![]() ![]() Offering networked storage, VPNs, and collaborative tools like SharePoint can help to alleviate the problem, but these services often lack the automation, reliability, and simplicity that end-users demand. The rise of cloud services and the bring-your-own-device phenomenon have only reinforced the need to have access to everything from anywhere at all times. Helpdesk and IT support staff should find this scenario familiar: a user with a desktop, a laptop, a netbook, a smartphone, and a computer or two at home wants a way to keep their files synchronized across all of them at all times. iCloud for Windows 2.0: An improvement, but not much has changed.Create your own local Dropbox with AeroFS.HP's ElitePad 900 wants to bring Windows 8 to your business.Review: Free, open source VirtualBox lags behind VMware and Parallels.Take Your Kindle To Work Day? First glance at Amazon's Whispercast.He acknowledged that eventually “some get gobbled up and go away. Robertson, whose company is based in Palo Alto, Calif. “If you take search or e-mail, or any feature where you have new products in the marketplace, you have a while before each one finds its uniqueness,” said Mr. Focusing on security will help set his company apart from rivals, he said. Schmidt, Google’s chairman and former chief executive.īrad Robertson, chief executive of Cx.com, which has around 200,000 users and which is free as it tests its service, said he was not intimidated by all the competition. Cx.com, another service, premiered in January with financing from TomorrowVentures, a venture capital company controlled by Eric E. Two months ago, Amazon introduced Cloud Drive for storing all kinds of files, including digital music. The field is flooded with competitors in part because no one company has a clear advantage in the market, which spans both consumers and business customers. “I have five or six laptops, and they are totally interchangeable,” he said. Houston says he saves nearly everything to Dropbox including copies of his driver’s license and passport. Those blocks are then individually encrypted in storage. After reaching their destination, those files are divided into discrete blocks, no bigger than a few megabytes. Files saved with Dropbox are encrypted during transmission to ’s servers, which the company leases. In general, Dropbox likens its protections to what banks and the military use. However, the company, like any other, must turn over data if it is legally required to do so. ![]() Houston called the criticism a “rite of passage” and emphasized that Dropbox takes security very seriously, including prohibiting employees from rooting through user files. Dropbox’s employees could get access to unencrypted files, he said, and he accused the company of failing to disclose this. Hamilton.Ī security expert did recently complain to the Federal Trade Commission about how Dropbox encrypted files on its service. “I wouldn’t want to put anything with a Social Security number on a cloud-based storage service,” said Mr. While there are no known cases of purloined or exposed documents on these services, well-publicized hackings and thefts at big companies like Sony, RSA Security and the e-mail marketing firm Epsilon Data Management worry the late adopters. George Hamilton, an analyst with Yankee Group, said that online storage largely appealed to tech-oriented consumers, although it has been gaining more mainstream adoption recently.īut one thing still gives most consumers the willies: security. Box.net says it has six million users while Mozy says it has three million. Dropbox stores 100 billion files on its servers. “You don’t have to worry that you have some files on your Mac, some stuff on your work computer and then some more on your iPhone.”Ī growing number of people believe him. “Our vision is to simplify millions of peoples’ lives,” said Drew Houston, chief executive of Dropbox, where 25 million users upload files at the rate of 300 million a day. “There ended up being a tremendous amount of interest.” Then count smartphones and tablets, and it’s not hard to get to a large number of machines. If that seems to be a lot, think about this: a person may have a home computer and a work computer, and other members of the family may each have computers. Just under 3 percent, or 4.5 million people, have at least nine different gadgets. Nearly 60 percent of adults with online access own at least two Internet connected devices, according to Forrester Research. What’s changed is that more people have discovered a need for them.Īaron Levie, chief executive of Box.net, an early online storage company based in Palo Alto, Calif., said that the increased adoption of mobile devices and ubiquity of online connections had created a bigger need for companies like his. And online backup or storage services like MobileMe from Apple, Windows Live SkyDrive from Microsoft, Mozy from EMC and SugarSync are now familiar. ![]()
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