Want to back up all your electronic files and wondering how? Digital lockers are one option you can explore. As a part of its e-governance initiatives, the Government of India recently launched the beta version of a digital locker facility for citizens and Government departments that is based on the Aadhaar.

Once various government departments go live on this platform, you will be able to access official documents such as your tax returns, birth certificates, school leaving certificates and so on using just your Aadhar number! No need for files, photocopies or worrying about lost or damaged certificates.

Private services If you already have music, video and photo files that you treasure clogging up your PC, private players such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google provide cloud-based storage facilities for a nominal fee.

How much does it cost to get one? Google’s cloud storage provides you up to 1GB storage for an annual fee of just $0.26 (₹16). Microsoft’s Azure costs less than $0.29 annually for 1GB storage, in case you need storage space less than a terabyte. If you have more data to store, the cost per gigabyte works out even cheaper at just $0.28.

Amazon offers free storage services for a period of 12 months after which you can choose from its varied product range. Amazon’s S3 costs $0.36 per annum for storage up to 1GB.

Typically, costs for such cloud-based services hinge on the backup systems in place.

When you store files on cloud-based storage platforms, multiple copies are made just in case the original data is lost due to a natural calamity.

Microsoft, for instance, offers a zone redundancy storage (ZRS) facility, wherein three copies of the documents/files are stored across multiple data centres. Azure’s ZRS costs $0.36 per year if you want up to one gigabyte of storage space.

Amazon, by default, stores the data in multiple centres in a specific region, which justifies the premium pricing compared to Microsoft and Google. However, if the data stored is not very critical, you can opt for Amazon’s reduced redundancy storage facility, which is cheaper than the standard version, costing $ 0.29 per annum.

You can also transfer the data from the cloud platform to the internet or other storage devices at a nominal fee. Amazon’s S3 allows you to transfer up to 1 GB a month for free.

These service providers allow you to access and modify these files for a fee.

Amazon allows you to make 1,000 such operations for $0.005 for data up to one terabyte.

Bank e-lockers Electronic files are fine but what about actual documents such as say, your land deeds or the documents relating to home ownership? Well, banks such as ICICI Bank for instance offer an e-locker facility. The bank provides e-locker service for free to its Privilege Banking and Wealth Management customers.

Documents in pdf and jpg format only can be stored here, unlike in the case of cloud-based lockers where there is no restriction on the file type. Though you can store documents up to 1GB in ICICI Bank’s e-locker, the maximum size per file cannot exceed 10 MB.

How do these service providers ensure data security? For instance, Amazon’s S3 stores objects in encrypted form, which ensures that even an Amazon internal service architecture can’t read your data. Despite the multiple checks put in place by these companies, security threats continue to evolve, given that these are accessible around the globe.

But if you are apprehensive about keeping critical documents in a private e-locker, the Aadhaar-linked digital locker may be the ideal choice. The Government launched the beta version last month. Live release of the locker is expected to happen later this year.

With an Aadhaar-linked e-locker, you can maintain all Government documents such as your passport, tax filings, birth certificates, etc, in one place.

The big advantage with the Aadhaar-linked locker is that the documents kept in electronic form by various Government departments can be linked to your e-locker. To try the beta version, all you need to do is log into the digital locker portal — http://digitallocker.gov.in/ — and sign up for the facility using your Aadhaar number and mobile number. After using the beta version, you can submit your feedback and suggestions to the Government on or before April 10, 2015.

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