For many of us, 'cloud computing' is a nebulous concept, but with its slated Apple-isation, excited tech experts say it's time to embrace the future

Apple turned heads recently with the announcement of its new iCloud service, which is slated to provide online storage and allow you to sync your files and data across many of Apple's popular gadgets and computers. But it isn't a reality yet. While iCloud will no doubt appeal to die-hard Apple fans, much of what it is set to offer is already available from a number of cloud-based offerings.

Get acquainted with these now, and you'll know whether iCloud is worth waiting for, or whether you can jump on another cloud and let Apple take its time in rolling out its latest headline grabber.

Amazon.com has been in the cloud business for a long time now. Its Simple Storage Service (S3) offering, in fact, has been available since 2006. The catch: it was primarily targeted at businesses or power users. 
Now, with Cloud Drive (https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive), Amazon has a fully-fledged consumer-oriented offering that's both easy to use and free. The 'free' part includes 5 gigabytes (GB) of online storage, which you can use for backing up or synchronising your existing files. 
The 'easy' part means that, for anyone who has ever purchased anything at Amazon, signing up is a two-click process. Once your Cloud Drive is activated, another click allows you to start uploading files.

As you might expect, Amazon has also worked to integrate Cloud Drive with its store to provide additional features to Cloud Drive users. For instance, if you purchase MP3 files from Amazon, you can save those purchases to your Cloud Drive so that they're available where you are. You can also set up Cloud Drive to back up your purchased files automatically. A free Cloud Player app will search for and allow you to upload your excising MP3 files as well.

Also, if you shop at Amazon anyway, additional Cloud Drive incentives await you. The purchase of an MP3 album, for example, automatically nets you an increase in storage space to 20GB for one year. If you don't purchase anything the following year, your storage limit goes back to 5 GB.

What Amazon's Cloud Drive lacks, Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com) has loads of. For starters, Dropbox, like Apple's iCloud, is designed as much with synchronisation in mind as it is with storage. Upload music, files and videos to your Dropbox space and you can make those files available to your notebook, computer, or phone – wherever you are.

Dropbox sets up a special Dropbox folder on any device that it's installed on. It then works in the background to make sure any files uploaded to your Dropbox account are available on all of your devices. A 'public folder' option allows you to share files with others who don't use Dropbox. It offers a free account option that comes with 2GB of online storage, while a Pro option increases storage space to 50GB and a Pro100 plan provides 100GB. Dropbox is compatible with both PCs and Macs, and it works with most smartphones and Android.

Microsoft's Live SkyDrive (http://explore.live.com/windows-live-skydrive) cloud offering is compelling for anyone who uses Windows or any other Microsoft product. Like other cloud services, SkyDrive offers storage – and lots of it. The basic free account provides a generous 25GB of space and 5GB of that can be used, in conjunction with the free Windows Live Mesh application, for synchronisation of files across devices. A benefit of using SkyDrive is it comes with free access to Microsoft's Office web apps, which include online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Getting started with SkyDrive could hardly be easier. Those who already have a Hotmail or other Windows Live account merely need to log on to the SkyDrive site. Uploading of files takes place via the web browser, although on the internet there are easy-to-find instructions for mapping your SkyDrive to Windows Explorer for easier file operations.

So what exactly will Apple's iCloud bring to the table that these other offerings do not? Tight integration with Apple's devices and services is the primary answer. With existing cloud-based offerings, though, you can do much of what iCloud promises – and you can do it today. At the very least, signing up for one or more of these best-of-breed cloud services will get you acquainted with the concept of cloud computing, which is destined to be with us for some time to come.