Cloud service providers

I have a 27" i Mac and a MacBook Pro. I want to put all my files on the cloud so I get rid of my external hard drives. What cloud providers are popular with Mac users and affordable?

Check out Dropbox, Box, Copy for starters for cloud storage. They all have plans that allows you to get a decent amount of space depending on what price you are willing to pay per month..

Depending on how much you have, you might want to look at some different options. For starters, how much data are you looking to backup? I ask because you say that you want to get rid of your externals and I'm going to guess that you have a lot of data to upload.

In addition to that, having all of your data solely on the cloud services might not be smart if they were to go down or have data loss for whatever reason.

Keeping good local backups is important, but if you want to have a handful of files ALSO on cloud services so that you can access them from anywhere, then that's a different story..

I'll second Raz0r's suggestion. It's nice to have a balance of both since they each offer advantages and disadvantages which, when used in tandem, offer a nice backup solution.

Even though I am a fan of cloud services, I think trying to keep all your data there is a fool's errand. For starters, your data is completely unavailable the moment you don't have power or Internet, for another it will be a very expensive proposition unless you really don't keep much data (and I suspect that's not the case as you have external drives in the first place).

There's definitely an advantage to having SOME of your data in the cloud; not only is it probably a more reliable backup than most users make, it's off-site, generally pretty secure and accessible from any internet-connected computer. But there are disadvantages beyond what I've already mentioned.

A more studied consideration of your work flow to determine the best candidates for file storage, combine with local storage, is still a wiser path on many fronts IMHO.

I think the best way to think of it is like this: if you need backed up data available everywhere, use an online storage service. If not, ask yourself if it's worth the effort (cost, time, etc.).

I'll add one thing to what you've already been told.... and that is with a lot of data (assuming you have lots of data) it will take forever to back it up to the cloud and likewise to download it if needed for recovery.