At Dropbox Open London today, the company announced "Project Infinite," a new feature of the popular document transferring app that will save space on a user's local hard drive thanks to the implementation of a new cloud storage feature.
With Infinite, both cloud files and locally saved files will cohabitate in the traditional location within Finder on Macs, letting users decide which take up storage space and which stay in the cloud.
Documents saved in the cloud will be marked with a tiny icon referencing their storage location, but there won't be any kind of laborious download process if a user needs to quickly gain access to anything not directly saved on their computer. Cloud files will sync on demand when a user clicks on them, displaying them in the same way as locally stored files. If a file will be needed in a location lacking an Internet connection, users can choose to "Save local copy" and download the cloud file for later.
In Project Infinite's introduction video, the company gives the example of a shared company Dropbox folder with upwards of 10 terabytes of data synced inside. On the desktop of one user, however, the folder is taking up just 28 megabytes of data thanks to the inclusion of cloud storage.
The company also mentioned that Project Infinite supports all platforms that Dropbox is available on, and even includes backwards-compatibility "on any computer running Windows 7 or higher, or Mac OS X 10.9 and up." So a file saved by a team member on Windows 8, for instance, can be viewed as a placeholder cloud file on another user's iMac, and then downloaded to their hard drive.
Project Infinite will enable users to seamlessly and securely access all their Dropbox files from the desktop, regardless of how much space they have available on their hard drives. Everything in the company’s Dropbox that you’re given access to, whether it’s stored locally or in the cloud, will show up in Dropbox on your desktop. If it’s synced locally, you’ll see the familiar green checkmark, while everything else will have a new cloud icon.
Dropbox's aim for Project Infinite appears to be enterprise focused, but the company's blog post mentioned that it has "more product announcements to come throughout the year," following the launch of its new storage-saving cloud feature. Project Infinite is currently being tested among a select number of Dropbox sponsors, but no word has yet been given regarding a specific wide launch.
Top Rated Comments
1) No client-side encryption
2) No multi-tier pricing. It's 2GB Free or 1TB for $100/year.
I sync documents for college, including multiple papers a week. I also have the ability of syncing work/employment data, including my resume and portfolio for applications. The best part, is it works on all platforms. At my current job, I use DropBox for syncing images and sales for social media (FB, Twitter, Instagram, and our website).
Without DropBox, I would likely be back to the olden days of having a flash drive with me everywhere I go, and worrying that if I break it by accident, I would be screwed. Man... Those days sucked, haha.
I just don't trust Dropbox for security or privacy.
Client-side encryption should entirely be up to you, the end user, not a third-party file sync service. Macs have FireVault built-in. Your entire drive is encrypted when enabled. Done.
Don't forget about the referral program. Every referral gives you bonus space, so with a bit of effort, you create your own tiers. Need more space, just refer another person.
This Project Infinite seems to be exactly what I imagined Dropbox and iCloud Files would be from the beginning, so I'm glad to see it finally happening.