If you work remotely from laptops and other mobile computers, online backup can be a very neat way of managing your data, the software utility can be set up to automatically upload any files you change onto the server, where it can be easily downloaded by other computers with access permission. Providing a very cool way of synchronise your data between computers.

What’s particularly great is that you don’t need to spend money on online backup services, although many of the leading providers have paid plans, they also offer a lower capacity free services which are large enough to hold important projects and documents.

What particularly great about online backup is that you can work from any of your computers and laptops, and you don’t have to worry about versioning issues or file management as the software takes care of that for you. It’s also a very good safety net in case you lose your laptop, because at least your data is saved, a laptop can be replaced, data cannot.

1. Google Docs

If you haven’t investigated Google docs by now you’re seriously missing out. Google docs is a great place to store office documents, and not only is it a great storage solution, but it also allows you to collaborate with other users to gain their contributions such as co-workers or clients, additionally Google Docs is completely cloud based meaning that the master files are stored online, and you can do everything that you normally do on your desktop, expect with Google Docs you use it through a web browser.

Recently Google has made it possible to use Google Docs offline, through the web browser using the internet cache. This is great if you happen to be lumbered with an unreliable wifi connection.

2. Sugar Sync

Sugar Sync launched in 2004, with the primary aim of being both an online backup and online storage provider. Its key feature is the ability to synchronise data between computers very fast, making it a perfect tool for gadget wizards with multiple computers. Additionally it supports Mac, PC, Android and iPhone. It hosts a variety of different data sharing features as well as online access to your digital library through a web browser, if you happen to be away from your computer.

What’s particularly interesting is the fact that Sugar Sync offers 5GB of online storage absolutely free, and you can gain 500mb more each time you refer another user to the service, if the referrals sign up to a paid plan then you get 10GB more for free.

3. Adrive

If the storage quotas on the above two services don’t suit your needs you may be interested in Adrive, it offers 50GB of online storage absolutely free. This is plenty of space to store all your documents, music, small software and perhaps small video files as well.

While the storage service was great, I found the software to be a bit buggy, and because it didn’t support automatic synchronisation or uploading/downloading, it was a bit more difficult to use. I would have preferred it to work like SugarSync, working away in the background rather than requiring my intervention.