File Transfering Services

Last week, under the gun to get out of the office, I was faced with an issue that routinely comes up at my office; how to send someone a large file. This seems like a fairly simple issue, yet is an ongoing problem. My work email is limited to 10MB (basically nothing in today’s data world). Online accounts may go up to 20 MG if you use your personal mail, but my file was about half a gig. We have an FTP site, which doesn’t well, and I have dealt with other companies trying to send info that also have unreliable ftp sites. In a world where we stream video, where music sharing is so easy it is illegal, while is sending a work file so complicated? So while the work crunch has ended, I thought it may be time to look up a few options to have on hand next time something comes up. www.box.com free trial, large sizes. Personal use is 5 gigs free, you can keep docs online. Has solutions for business and enterprise, but I didn’t see prices listed. www.yousendit.com was the place I was about to go when I found a solution elsewhere. Seems like you can send 50MB for free and you have 2 GB of storage. They also have pro, proplus, workstream and a pay as you go option. www.sendyourfiles.com has a variety of sized plans available starting at 5 GB sent per month, with 25GB storage with 1 user. It starts at about 10 bucks per month. www.sendthisfile has a free option for 2GB transfers, but does not include storage. It has 5 additional plans, going up to $600 a month for unlimited users, unlimited file sizes, business customization and many more options. www.sendpace.com has a free plan with 300 MD file sizes, and includes ads. They have two other options, but neither alow business customization the way that some of the above does. I have also been using Dropbox - it has been nice to be able to easily transfer files from one device to another without using a thumb drive - and the files also go to my phone and IPod. It has an option to share a folder / file as well. It starts with 2 gigs free, but you can gain memory space in a variety of ways or purchase a plan with more storage. Obviously this is a partial list – but one that would make my next file much easier to send. The bigger issue really is that in the age of technology, file sharing is a pretty typical work function & one that should be addressed, easily, by the technology employed within your job. I don’t work in a company that has a tight IT policy, but there are many business that do, and sidestepping their IT policy to use an outside service might not go over very well.