Machado Consulting

Dropbox is software that syncs your files online and across all of your computers

Have you ever needed to share files with many computers or across many locations? Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they'll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you've installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!) Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox's secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.

With Dropbox, your files are always in sync. Let's say you're editing a document at home. As soon as you click 'Save', Dropbox will sync this same file to all your other computers (and now your iPhone!) instantly and automatically. It's as if you saved the document to all of your computers. This gives you the freedom to work on any of your computers and always have the files you need.

Dropbox also lets you share files easily. You can easily share entire folders or photo albums with Dropbox. Simply put the folders you want to share in your Dropbox, and invite people to them. You can also send people links to specific files within your Dropbox. This makes Dropbox perfect for team projects.

With Dropbox, online backup is also automatic. Any file you put into your Dropbox folder is automatically backed up to their servers. Even if your computer has a melt-down, your files are safe on Dropbox and can be restored at any time. While their free 2GB account is perfect for backing up your documents, they also offer larger accounts (up to 100GB) for backing up your music and video collections.

Dropbox also lets you go back in time to undelete or undo changes to files. Every time you save a file in Dropbox, Dropbox syncs it to their secure servers. Dropbox keeps a history of every change you make so that you can undo any mistakes and even undelete files. By default, they keep 30 days of history for all your files and they also have an unlimited undo option called "Pack-rat".

I really like Dropbox and feel that it is better than some other solutions because it replaces:

• Emailing file attachments to yourself and other people
• Using USB drives to move files between computers
• Renaming files to keep a history of previous versions
• Complicated backup software and hardware
• And more!

Not convinced yet? Then take a look at their full list of features. Otherwise, give us a call and we'll help you get started.

First of all, what is all this hub-a-bub about cloud computing, what exactly is the cloud? "Cloud computing" in a nut shell is basically taking your operating system from your PC and moving it to the web. The Wiki says that cloud computing is a way of computing, via the Internet, that broadly shares computer resources instead of using software and storage on a local PC. Basically your PC runs through a browser and all of your applications and data resides on the Internet. You have access to all of your applications and files no matter where you are and it doesn't matter what computer you connect from. Sounds pretty cool huh? Well it can be for some but stay tuned and we'll see if the future is cloud computing. Microsoft says that by next year, 90% of its employees will be working in the cloud. See Microsoft's CEO, Steve Balmer's statements here: http://tinyurl.com/y9d4tpz It appears that Microsoft may be betting on the cloud. I wonder if there will be a "Windows Cloud". HMMM...