One thing about owning a tablet is that the hard-drive is very small and not able to hold much. Also, if you have a class that is using Android tablets, you will need to be able to access their work.  Saving to online storage or to the ‘cloud’ as it is called is the best option. Cloud storage was once a confusing technology but it is slowly becoming the norm. Basically, cloud storage is a term used to describe services that back up your files to a remote server owned by the cloud storage provider.

Here are a number of cloud storage apps that you might like to install on your Android tablet.

1. Google Drive

Google Drive is undoutedly the online storage leader and this should be your first and foremost storage app to install.

• .With Google Drive, you can store all your files in one place, so you can access them from anywhere and share them with others
• Use the Google Drive Android app to access your photos, documents, videos and other files stored on your Google Drive
• Upload files to Google Drive directly from your Android device
• Share any file with your contacts
• Access files others have shared with you on Google Drive
• Make any file available offline so you can view them even when you don’t have an Internet connection
• View Google presentations with full animations and speaker notes

2. Dropbox

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your Android device, and even the Dropbox website! 

With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go. Dropbox users are granted 2GB of free space initially with the ability to move up to as much as 16GB. Any type of file that is stored on a computer can be saved to Dropbox including Word documents, pictures, and even videos.

3. Box.net

With 10GB free, Box makes it easy to access and edit your files, share content and stay connected with your team from anywhere on any device.

• Share important files with your coworkers
• Have your presentation at your fingertips
• Access, view, edit, share and manage files directly on your Android phone or tablet
• Secure your content with file-level encryption, passcode and auto logout when the app is closed
• Upload multiple images, videos and files from your SD card
• Save files to your SD card for offline access
• Easily share files and folders with links

4. Microsoft’s SkyDrive

SkyDrive is another place to store your files so you can access them from virtually any device. With SkyDrive for Android, you get 7GB free storage. You can now easily access and share files on the go. You can also upload photos or videos from your phone to SkyDrive.

Features

• Access all of your SkyDrive content including files shared with you.
• View recently used documents.
• Choose multiple photos or videos to upload from your phone.
• Share your files and photos – send a link in email or in another app.
• Open your SkyDrive files in other Android apps.
• Manage your files – delete, or create new folders.

5. Ubuntu one

Ubuntu One gives you 5GB of free storage for all your files, photos and music, watch as they magically appear on all your devices. Ubuntu One works on Windows, iOS, Android, Ubuntu and via the web.

Why does a student using a tablet need to have access to cloud storage?

Students’s tablets often fill up really quickly with apps, documents, photos, and videos. In order to free up space, get your students sign up for a free cloud storage service starting with Google Drive. They can upload all their photos and videos to the service, and then delete the original copies off their tablet.  This frees up storage on the tablet but allows the students to still access the remote storage version of the files by using the app.

How can you manage all these cloud storage apps on your Android tablet?

I recently installed a free app called ScanDisk Memory Zone. This seems to be a a combination of a File manager + Cloud storage manager + Data protector + Backup utility. This app keeps a check on your online storage availability and you can instantly access files from Dropbox, Picasa, Facebook and much more. Files can be transferred to any other cloud storage by using its move functionality. I am looking forward to exploring the potential of this app.