Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, right? Then why do I wake up with chills wondering whether I’m going to lose some really valuable files or worse still, that I have already lost some critical files to a dysfunctional hard drive or a chaotic desktop?
Ivan: This is a typical case of “file storage upsetus,” and to be honest, this is a condition that I have suffered from as well. As a knowledge worker, I create hundreds of files each week, and keeping track of them all, never mind ensuring they’re properly backed up, is a major challenge. What if suddenly I couldn’t get access to my Gmail or Google docs? That’s a decade of work lost.
Cyri: Truth be told, I used to be a card-carrying member of File Chaos Anonymous. I have tried many times to kick the habit of just saving everything to my desktop. After a lot of therapy, I can now say with confidence that I can sleep at night knowing my files are safe. My websites are being properly backed up, my family photos are in multiple locations and I can find my files thanks to some powerful file-storage and sharing medicine: Box.net, DropBox, Google Cloud and Microsoft’s Skydrive.
Ivan: My personal journey started with Box.net, one of the pioneering services, and then I moved on to DropBox for its synchronization features.
Cyri: I’m more of a Googleholic and use its Google Cloud service, although I must say I’m really impressed with Microsoft’s SkyDrive service. You get 25 gigabytes of free storage space.
Ivan: With Internet Explorer 9, you can even pin SkyDrive to your Windows 7 taskbar. It’s just a single click away from saving and sharing documents. But deep down I’m also addicted to Google. You just get two gigabytes of free storage space, but extra storage is cheap medicine: $5 per year for 20 gigabytes and you can even get a terabyte of storage for $256 per year if you have a really big file storage habit.
Cyri: See accompanying medication chart.
Ivan: If you add all the free medication together, that’s a whopping 34 gigabytes.
Cyri: One important consideration is to make sure you know where your medicine is stored, especially if it’s customer data that you have to protect under provincial or federal privacy legislation. You also want to make sure you have the right to delete your data and account at any time.
Cyri: You’re going to see a lot more cloud file-storage and collaboration services, but it’s best not to keep switching your medication.
Ivan: The generic name is “cloud storage” or just “file storage,” but that sounds so 1980s. Cool alternatives include: Syncplicity, Egnyte, Amazon’s S3 and the new kid on the block, Apple’s iCloud.
Cyri: Because DropBox syncs your files, I find it works best for critical files that don’t take up too much space.
Also, DropBox has had some security meltdowns. If you have something really confidential, it’s best to encrypt it.
Cyri and Ivan’s medication rating:
4 stars
