When using an Apple device(s) the iCloud is built into all of the apps and it does bring a lot of benefit. When you setup your user identity on your iPhone/iPad you can use an existing email address (hotmail, aol, gmail etc) or setup a clean account with an Apple iCloud address. This creates the "cloud" point that the machines in the account use to sync and share stuff, as well as backup.
Whilst I will never say your data is safe I do believe that the Apple data protection policies are somewhat better than Google and Microsoft. By using iCloud you do get all the benefits of almost real time backup, sharing of notes, calendar etc. If you migrate to a new (apple) machine like a MacBook Neo it will almost perform a total self-setup and sync with your phone/pad when you enter your account.
I used to use Time Machine to backup to a Time Capsule but once I set up my iCloud account I've never needed to back up anything. Having everything available seamlessly on all devices is truly excellent. You can get an iCloud app for Windows, but TBH I find it's actually better to use Google drive to share stuff between the Mac and the Windows world.
