MBA Tech Tools: File Storage/Sharing Services

This post is part of a continuing series of “MBA Tech Tools” featuring websites and internet services that can assist you in your MBA journey.

Every MBA project team since the advent of email and Microsoft Office has had to deal with the same problem:  how to transfer/share the inevitable ginormous group PowerPoint.

Email is an ok solution, but dealing with big attachments can be a serious nuisance – especially if your school has strict limits on the size of your mailbox.  And what if you have a bunch of files that you want to share with your team?

My Dropbox:  After a quick sign-up by each of your team members, My Dropbox puts a folder on each of your desktops that automatically syncs every time you’re connected to the internet.  The folder holds up to 2 GB of data and has a web interface where you can view all the files currently in the Dropbox folder (in case you’re not at your computer and need to get to a file).  Best of all, it keeps a revision history of every file so if you accidently save a bad version, you can go back to an older one.  How cool is that?

Syncplicity:  Very similar to My Dropbox – same 2 GB limit and it also has a web interface (which is slightly more graphical than Dropbox’s), but the main difference is that Syncplicity lets you choose folders on your machine to share, so you don’t have to throw everything into one folder if you don’t want to.

Drop.io:  If you’re a little more tech savvy, this is probably the most interesting service of the bunch.  With this service, you get a free “drop” in the cloud that you can upload 100 MB worth of files to.  Then it’s gets interesting: Each drop also comes with a unique email address, voicemail-box  (voicemails are saved as mp3s), fax number and conference call number, and the service also allows you to share files in your drop in just about any way you can think of: email, RSS, Twitter, text message, Facebook and more. This video does a good job of showing how this all works.

Google Docs:  For yet another take on file sharing, there’s Google Docs.  Many of you are probably familiar with this service that lets you collaborate with a group by editing your word processing, spreadsheet or presentation file online.  Once each of your group members gets onto the service using their Google account, it’s pretty self-explanatory and the editing environments looks very much like their MS Office counterparts which makes for a pretty quick learning curve.

Of course, this is just a small sampling of services that can help with the problem of large attachments – with new ones being launched all the time.  If you like any others please share in a comment below.

Did you enjoy this?  Have you come across any good services lately that you’d like to share or see highlighted?  Pondering an issue that you think might have a technological solution, but aren’t sure?  Let me know by posting a comment below or getting in touch.