Cloud services are incredibly convenient and can also be a great cost saving measure. But you shouldn’t blindly place trust in cloud services without doing some research first.

If you are considering using a cloud service, I would strongly advise finding the answers to the following questions before signing on the dotted line.

Is it for personal or business?
There are plenty of free options, but you need to determine which is the most reliable and secure, especially if your business will depend on it.

What are you storing and why?
The different cloud services that are currently available offer a variety of features and options that may be better suited to a particular need.

What sort of encryption is available?
Does the cloud storage service offer encryption? If the provider is hacked, your data will be vulnerable. So if they don’t offer encryption then you might want to encrypt your vital documents before uploading

Does the service offer extra security?
Where possible use additional security features like two-factor authentication and login notifications to ensure you have the added layer of security to prevent unwanted breaches.

Do you have adequate backups?
Don’t rely on a single backup, especially for your critical files. You should also backup regularly.