14 DAY TRIAL // Most people can’t really envision having a computer without Internet connectivity. Go offline and your system will feel severely crippled. In fact, the trend, at least as Google would have you believe, is to move everything online replacing local applications with web apps and even eliminating the need for local storage.
While we’re not quite there yet, the first steps are being made with things like file-sync services. These services, as the name would imply, enable you to sync files across several computers. This kind of services have been around for a few years, but it is starting to look like they’re very close to going mainstream.
Dropbox and third-party services
Dropbox is one of the most popular services of this kind. Its greatest strength is its simplicity. For the most part, all users have to do is create an account and install the Dropbox app on the computers they want to keep in sync. Everything is seamless after that.
Any file you add to the sync folder will get uploaded to the cloud and will be available to any other computer you have linked to the same account. The best part is that everything is done automatically. And if you’re not on one of your computers, you can access your files through a web interface.
You get 2 GB of storage for free and, for $9.99 per month or $99.00 per year, you get 50 GB. Dropbox is not alone on this market, but it may find itself facing some tough competition not from other similar services but from the operating-system makers themselves.
File sync built into the operating system
For example, Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution, has been working on the Ubuntu One service, which is pretty much the same thing as Dropbox. You get 2 GB for free and all you need to do to sync files is to copy them to the dedicated folder. The files can be accessed through a web interface, but for file explorer integration you need to be using Ubuntu, or at least Linux. It may not be as convenient as Dropbox, but it’s already there and working on every Ubuntu install, a major advantage.
However, the big guy in operating systems, Microsoft, is also getting in on the game. With the upcoming Windows Live Sync, users will be able to sync files in the cloud, thanks to the existing Windows Live Skydrive. You don’t get the full 25 GB for file sync, just the ‘standard’ 2 GB, but the simple fact that Microsoft is offering this is significant.
All files synced to the cloud with Google Chrome OS
Yet, even this approach, of bundling file sync capabilities with the operating system, is just an interim stage. Google is looking beyond that to a future where, in a sense, there are no local files to speak of. With the upcoming Google Chrome OS, there will be no local storage. Sure, all the files will be physically present on local drives, but they will also be available in the cloud.
The local storage will be used as a cache of sorts, but nothing more. It won’t matter what Chrome OS-based PC you will be using, all your files will be there, even if you haven’t used that machine before. Of course, it will be a few years before this approach becomes the norm, if ever. While it’s hard to argue with the convenience, people may not like the idea that all of their files are on a server somewhere, out of their reach. But it’s clear that, not too long from now, most people will keep at least part of their files in the cloud.