“Can I really trust the cloud?
My storage capacity is full, and I don’t know what to do to expand it, who to trust to do that, how much is the expected/normal price to pay for an expanded storage, and what is safe to save there.
Since I don’t understand the cloud at all, I don’t know how to use it to access all the documents I might need wherever I am.”

---

That is a very appropriate question to ask, and I appreciate that you do because it tells me that you do care what happens to your data – whether it is a personal or business data.
The very fact that you are asking this question already reveals that you actually don’t trust it. Yet, you are confronted with many messages that are often times subconsciously delivered, messages that try to convince or seduce you to use the cloud for exactly that purpose.

So, What do You do?

My answer: you’ve got to use consideration!

Please be advised that I am injecting a little bit of personal opinion here.

Why would you want to use cloud services? Ask yourself, what are the services that are important to you that require cloud access?
Your question is more centered around the issue of storing your computer’s data in the cloud than using the cloud for business performance improvements. So I will respond to that facet of cloud usage.

Can You Trust the Cloud?

If you are thinking about outsourcing your computer’s data into the cloud, I would advise you to think twice. It isn’t a good reason to move your data into the cloud just because your hard drive is out of space.

However, I can think of many situations where I found it myself tremendously helpful being able to access one document or the other I had stored in the cloud when working on or in my business. So, your question has indeed some practical elements.

We all know that in the recent past there were incidents of hackers breaking into secured databases and capturing the sensitive data belonging to millions of users. I see no reason to assume that this will never happen again.

“In the past, one of the primary concerns about the cloud was reliability.
Today, its primary concern is security.”

An Alternative Strategy

Should you really consider moving your data into the cloud, you shouldn’t do it because you are running out of hard drive space. To tackle this issue, I recommend you start a process of relocating your data to an external hard drive and developing the habit of making regular backups, if you haven’t done so already. This way, you not only free up space on your computer and improve its performance, but you also get some of the pressure you’re feeling right now to do something with your data off your shoulder.

You also get some time to think about a strategy to apply, that not only lets your data be safe, but also allows for some margin to decide which data would be beneficial to be stored in the cloud when working on your business for access from anywhere.

Conclusion

When wondering whether you can trust the cloud in storing you data, don’t take it as your only option. Some files that could potentially help you in your business to work faster or more efficiently and do not contain highly sensitive information, you can of course store as copies in the cloud. Otherwise, you may want to use a rather conservative approach.