I’m a big fan of Microsoft products. Windows is my main operating system (currently Windows 7), and I haven’t found a full office suite yet that beats MS Office. That said, I don’t think the world’s biggest software company is quite as deft at cranking out killer webware. Considering that the customer is always right, I’ve decided to write about the “Microsoft Live Storage Solution.”
I’ll introduce my quandary with Windows Live Sync. Windows Live Sync is a free application that synchronizes folders between multiple computers. I use this myself, and find it invaluable. You simply install the software on each computer you want to sync files across and configure the folders from the web interface. It’s easy and it works. It even let’s you browse the contents of your computers if they’re online. However, it only syncs files between the computers you choose; it' doesn’t let you store anything in the cloud.
You’ve probably heard of Dropbox; it essentially does the same thing as Live Sync, except it doesn’t allow you to browse your computer. But it does store whatever data you’re syncing in the cloud as well, accessible from wherever you are. So is Dropbox my solution? Well, Dropbox has two versions: free and paid. The free version offers 2GB of storage, the paid, 50GB. I’m a cheapskate when it comes to software/webware, so I’ve only used the free version, but here’s the catch: after you are syncing 2GB of data, you can’t add any. At least Live Sync will do the whole nine yards if you want. But no storage . . .
Microsoft has another web service: Windows Live Skydrive. Skydrive offers 25BG of free online storage. It’s kind of clunky to use, since you can’t upload folders, but it’s nothing to sneeze at. However, no syncing.
Finally, they’ve got Windows Live Mesh. It’s goal is to let you “Sync, share, and access the information you care about—wherever you happen to be.” The idea is that your content and applications are available from whatever platform you’re on: PC, Mac, Windows Mobile, or Web. And obviously, it’s pretty cool—albeit a bit laggy—to be able to use all my data and run any application from a browser. Live Mesh has a component similar to Dropbox: you can set up folders on multiple computers that sync with each other and the cloud, although I’ve heard that the syncing it’s quite as good/fast as Live Sync. I personally like it’s web interface better than Dropbox: very similar to a Windows desktop. But . . . only up to 5GB of syncing. Unlike Dropbox, there’s no premium package to get more space.
So, what do I think the folks in Redmond should do? First, they should combine Sync, Skydrive, and Mesh into one product, which would probably still be called Mesh. Then, it should all work seamlessly; you would only install one application, and you could enable content sharing and/or computer sharing. Content sharing would have the fast, thorough syncing of Sync; it would have 30GB (Skydrive’s 25GB plus Mesh’s 5GB) to store your content in the cloud; if you want to sync more, it will do so, but it won’t be stored in the cloud. You should be able to purchase more space, as well as configure which files/folders you want in the cloud.
So that’s my Windows Live Storage Solution; actually, Windows Live Content is more catchy. Whatever they call it, I think it would be a better setup than the scattered syncing/storage services Microsoft has now. Do you agree? What would be your ideal multi-computer solution be?