on SD card and any external USB or other devices in a clear, orderly manner. Stored data is indexed and displayed on interactive charts and lists divided by file characteristic. Tapping drills into individual folders and files. Sort files by size, category (audio, doc, image, video, etc.) or type (mp3, ogg, wav, etc.).

Storage Calculator

How much storage does an app and its users need on that new RAID array being configured by the IT department? Storage Calculator for Android has the answer. Designed with storage architects in mind, this free app calculates the amount of raw, usable, mean-time-to-data-loss (mttdl) and I/O overhead involved with any type of RAID. Storage Calculator factors in bandwidth and data transfer rates, and reports the actual amount a drive is capable of safely storing.

Be sure to look for more Storage Week 2014 coverage from the CRN Test Center.