If you have visions of storing your Android device in a cloud, you need to come back down to earth. Cloud storage is a form of virtual storage for the data on your Android device. Virtual storage merely means that you are allocated a specific amount of space, without knowing the details of the storage platform. Cloud storage provide a number of services:

• Extend the storage capacity of your mobile device.
• Support document viewing, and editing.
• Streaming of audio and video files.
• Syncing of folders.
• Sharing of files and folders.
• Serve as a storage point for mobile device backups.

Following is a comparison of the top cloud servers for Android:

1. Dropbox was reviewed in a previous article. In summary, Dropbox provides 2 gigabytes of free space, with additional space granted for completing certain tasks, and inviting friends. Except for having a built-in editor for text files, Dropbox depends on other applications for viewing and editing files via Android share. It provides for automatic syncing of files on your PC, and automatic syncing of photos and videos from your mobile device’s camera. Dropbox allows sharing of files with anyone, and sharing of folders with other Dropbox users.
2. Google Docs is now Google Drive. The free service is for 5 gigabytes of space on Google Drive, 1 gigabyte for Picasa, and 10 gigabytes for Gmail. Google Drive does provide file syncing for PC and Macs. In regards to sharing features, Google Drive maintains the same features as Google Docs. Google Drive is still for documents, and the default editors are the Google Doc editors. However, apps, such as Kingsoft Office, see Google Drive as part of cloud storage.
3. Box no longer offers 50 gigabytes of free space. The free account now comes with just 5 gigabytes of free space, and a 100 megabyte file size limit. The unique feature about Box is the applications that it uses for managing files. These apps are not downloaded to your PC, or mobile device. Rather, they are remote apps that are run on the Box server. There are a number of free apps, and many more paid apps to extend the capabilities of Box. The Box for Android app is rather minimal in comparison with the Android apps from other cloud services.
4. SugarSync is different, in that you must install an application on one of the supported devices to open an account. Supported devices includes Windows PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows Phone 7. Once you have an account, you receive 5 gigabytes of free space. With an account, you can also access your files via a Web browser. I use this app as a means of providing cloud storage for my Nokia E5, as it is one of the few cloud services that support Symbian.
5. Drive Headquarters (DriveHQ) is one of the oldest cloud services, and I have used it for six years. I started using DriveHQ as a means of sharing files and folders with training co-workers. I have used it for file transferring between computers, and for backups. DriveHQ allows easy sharing of folders and files. If you do not want to share a folder, you can have someone upload a file into a Drop Box. In addition to the Web interface, DriveHQ provides software solutions for Windows, MAC, Linux, iPhone, Windows Phone 7, and Android. Besides being a good file manager, the Android app provides for streaming of music, has its own photo viewer, and can upload photos from the picture or camera. The default download directory is CloudStorage. Other than your storage limit, there is no file size limit.

Besides purchasing additional space from a particular cloud service, you can use multiple cloud services. The Sandisk Memory Zone app provides a means of managing Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Picasa, SugarSync, SkyDrive (Microsoft’s cloud service, for which there is no official Android app), and Facebook from a single app. The Sandisk Memory Zone app also provides a backup and restore feature. The major weakness of the app is that it ignores the file structure of the cloud storage. Instead, it divides files by categories: music, photos, videos, and documents.

If you have a Google account, then you might as well take advantage of Google Drive. When it comes to simplicity and flexibility, Dropbox is still number one. DriveHQ is a great service, with a lot of features. Its one weakness is the 1 gigabyte of storage. I use SugarSync as a way of sharing between my Symbian and Android devices. What makes all these services manageable is Sandisk Memory Zone.