Three Free Universal Must-Have Apps for Cloud Computing

We live in an age of technology that allows access to just about anything through an internet connection. Our resources are now virtually available online anytime. Most of us already do this to some degree with our web-based emails. We send files to ourselves to backup documents or to save the trouble of thumb drives. What if we could work onsite and save offsite without the hassle? Say bye to the thumb drive and paper & pen notebooks! These three apps will change the way we work with our data and hardware.

Dropbox
Dropbox is an easy way to sync, store and backup your files online and across computers. This is the solution for those of us who backup our documents in our emails so we don't have to rely on our USB drives. Best of all, you can access your files anywhere and share access to a unified document. It's a folder that sits on your pc and works like the folders you are already familiar with so there are no new or difficult interfaces to learn. You don't have to worry about backing up or syncing because it does it for you automatically to your Dropbox space online which you can access anywhere on the web-interface or at any PC you install it. You can also share files and photos with your friends and family as easy as 1-2-3. Dropbox offers 2gb of space for free which can be easily expanded to 3GB if you recommend it to your mates or a paid premium for 50gb or 100gb for a little bit more. [Dropbox]

Evernote
Evernote is the extension of your brain. It's is a cross-platform universal capture application that serves great as a bucket for those using GTD systems. Capture every idea, task, image, even Twitter messages on your iPhone, Blackberry or email. Then pull it up again on the web app or desktop application. What's useful is that you can tag it and search it. It will even find text in scanned and snapped images! Your information is accessible and searchable, anywhere, anytime. It's free to use for up to 40mb per month of upload space or 500mb at $5 a month or $45 a year. I use it mostly for text notes and have yet to come to 50% of my quota. That should tell you how much bandwidth you can use. [Evernote]

Crashplan
There are many backup apps available for PC and there's also Time Machine for the Mac users. But, I've yet to find something that works well on NAS systems so easily and freely, in both directions and saves off-site for free, but not just to some server across the world you'll never see but to one of your own choices so you feel more secure knowing where your data is. Those who enjoy cloud computing will share my frustration of not being able to back-up NAS server files on Time Machine - although it will allow back-ups to NAS servers, it doesn't work in the other direction. It will only recognize local directories to backup. Crashplan app is free to use on your own computers or to a friend's, across the street, across the country or around the globe. There are no CDs to burn or hard disk drives to mount. It quietly runs in the background securing and protecting your files to youR the PC of your choice. As it runs, it notes changes in your files and then backs them up once a day. With offsite backup, your data is always safe in case of fire or theft. If you backup your mate's data, you could be a hero some day! [Crashplan]