I recently had the opportunity to meet with leaders of Dropbox and learn about the company’s new offering for businesses and their vision to provide “earth-changing technology.”
Yes, that phrase caught my attention, too. I signed up for Dropbox in 2010 – one of the first users – because I couldn’t open a PDF on my iPhone. Dropbox leaders say it’s much more than that.
Dropbox has become a household name today, making it hard to believe that it did not exist five years ago. In 2010, the start-up hit 4 million users and raised $250 million then had a $4 billion valuation the following year.
Today, Dropbox has 200+ million users that depend on the cloud storage company to provide them anywhere access to their files. Dropbox CEO Drew Houston compares the company’s growth and place in today’s market to Microsoft in the 90s.
Dropbox is a part of a pervasive shift to cloud service and among a growing number of online storage systems following. Microsoft SkyDrive, iCloud and Google Drive are the major players right now. Both SkyDrive and iCloud tend to be more device dependent right now. They sync best on their respective Microsoft or Apple devices and do not yield the same sharing ability and permission settings as Dropbox or Google Drive.
The various cloud storage providers have their differences today, but they all seem to be moving to the Dropbox model. These two key features of the business version of Dropbox are game changers that likely will set the new standard:
- File recovery and unlimited versioning – allows users to track changes and recover their work. This becomes critical in business where often a variety of users touch the same file and it evolves over time.
- As much as you need “Unlimited” space forever – That’s almost impossible to comprehend with exponential explosiveness of data and information. But Dropbox is offering it – at a cost. The business account starts at 1000 MB and grows from there.
A growing number of small businesses, in particular, use Dropbox as their file storage system. But professionals at all levels in organizations of all sizes use Dropbox today to gain access to the files they need from their smartphones, tablets and home computers.
I recently provided mobile technology training at three corporate sites and ask participants how many of them used Dropbox. Almost every hand went up. If you know it or not, employees of your business are using Dropbox.
So, what do you need to consider to protect your business?
- Limited privacy – Dropbox currently uses Amazon’s Data Center and offers a standard privacy level. That will not suffice for every business, particularly in healthcare or finance. Dropbox does not carry the HIPAA and SOX certifications needed to comply with federal regulations without using third party add-ons.
- Not a back-up system – Dropbox is simply a file structure in the sky. It is not a back-up system Businesses need to employ a separate back-up system. There are a variety of web-based applications like Mozy to provide full back-up services such as military-grade encryption, lock-file support and snapshot versioning.
More and more is happening in the cloud today and much of it we are not even consciously aware of. Companies like Dropbox and Google are changing the way we work. We think we’re taking a quick step to access a PDF or file from a friend or colleague, but we’re really establishing a new type of business file system.
