And, also important, I can move away from a local machine and get free of all those files.

Backblaze is cloud-based backup of local storage. I agree that the retrieval step is a problem more than a benefit. Though in the short term, while much of my work is still in local files, the ability to retrieve is still somewhat a benefit rather than a burden.

But this depends on the apps obviously. Music can easily migrate to the cloud, and it’s pure annoyance that I have to recopy my files from laptop to laptop and onto each of my mobile devices. This is more a factor of how things work in the Apple ecosystem than preference. I also use disk for ripping Netflix disks to watch at my own convenience, but that’s only temporary while there’s a big gap between Netflix’ online and DVD catalogs. I love Google docs because I can view/edit anywhere, and my docs last. I have also been getting in the habit of mailing things that I want to keep to my gmail account. YouTube stores my videos but doesn’t edit them, and obviously only stores in a compressed/edited form.

Anyhow it seems clear to me that all the situations in which I still rely on local storage devices are in the process of becoming obsolete.

Cloud storage makes your content available everywhere on every device.

This is much better than pure backup which requires a manual retrieval step to gain access to your files.

I love Google Docs because it makes my documents available everywhere. I can view/edit my documents from anywhere. With MP3tunes (my co) I can listen to my music from anywhere. With picasa I can view my photos from everywhere. And youtube handles my videos.

– MR