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 COLUMN
Internetworking points at necessity of data 'garages' WE'RE SLOWLY BUT SURELY moving from an era of Web sites and surfers to one of Web applications and internetworking, where people use the Internet in the same way they currently use the electrical power grid: without thinking about it.
When I was on vacation earlier this month, the last thing I wanted to do was check my e-mail. I was quite content to sit by the pool in a completely unwired state, thank you very much. The idea of sending faxes from the beach or checking e-mail from my cell phone on a mountaintop holds no appeal for me at all. Still, there are times when you've got to check your e-mail while on the road. But once you check your e-mail, you'll want to look up an address, check a file that you left back at the office, and look at your calendar to see if you really could extend your vacation another couple of days. As I wrote a few months ago, it's possible to use Web applications to manage much of this information -- but keeping it up-to-date online is still a big pain. (See www.infoworld.com/printlinks.) Most people still need to maintain critical information, such as their calendars, in multiple places: desktop computers, notebooks, handhelds, Web-based calendars, and contact managers. And any time you've got information stored in more than one place, it's an invitation for mistakes, oversights, and confusion. That's why synchronizing data is a big requirement for effective internetworking. A more basic problem for internetworking pioneers right now, however, is simply finding a place to store their data online. Simplistic workarounds are possible, such as storing a few critical files with your Internet service provider, which probably provides a few megabytes of storage online. Another quick-and-dirty solution: I occasionally e-mail files to my own Web-based e-mail account, so I can download them from anywhere I have Web access. More full-featured Web services, appropriate for small companies, include Web services such as Visto Briefcase (www.briefcase.com) or HotOffice (www.hotoffice.com). For corporate use, there's eRoom (www.eroom.com) and Xerox DocuShare (www.xerox.com), software you install on an in-house server. Such products act as online work spaces for individuals or workgroups, where users can access shared files, contribute to discussion boards, check calendars, and send e-mail. As more and more people start demanding remote access to their files, you'll see more of these "data garages" -- places on the Internet where you can park your data. I expect such data garage services to be offered by ISPs to their consumer and corporate customers as an add-on to basic Internet access and Web hosting. We haven't reached the point where such data garages can replace your hard disk. So far, Net-based storage is more comparable to floppy disks: It's slow, has small capacity, and is most useful as a means of moving data from one place to another or for backing up critical information. But as bandwidth increases and Net-access devices proliferate, it may be only a matter of time before you'll seriously consider replacing your hard drive with an online data garage. Would you trust your data to online storage? Write to me at dylan@infoworld.com. Dylan Tweney is the content development manager for InfoWorld Electric. He has been writing about the Internet since 1993.  RELATED SUBJECTS  E-CommerceMORE > SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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