Storage in the Clouds: DropBox

If you are not using Dropbox yet, all I can say is..."WHY NOT??"


As our school district continues to look for ways to save money, transitioning our storage servers has come up many times.  A quick survey of the data on the servers shows that most teachers are using their personal folders on the districts server for personal and professional use. BUT...the personal use is killing us! Every month, our network managers need to send out a reminder to teachers to clean out any personal files so that we can keep the servers running.


We have always tried to teach our users to be good stewards of the data and back up. So what is a person to do? Use Dropbox! Dropbox is an amazing service that lets you store your files in the cloud (The Internet). With Dropbox, you actually store your files on your computer, and they are automatically backed up to a location on the Internet. Every time you make a change, either online or on your computer, all your files are automatically synced so you never have to worry about which file is the updated version.


When you create an account, you can download a small program that you install onto any computer you use (Mac or PC)...all your files are then synced with any computer you choose. If you are anywhere using a public computer, you can still access your files from the Dropbox website. I have used this many times when I am presenting in a remote location. It saves a ton of worry and preparation for me.


Sharing has become a piece of cake with Dropbox. If you want to share files with someone (they need a Dropbox account too) you simply create the folder and share it with them via the Dropbox website. Remember though, if you delete a shared file, it deletes it for everyone.


Here is the best part! You get 2 GB for FREE! And...you can get more free space by inviting more friends, or accepting an invite from someone! You can get up to 8 GB for free this way. Try Dropbox! I think you will transition away from a local server storage space in no time.