Road warriors that need to access files while traveling have a
growing number of alternatives to lugging around a heavy laptop in
order to access an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document. The
reality is that many trips need nothing more than a properly
equipped smartphone. There is no need to lug around a six-pound
laptop just in case one measly 250-KB file is needed during a
meeting.
Smartphones can do the job, and new services make it a lot easier
than previous options, which are complicated and slow. Nobody wants
to configure a VPN connection on a smartphone, and browsing a
directory structure on a remote server over a 3G connection can be
brutal.
Now, companies and individuals often have an online backup program
or some sort of document replication service that keeps files in
sync between a cloud and multiple computers. The solution is to
access those files stored in the cloud from your phone. Browsing is
fast and the client software is easy to use.
Mozy has had a Pro service for several years that is designed to
allow IT personnel keep client data backed up no matter where in
the world that client computer happens to be. Mozy just announced
an app that allows users to access their MozyPro data from either
an iPhone or an Android device. If you administer MozyPro backups
for your organization, you can disable this app from the
administrator panel if desired.
Mozy isn't the only service that allows this. Both Dropbox and
SugarSync have clients that allow you to retrieve files from a
cloud account. Dropbox supports the iPhone, iPad, Android, and
Blackberry clients. SugarSync does all of that plus Windows
Mobile--but not Windows Phone and Symbian.
Additionally, SugarSync has a business service that allows multiple
users to share and access folders you select and control all of it
with password and permission settings.
Not only do these and similar services allow employees to access
their files when on the go, they provide a robust offsite copy of
corporate data, often with versioning and the ability to recover
deleted files. The clients are easy to install and at most,
requires poking a few holes into a firewall to allow them to
operate. No VPN clients are necessary.
Source: InformationWeek
USA