When Dropbox was founded in 2007, many people assumed it would be a flop along with the dozens of other file sync and sharing apps that had cropped up since the internet bubble of the ’90′s. Today, however, more people than ever rely on cloud sync and sharing services to keep their digital lives in order. From making sure you can get to that important file from your smartphone to sending PSDs to your colleague on the other side of the globe, keeping your files synced in the cloud can be very useful.
Dropbox is far from the only syncing service that’s popular today. Some recent security concerns with the service have brought increased focus on SpiderOak, a privately encrypted file sync service. Then, services like Skydrive and Box.net continue to be popular with others. Additionally, computer backup services like Backblaze, Mozy, and Carbonite continue to gain popularity with people who want to make sure they never lose any files.
Syncing individual files and folders may become outdated, however. Apple promises to do more than just sync files with their upcoming iCloud service. Instead of syncing traditional folders, iCloud promises to keep the same data in your apps, automatically. On the other hand, high quality web apps like Google Docs, Lucidchart, and more let us create and store files directly in the cloud, without ever having files on our desktop to sync.
So how about you? Do you keep all of your documents in Dropbox, or do you backup regularly with Backblaze? Or are all of your files in online apps already?