HOW DROPBOX CAN HELP YOU ACCESS YOUR FILES WHILE ON THE FLY
Recently, Gareth attended the Dropbox Admin Training Day which was run by Dropbox’s lead Solution Architect James Murphy and sponsored by the Dropbox partner team. We have been fielding a lot of enquiries and have seen a lot of interest recently in Dropbox, so we thought we would take this opportunity to tell you a little bit more about it.
What is Dropbox?
Dropbox is an Anywhere Cloud file storage system and sync service available for your computer, tablet and most mobile devices. Dropbox allows you to back up and access your documents, whether they be spreadsheets, photos, video presentations etc regardless of whether you’re in the office, at home or out on the road. With Dropbox, you simply copy your files to the cloud so that you can access them later. All you need access to is a simple internet connection.
Dropbox can either be stored locally or otherwise all online. You can be selective with what gets downloaded with a feature called selective sync.
The Dropbox for business version utilises “Smart Sync” which shows your files on the PC, but only downloads them when you open them. This feature allows full access to your files (that are otherwise unseeable with Selective sync) if you need them. It will also download the files from a team members PC if onsite to decrease internet use and increase file download speed.
Dropbox is easy to setup and maintain, with multiple levels of administration being available.
Dropbox, when on your computer, looks like any other folder.
How do I use Dropbox for business?
Dropbox folders can be shared between an organisation with something called a Team Folder.
This type of folder can be managed by an administrator, who can then give rights to certain people or departments within the organisation. Multiple team folders can be created for use within the organisation to separate departments and sensitive data.
If someone within your organisation leaves, their account can be easily suspended, with all organisation data being deleted from their devices. When, or if, a person then takes over that employees’ position, the data can be easily moved to the new account.
What happens if a file is accidentally deleted? Don’t worry, as it can be easily recovered within the administration portal. Dropbox never deletes files, however historical data (such as different versions of a file) last 120 days.
Dropbox is now compliant with several government regulations that require cloud data also be stored locally. With a simple request, Dropbox will move your data to a local storage base in Sydney.
