Data Backup Digest

Cloud storage services aren’t exactly hard to come by nowadays. Now there’s another offering on the market: MediaFire.

For those who aren’t sure what a cloud service does, it allows you to access all your data wherever you are. You sync everything to the cloud and it’s automatically updated across all your devices. This means that if an important work document is stored on your computer at home, you’ll have no trouble accessing it through your phone. And any changes you make on the phone will then be updated on the computer too.

MediaFire has been around in some shape or form since 2006, but they’ve only recently begun to offer their services in the cloud. The company owns all of its own servers and network infrastructure, which allows the firm to undercut competitors such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.

A lot of cloud services rely on Amazon Web Services for their offerings, but not MediaFire – in fact, they claim that their service is more secure than competitors. MediaFire claim that AWS is cost prohibitive and a potential risk to security and privacy.

“Data is securely stored on our own equipment which we maintain direct physical control over as opposed to being stored on a 3rd party service,” said Derek Labian, CEO and founder of MediaFire. “We never have and never will share user data with any 3rd party service. Unlike Google, we do not mine your data in or order to show you contextual advertising.”

MediaFire allows users to share their data with others to make collaboration easy. Users can control who can edit or view their content and invite others to connect with the service. Of course, this can all be tracked. An activity feed keeps track of everything that goes on in the account, including updates to files or new files uploaded, meaning that there is always a record of what’s going on in the account.

For a limited time, new users can sign up and get 1TB of storage space for just $2.50 a month. That will normally cost $5, so if that deal sounds inviting then get signing up soon to make the most of it. Users can sign up for a full year at the discounted pricing in order to lock it in, even once the promotion period has passed.

For those who don’t want to pay, there’s a chance to get up to 50GB of free space. The accounts come with 10GB of space to begin with, which can then be upgraded through downloading the mobile app, desktop app and linking your account to Twitter or Facebook.

“This should get users up to the 25GB mark, the rest can be collected through signing up friends,” said Brent Brucci, a spokesman for MediaFire. “I understand that this is a complicated process, and we are looking to phase it out over time, however, it does encourage consumers to use their cloud storage in a 'social' manner, which makes them more likely to sign up for a paid account.”