by Richard Stokes
It’s crazy to think that technology is supposed to make our lives simpler yet at times it can be very easy to make it more complicated. If you’re like me you bounce back and forth between lots of different devices: laptop, desktop, iPhone and iPad. One of my biggest challenges was basic document management. For a while I found myself either emailing documents to myself or moving them around using USB devices which leads to multiple copies of the same file and just a poor use of my time.
So I found myself looking for tools to keep things simple and hence more productive. Dropbox is one of these tools.
Dropbox is a simple web based file sharing and data storage solution that allows you to place electronic files in a central location so that they can be easily retrieved from just about anywhere.
When you first go to Dropbox you create an account that is tied to your email address and then follow the steps to load the Dropbox application onto all the devices you want to set up (I have it on my desktop, laptop and iPad).
Once it is in place an icon appears on each of your devices. From here you are ready to drag and drop electronic documents into the ‘box’. Because it is web based and the data is not actually stored locally on your device anything you put in there will also show up on all the devices you have it set up on, as long as you have an Internet connection.
Furthermore if you’re travelling and let’s say your iPhone dies, you can still get to your files by logging into the Dropbox website directly using your username and password.
Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that this is the solution to use to store all of your mission critical business data and I certainly wouldn’t suggest that it should replace any business class back-up or disaster recovery solutions you have in place. But for me it certainly has been a time saver. I use the starter package that is free and gives me 2GB of storage space, if you need more then there is a monthly fee.
Network 1 Consulting is a 14-year-old, IT Support company in Atlanta, GA. We become – or augment – the IT department for professional services companies: medical practices, law firms and financial services firms. Our IT experts can fix computers – but what our clients really value is the industry-specific best practices we bring to their firm. This is especially important with technology, along with regulations and cyber threats, changing so rapidly. We take a proactive approach to helping our clients use technology to gain and keep their competitive advantage.
