Review of DropBox Online Storage Solution

Overview and History

Dropbox has been around for a couple of years and they have done excellent things in that tiny amount of time. Notably their VoteBox method that invites you to select which features they work on first: Very clever. You can choose from 3 options: 1 free and 2 premium or pro version. The free edition provides 2 Gb wheras the Premium versions provide you with 50 or 100 Gb. Backup and synchronizing are straightforward to setup and work persistently unnoticed making this a real "set it and forget it" program. The company additionally offer unlimited file versioning as an option to the pro accounts.

PDA devices are fully supported with apps for iPhone and iTouch and a website for online enabled devices. Collaboration features include public and private file and folder sharing as well as commenting on files and folders. With many more features in being developed. Photo albums and video streaming are currenty supported. To get you started on the right track: If you follow their 'getting started guide' and complete most of the steps you get an bonus of 250Mb of storage! Great idea! If you would like even more storage, just invite friends and you get another 250Mb per referral up to a limit of 8Gb.

Dropbox was founded by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in 2007, and was founded using seed funding from Y Combinator. Today, Dropbox is well-funded by Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Amidzad. Since launching publicly in September of 2008, they have gained more than 3,000,000 customers and are growing swiftly. They have been featured in many major media publications and shows, and have won awards from places like PC Magazine and CNET. Their drive is creating a service that rocks and putting it in millions of people's hands.

Feature Set

Security

DropBox has adaquate security: The web portal is SSL encrypted with a requirement for a username and password to view your data. Files in transit are protected with SSL encryption and when on their servers, your information is encrypted with 256 AES encryption. Additionally, they use the Amazon AWS service which is backed by the Amazon name and quality stamp.

Backup Features

Non-stop and 'Block Level' backups are used to make sure your files are constantly protected. Open files are archived on a continual basis by using 'Block level Incremental Backups' which means that DropBox only backs up the sections of a file that have been changed, instead of the entire file.
Including files and folders to the DropBox archive schedule is a snap: Just choose the files you want to protect and choose 'backup with DropBox'. Different copies of files are saved so you can always restore an earlier edition of a document if you overwrote it. There is a status indicator to indicate how the archive is progressing.
On the downside network and removable drives cannot be included in backups and business databases like exchange and SQL server are not supported directly.

Restore Features

Restoring your data is very easy. There are a couple of main choices: Restore via the web site: Just log in to your account, find the file you wish to retrieve and choose how you woud like to retrieve it. The alternative technique is even easier: Just use the DropBox Manager to restore any editon of a file.

Control and Analysis

There are processor and bandwidth throttling available from the DropBox client software. Reports and logging can also be read from the client software.
Proxy servers are configurable with options for HTTP, SOCKS4 and SOCKS5.

Interface

The interface is graceful and easy to use. There are just a few options available thus keeping everything simple and easy to use. There is client software to setup and once installed, the software makes a DropBox folder where all protected files are displayed.

Device Support

There is currently support for every device under the sun! The way DropBox is designed; if your devices can access the internet then they can make use of DropBox.

Limitations

The web site only supports file uploads of up to 300Mb each however you can bypass this by using compression tools like WinRAR or WinZip which allow you to cut large files into smaller bits. The restiction is not present if you utilize the client software.
File retention (before deletion) is 30 days unless you invest in 'Pack-Rat' which is available as an bolt-on to the pro editions and costs an additional $39 annually and provides you limitless file versions and file retention.

File Sharing and Collaboration

Information can be shared publicly - Allowing everyone to see them - or privately where you setup access rights to desired files and folders for each individual or group.
Photo Albums are supported and are sharable either publicly or privately.
Comments can be appended to each file that is shared and other people can be allowed to make additional comments to create a discussion about a particular file or folder.

Synchronization

Synchronization is supported between different devices and between devices and the web site. An excellent option is the LAN synchronization. This allows users on the same network (home or work) to rapidly synchronize changes locally without going to the internet first. This greatly reduces your internet bandwidth load.

Web 2.0 Integration

At the time of writing, there was no direct integration with online services to allow editing of documents, etc.

Customer Support

There is no phone, live chat or direct email customer support available. There are however, loads other forms of help available: You can contact support using a web form on their site; there is an extensive knowledgebase and FAQ section; the online help is complete to a sensible level. There are also tutorials, a demo and case studies available. However, by far the most useful resources for do-it-yourself support are the forum and blog. These are full of valuable advice and support from both the DropBox staff and individuals using the service.

Ease Of Use

Extremely straightforward to get setup with: Signup, login, download the program on all your machines and start syncing. As of December 2009 there is now a LAN syncronization feature which hugely speeds up local syncing. Both the desktop and web interfaces are clean, elegant and simple to use. Put simply a very easy service to use.

Cost

Cost - Initial setup: free
Cost - Monthly: Basic: free; Pro50 - $9.99 / mth; Pro100 - $19.99 / mth
Cost - Yearly: Basic: free; Pro50 - $99 / mth; Pro100 - $199 / yr
Cost - Initial allowed storage amount: Basic: 2Gb; Pro50 - 50Gb; Pro100 - 100Gb
Cost - of additional storage: n/a
Cost - of additional devices / PCs / users: n/a
Cost - Referral Program: 250Mb per referral up to a max. of 8Gb
Cost - E-billing facility: Free - n/a; Pro: yes

Conclusion

DropBox is really straightforward to setup and use. It offers almost all the features of a complete online storage solution: Backup, Web site, multiple device synchronization, file-versioning, online photo albums and file sharing. The only functionality missing is integration with internet programs to permit you to amend and create files directly in your DropBox. The pricing is fair although there are better options available if you require more storage than 100Gb. The security is very good and the customer support is good, although the lack of phone, live chat and direct email support is a bit limiting. The forum and blog are supurb places to get your problems discussed. If you need an all-round online storage solution then DropBox is an excellent choice.