Online storage systems that can automatically synchronize the data on all of your computing devices, including the PCs you use at home and at work and your smart phone, are finally a reality.

If you edit a photo or a document and save it on your work PC, for example, these new services will automatically update the online copy, then do the same for the copies on your work PC or even your cell phone.

This month, Sharpcast introduced a service that synchronizes digital photographs, and companies such as Streamload are rolling out systems this summer that keep other types of files in sync, including commercially purchased downloads such as iTunes songs and videos.

Assuming that broadband Internet connections keep getting faster and more ubiquitous -- it might become unnecessary to store local copies at all, meaning your hard drive could be entirely replaced by remote Internet servers.

Although that isn't likely to happen soon, the looming "data cloud" is already beginning to obscure the once-paramount PC.

You have the option to invite others to synchronize with your folder.
So every time you upload a new movie, your mother will receive a notification that it's there, and the option to download, view, or delete it -- and if she's running the client application, too, it will automatically download to her computer.

Streamload gives away the first 25 gigabytes of storage and 1 gigabyte of downloaded data; heavier users pay $4.95 per month for 100 gigabytes of storage and 10 gigabytes of downloads.

Similar services are available from Israeli software outfit BeInSync and a Microsoft-owned company, FolderShare, whose synchronization system is being folded into the parent company's Windows Live Web services platform.

Sharpcast's service is even simpler. Once the company's client software is installed on the user's PCs and mobile phones, any change made to any photograph on one device is automatically replicated on all of the other devices and on Sharpcast's own servers. If the user takes a photograph using his phone, for example, a copy is sent immediately to his Sharpcast website and home or office PCs.

Meanwhile, more and more sites offer simple online backup, without synchronization. These services are proliferating so rapidly in part due to online retailing giant.

At least two factors could also limit the spread of cloud services. The first is connectivity. Some 68 percent of Internet users still don't have broadband cable or DSL service at home.

The second issue is security. Users will want assurances that the data they send to the "cloud" will stay secure.

Yet hackers and thieves update their techniques almost as quickly as companies roll out new security services.

The whole process of manual uploads and downloads goes away.

written by Florin C.