How good is iDrive? What features does it offer, and how does it implement security
and privacy? Find out everything in this comprehensive iDrive review.
Also, we will show you how to get a special 50 percent discount on iDrive.
including a special 65 percent discount on our highest-rated cloud storage service. So, watch
this video till the end and don’t go anywhere. But before we begin, we ask for a small favour.
Our team spent a lot of time and effort into creating this video. You would be
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We really need your support to continue our work, so please go ahead and press the like button.
And which cloud storage solution is your pick, and why? Let us know in the comments down below.
We will reply to your comment -- that’s a promise. It’s often said that technology is a gift that
keeps on giving, and no truer words have ever been spoken. If you thought hard-drive
storage was impressive, you are certain to find cloud storage even more outstanding.
The way it works is almost miraculous, in fact. With most people now working remotely
and on-the-go due to the on-going pandemic, everybody seems to have turned to cloud storage.
And rightly so. In fact, it shouldn’t be surprising at all. With its ability to help
you store, access, and share your important files anywhere, cloud storage is clearly head
and shoulders above all other forms of storage. Reliable sources indicate that almost 82 percent
of the workload is currently stored on the cloud. Besides, 60 percent of organizations
utilize cloud storage for the storage of their confidential data. These figures indicate that
the cloud storage solution has almost rendered the traditional storage methods obsolete.
However, due to the storage solution's name, you may be wondering if it's really possible to store
files up in the sky. But that's not exactly how it works, even though icloud literally means the sky.
In this framework, cloud storage means online storage, and since the internet is accessible from
anywhere around the world, so is cloud storage. This means, whether you are on a train or the
mountain, you can work, edit, or even collaborate with your colleagues.
As long as the internet is available, it makes collaboration completely effortless.
With cloud storage and similar solutions, it's only a matter of time before physical
collaboration becomes a thing of the past. That said, it should also be noted that many
companies provide cloud storage services nowadays, ranging from free options to premium ones. And,
while it’s always tempting to opt for the free options, we wouldn’t recommend that.
Apart from being too limited, they can also be unreliable, as most of them can't afford to use
reliable encryption methods. Therefore, instead of constantly worrying about your confidential
data's safety, it's much safer and more reassuring to choose a premium option.
To help you choose the right cloud storage provider for your needs, we have conducted
thorough research, which led us to iDrive, one of the world's best cloud storage providers.
In this video, we will be reviewing iDrive in-depth, detailing all its features and services.
As usual, our review will focus on some important factors. Let’s quickly discuss
them to help you understand better. The first factor is features – Here,
we will be discussing the various features that come with this cloud service solution.
The second factor is security - This is important since the primary function of
a cloud service provider is to keep and protect your important data.
Privacy is the third factor – Since many companies around the world today maintain
privacy-invading policies, it’s essential to know iDrive’s stance on privacy.
The fourth factor is the interface – In this section,
we will look at how intuitive and user-friendly iDrive’s interface is.
Your ideal cloud storage provider shouldn’t only be functional, but it should also be easy to use.
Then, we have customer support – No matter how experienced you are with cloud storage,
you could still require the developer’s help. This section helps review how
iDrive performs in the way of support. The sixth factor is pricing - The world’s
best companies prioritize value for money by offering reasonable plans that provide a
lot of practicality. Thus, this section looks at the different plans on offer.
on a related note, to help our viewers choose the best cloud storage service for their various
needs, we have tested and reviewed almost all the top cloud storage services in the world.
Overall, we believe pCloud is the best option - thanks to its frill of awesome features,
solid encryption, and easy-to-use clients. And best of all,
it offers incredible value for money. Also, The Cyber Lab viewers can get a
special 65 percent discount on pCloud. All you have to do is to click the official link we have
added in the description box down below, and this discount will be automatically applied.
But keep in mind that this offer is only available for a limited time, so hurry up!
Icedrive is our second-best pick, while iDrive ranks third on our list. We have also added
discounted links for both of these services in the description section of this video.
Now back to the review. First of all,
let's look at the different basic and advanced features built into iDrive.
While iDrive’s personal plan offers literally every other feature you may be looking for in
a cloud storage solution, it lacks unlimited storage space. To their credit, iDrive plans
come with large storage spaces, but most people would have loved the unlimited option on the
personal plan. That apart, there’s literally every feature you might be looking for here.
For example, it comes with Snapshots, which allows users to store as many as 30 various versions
of their files. Then there is iDrive express. This feature is especially helpful to creatives
as it helps solve a common problem they often face when initially uploading their multimedia files.
Unsurprisingly, uploading your files as a creative may take several weeks.
To help avoid that, iDrive will ship a physical storage device to you, which you’ll also ship
back after uploading all the multimedia files onto it directly from your computer.
Once they receive the device, the company will then upload all the data on your iDrive account.
Another nice feature you will find on iDrive is the Archive Cleanup feature. To ensure that
when some folders or files are locally deleted, they are also deleted from your cloud storage for
space economy, iDrive creates a match with your local files. You can choose to do this manually,
or you could set it up to be done periodically. However, we advise you to carefully revise
what the system can delete before choosing this option. Then, apart from these obvious features,
there are some less obvious features, especially when you look at the solution from the surface.
Such features include the way iDrive helps economize bandwidth usage by modifying
parts of data, the way they keep your data until you specifically choose to delete it,
and the wide set of reports and logs you can access. Additionally, If you need multiple user
management, it’s also effortless to set up. Another useful option, in our opinion,
is the ability to back up a limitless number of devices to a single iDrive account. If necessary,
you can back up files from mapped network drives as well. Meanwhile, the iDrive portal
is extremely straightforward, making it easy to manage multiple devices simultaneously.
Apart from the regular features that are available to everybody,
there are many features designed for organizations with more complex and more extensive requirements.
Such features include server cloud backups covering Oracle, Sharepoint, Linux, Exchange
Server, MS SQL, etc. There is bare-metal disaster recovery also, as well as new data standards.
Thanks to its plethora of high-quality features, iDrive gets a perfect 5 out of 5 in this category.
Since the security of your data is one of the core responsibilities of iCloud
storage solutions, our next focus is security. First of all, let’s establish that iDrive doesn’t
take security with levity hands. However, it uses closed-source software, which means there’s no way
to autonomously check for backdoors or flaws in the software or verify the data iDrive supplies.
This is not reassuring at all, especially when you consider that the company is based in the United
States. The United States’ government is reputable for its lack of respect for user privacy,
with its various privacy-intruding policies. For encryption, iDrive offers two primary options,
which are standard encryption and end-to-end encryption. While the former allows the company
to create and keep your encryption key, the latter allows you to create and keep your key. However,
it’s a little suspicious that end-to-end encryption isn’t set to default.
While it’s convenient that you can allow the service provider to set an encryption key for you
by default with the standard encryption, it means the company can read your files if it wishes to,
or even divulge your private information to the government if they are compelled to.
On the other hand though, If you allow the company to set your encryption key,
you will be able to recover your account should you forget or lose your key. Alternatively,
you can use end-to-end encryption, which means the encryption key will only be known by you. The
catch here, however, is that the key won’t be able to help you if you lose or forget your secret key.
Therefore, a user must keep a copy of their key in a safe and secure place.
Although you will have to come to terms with not being able to share your files and folders, that’s
the price you have to pay for using a private encryption key. It’s a little disappointing,
but that’s how it works with iDrive. On the upside, iDrive adopts AES 256-bit
encryption to secure your data at rest and during transfer. This makes the cloud storage service
much safer than many of its rivals that do not encrypt users’ data during transfer.
Another advantage of using this solution is that they store your files on numerous data centers
all over the United States. With this, you can be confident that your data will remain secure,
even if one server or a whole data center suddenly fails.
From all indications, iDrive prioritizes security,
so it earns 4 out of 5 marks in this category, slightly missing out on the full marks.
That takes us to security’s closest sibling, Privacy. Both features actually go hand-in-hand,
so let’s look at how iDrive fares when it comes to privacy.
As we already mentioned, iDrive operates in the US. This is not a good sign as the country has
built a reputation for performing international and domestic mass surveillance. Besides,
the country often targets technology companies that claim to offer privacy to their customers.
As long as a company is based in the United States, government agencies can easily compel it
to hand over its customer’s data. They only need a relevant legal instrument like the Patriot Act,
FISA, or a National Security Letter with an accompanying gag order.
But this shouldn’t matter if you choose to use end-to-end encryption, as this means the company
itself won’t be able to read your data. However, we still can’t be certain of what the service
is doing since it uses closed-source software. While there are lots of metadata to sort through,
iDrive, through its privacy policy, states that it gathers users’ personal data and records sessions.
However, it’s mostly insignificant data, like address, name, payment info, browser type,
IP address, device name, size of upload packets, and data and session times.
According to them, they only collect this data to improve their services,
personalize users’ experience, and communicate more effectively with them.
While, on the surface, iDrive’s privacy policy seems alright,
users need to be aware that the provider is required by law to get rid of the encryption
from files and folders before handing them over to government agencies if lawfully obliged.
To sum up our findings for this category, we don’t regard iDrive highly when it comes to privacy,
thanks to the invasive policies of the US governments. Therefore, it only scores 3
out of 5 when it comes to privacy. Next, we will look at the interface.
Interestingly, iDrive offers compatible apps for the most relevant platforms, including Windows,
macOS, iOS, and Android. It must be said, however, that the most remarkable clients in terms of
features and elegance are the desktop apps. Depending on your preference, iDrive can back
up your whole phone or hard drive or only specific folders and files. You can also
set the backup to either run on a schedule or manually. Everything is literally automated
with all the clients, making iDrive one of the most intuitive cloud storage providers around.
Another feature that aids user-friendliness is the sync feature that allows you to synchronize
folders between different devices. Everything is easy to do, thanks to the intuitive menus
that make it effortless to create your desired configurations. You can literally do anything on
the clients without being overly experienced with smart devices or modern innovations.
We also believe it’s impressive that iDrive clients are replete with settings. For instance,
the desktop client comes with controls for data verification, folder and file exclusion,
bandwidth throttling, and more. Meanwhile, the android app allows
you to back up everything on your phone, from your contacts to your messages. You can
also pause backups if your device’s battery level has dropped below a particular level.
It’s also worth adding that backing up files and restoring them do not take time at all,
especially if the files are not heavy. If you experience any problems related to speed,
it’s most likely not from iDrive. As we said, the apps are easy to understand and navigate, and the
interface is user-friendly. Within a couple of minutes, you would have understood everything.
In this category, iDrive scores a perfect 5 out of 5, thanks to its flawless performance.
That takes us to customer support, which is an important part of every cloud storage service.
Good customer support is fundamental to a cloud service provider.
Thankfully, this company has an incredible tech support team, filled with knowledgeable
and friendly agents who are always ready to help resolve your problems as fast as possible.
You can reach the company via three main channels: live chat support, 24/7 phone support,
and email support. Furthermore, the company also offers different support resources, such as video
tutorials that cover all tips and features about the usage of the service. The video tutorials
especially help users learn how to exploit the plethora of features in the best way possible.
Additionally, the company provides a knowledge base packed with FAQs and
blogs to answer some of the most complicated cloud-related questions. On top of that,
there is a step-by-step wizard that walks you through how to create the first backup. New users
will especially find this really helpful. In the customer support category,
iDrive again bags all the points. Finally, we will review the different
plans offered by iDrive and their prices. iDrive offers a free plan, but that’s not
really the impressive part in itself, as most cloud service providers do that.
However, in an extremely generous move by the company, the free plan comes with 5GB of storage,
which is more than what most of their rivals offer. By contrast, Dropbox’s
free plan comes with only 2GB of storage. There are several different plans available
for paid users, depending on whether you are a single user or a company. The plans are grouped
into three main categories, called Personal, Team, and Business. For the personal category,
you can either choose a 5TB-plan that costs $69.5/year or a 10TB-plan that costs $99.5/year.
The Team category offers different plans that range from 5TB to 50TB for $99.50 to
$999.50 per year. Meanwhile, the Business category’s plans range from 500GB to 50TB
while allowing unlimited users and devices. The prices range from $199.50 to $799.50.
Of course, the stipulated prices may vary depending on the duration for which you sign up,
and we didn’t consider the different special deals and offers that the company periodically runs.
In fact, you may find lower prices on their website if you check it now.
If you have a large enterprise, we recommend a business account instead of a personal one.
Business accounts come with additional features like multiple user management,
VIP support, and server backups. In the pricing category,
iDrive, again, bags all the points. To sum up, there’s no doubt that iDrive
is one of the best cloud storage providers out there. However, the company is located
in the United States, which is not ideal. If iDrive tickles your fancy, see the
official links we have added down below for an amazing 50 percent discount on this service.
Right now, we believe pCloud is the best of the bunch. With its frill of awesome features,
unbreakable encryption, easy-to-use clients, and competitive pricing,
there is no doubt in our minds that pCloud is the best cloud storage service out there.
Also, The Cyber Lab viewers can get a special 65 percent discount on pCloud. All you have to
do is to click the official link we have added in the description box down below,
and this discount will be automatically applied. But keep in mind that this offer
is only available for a limited time, so hurry up! With that, we have reached the end of the video,
and we’d like to thank you for following us through. Now,
it’s over to you. We’d like to know your feedback,
so let us know in the comments section what you think of iDrive. We will reply to your comment.
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