For point 2: prevents the problem you mentioned of a smaller company going bust and your data going poof through their cloud-but-not-really system. Basically it's a shared folder on your/others' PC that syncs almost instantly when anything changes. It's quite elegant, with a no-nonsense client. Definitely recommend it. I've been using it for years and very pleased with it.
The bad news: it's only free up to 2 GB. You can get a max free limit of 18 GB by signing up people as a referrer, though (500 MB per person). I suppose that could be done through making spam addressses and signing them up through your referall link, but they may check IP's. I dunno. At worst you can use it alongside google's cloud. Still, the cheapest membership is around 10 bucks a month (100 for a year) and gives a limit of 50 GB with +1 GB for every referred user. Not too shabby, and your information is more secure than in a third-party cloud.
If you're thinking of giving it a whirl, let me know so I can send you a referral link.
I could need 500 MB extra storage!