Storage has come a long way from the good old days of keeping data on floppy discs and DVD’s. Its advanced to external hard drives and storage media such as iPods and SD Cards and so on. These forms of data storage are very common nowadays.

All these are good methods to carry information with you as you go however they have a few disadvantages. They are physical devices prone to accidents and subject to demands of physical transportation. They can be lost or stolen and can end up placing information into unauthorized hands. They may also require special drivers or slots installed on the machines before the information can be seen. Collaboration and versioning can be difficult unless if additional transportation methods are implemented.

• The alternative to carrying physical storage devices with you is to store the information in a secure online facilities. Depending on the online facility, this can have the following advantages:
• Its accessible everywhere as long as you have access to the internet.
• It is safe and secure (provided the online facility has good authentication and authorization practice).
• It may be possible to edit your documents online directly on the online facility’s site. Alternatively, some facilities offer offline editing with automatic synchronization back to the online document.
• It is possible to share documents with selected or public audience.
• Some online facilities provide for collaborative editing of document.
• Lastly, its possible to keep physical stores synchronized across multiple devices

Here are a few applications and services that can provide for online document storage, collaboration and remote synchronization:

1. Windows Live Mesh 

A popular product that gives you 5 gigs of online storage space as well as file synchronization across devices. It has additional functionality around remote access and ability to add many “devices” to your Mesh. I’m actually using this quite extensively to connect to my home machine. I’ll write up a post about getting this working on your machine soon.

Links: Windows Live Mesh

2. Adobe Buzzword

A service that supports document storage and collaborative editing of these documents. Its limited to document types only but has a flashy interface and once you got used to it, it can quickly become a tool that you can use everywhere.

Links: NewbTech Review, Adobe Buzzword

3. Windows Live SkyDrive

Another excellent file storage system that gives the user a whopping 25 gigs of storage space and is not limited to document types, so you can store all manner of files here.

Popular file types (such as images) are recognized automatically and SkyDrive will adjust its presentation of these files accordingly.

Links: NewbTech Review, Windows Live SkyDrive

4. Google Docs

An online document management system that allows for storage and editing of documents straight from their user interface. There are limitations on file sizes and functionality if editing through their applications, but, its suitable for everyday needs. The online applications are provided via Google Apps.

Links: Google Docs

5. Zoho Office Suite

A free online office suite similar to Google Apps and includes a variety of collaborative ready applications. It includes versioning and online storage (I believe its 1gig for document storage space)

Links: NewbTech Review, Zoho Office Suite 

6. DropBox

Has functionality that allows for users to create shared folders and drop all manner of files in them. The free version allows for 3gigs of online space and its perfect for quick storage requirements.

Links: DropBox

7. MozyHome

An online backup service that gives you free 2gigs of back up space and you can dictate which folders you wish to automatically back up.

Additional space costs more. It is widely used and highly recommended especially amongst small businesses who may or may not have a robust backup strategy.

Links: MozyHome

8. Spideroak

A cross OS service that allows for online backup, synchronization, sharing and storage solutions. Its available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems and gives the user 2gigs of space for free.

Links: Spideroak 

9. RapidShare

A file hosting service that allows you to upload a file and get a download link that you can send to anyone to download. This service allows for very large file sizes and is popular around gaming and media sites.

Links: RapidShare 

10. drop.io

Allows for private sharing of files and real time collaboration. It creates a virtual folder up to 100megs and supports all file types. You can specify a name to call the “folder” and share this as part of the drop.io URL.

It allows for password protection and other users can drop their files into this folder.

Links: Drop.io

11. GBridge

Offers file synchronization across your devices over the Google GTalk network. It can go through most network firewalls and can allow you to create “shares” on your machines that can be opened to other authenticated users.

Links: NewbTech Guide, GBridge

Conclusion

A lot of online storage services can be made to integrate seamlessly into your desktop using products such as Gladinet so that they appear just as another folder on your computer. In actuality, the documents are stored on the online facilities servers.

The above are just some of the huge variety of options you may have in terms of online storage, synchronization and collaboration. If you use or recommend a similar service, feel free to comment below :)