effective IT

Have you heard of Dropbox? Its a simple and effective way of exchanging files between many different types of devices, Work PC’s and even laptops, I-phones / I-pads. Under normal circumstances synchronization was only used when updating contact details and calendar information between desktop / laptop pc’s to a mobile phone or personal data assistant (PDA’s). Since the event of many people starting to work from home or even working within a small group of colleagues, file sharing can become an over complicated or expensive network issue. With Dropbox this is simplified to an end user experience of ease and namely stress-less task.

You can find a simple video demonstration of Dropbox on their website at www. dropbox.com you can also download the application from there. I could go on and on about the functionality of the dropbox software but it really is simple and self explanatory but if there is any questions please don’t hesitate to email the forum.

What i would like to do is give you a few tips for thought when using this system.

1. When signing up for an account, sign up an independent account as this allows you to share files / information independently from colleagues with your technology.
2. If your using the Dropbox as a central file store for your organisation / Project, create a Dropbox account for it independently then add the users / colleagues to it which allows them to centrally manage files for the organisation, the super tip here if you need to purchase additional storage (2GB free Initially) you can apply the larger space to this account only.
3. Invite people to share your Dropbox and let the synchronization sort out files.
4. Use strong passwords especially for the centralised account this will prevent any vulnerability.
5. If you use Dropbox on a machine that has multiple users or home machine, either create an independent user account or only use the website service remembering not to save the credentials for security purposes.
6. Back up your organisational dropbox independently just to ensure piece of mind.
7. If you work with a group of colleagues introduce them to dropbox in a get together so that all are familiar to its use and also its limitations
8. Create a paper based policy for the use of a central storage Dropbox, Write and how to open centralised documents.

Dropbox can replace centralised data management for very small organisations successfully but a local backup of the dropbox folder is recommended. It therefore contributes to larger organisations network structure and can get around a few file sharing issues effectively. If your organisation uses a domain please consult with your Network / IT admin person before installing it.