Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All

Matthew McKenzie, Senior Editor / Community Editor | 6/21/2010 | 23 comments
Digg   Del.icio.us   Reddit   Email This   Tweet This

Simple problems deserve simple solutions. Why do they so rarely get them?

A few years ago, an MIT student named Drew Houston had a simple problem: He was tired of forgetting his USB drive. Existing online file-sharing and transfer services didn't do what he needed, so he built his own.

It's called Dropbox. I bet you've heard of it.

I won't bore you with the technical details because you don't need to know them. And that's the beauty of Dropbox: It's small, simple, effective, and free (or cheap, if you need more storage than the 2GB default limit).

Dropbox is the kind of product an IT organization ignores at its peril. Employees will use it, and they will love it. When they do, the enterprise collaboration software you're spending a fortune to license and maintain will suddenly start looking a lot less attractive. In fact, a lot of things you offer users will start looking less attractive.

That's not because Dropbox is powerful and packed with features. It isn't. And that's the point.

Look at the Dropbox user interface, which consists of a folder on your desktop. You manage it just like any other folder. There are some configuration settings, but I would have to go look at them to tell you what they do, because I don't remember.

It doesn't matter if you run a system using Windows, Linux, or Mac OS. It doesn't matter whether you prefer the iPhone or Android or BlackBerry. Dropbox works on all of them.

And if you do need more functionality, it's there, courtesy of an open API and a growing set of third-party tools. A service like Habilis, for example, which allows users to email any type of file to a Dropbox folder, makes life a lot easier for iPad users.

Lots of other tools try to do the same thing as Dropbox. Few, if any, succeed, because they refuse to take simplicity seriously enough.

Compared to Dropbox, Google Docs is rocket science. Windows Live Sync is quantum physics. SharePoint 2010 might as well be an anti-gravity machine. I've even heard people suggest using WebDAV, Samba over a VPN, and various other forms of slapped-together insanity that are supposed to serve as an enterprise-ready version of Dropbox.

Can you imagine Microsoft releasing a piece of software that did what Dropbox does -- and nothing more? It would never see the light of day. By the time it left beta, it would be packed with features, configuration options, enterprise management tools, and other goodies carefully designed to make it palatable to the IT department -- and just another pain in the butt for ordinary users.

Dropbox is a lesson -- and a warning. Think of it as a variation on Gilmore's Law: Users interpret complexity as damage and route around it.

If you don't take simplicity seriously, your users will route around you.

Digg   Del.icio.us   Reddit   Email This   Tweet This
Post a Comment
View comments: newest first | oldest first | threaded
Page 1 of 3   Next >   Last >>
nasimson   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   7/11/2010 11:15:24 PM
easyware/ simpleware
Enterprise vendors need to understand that the end users of their applications (which are often not the IT departments) need easyware/ simpleware as much as consumer market.
Matthew McKenzie   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/28/2010 4:08:41 PM
Re: It may violate information security policies
Sounds like that was a "dropbox" in the classic (FTP) sense of the term: Folks can drop files into it, but only the admin can see what's in the box or retrieve the files.
Paperphobe   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/28/2010 1:19:02 PM
Re: It may violate information security policies
I've used this app to share personal video files and the like.  Love it.  And it solves the problem of everyone using a different technology device, which is a huge problem in my world.

My last company had an internal drive that was used as a "drop box".  We used it primarily to send and receive large files from those outside of the company. Our IT built logins to the drive. When, say, a graphic designer sent over their latest project, they would send it to the drop box and tell the ad dept.  They would then grab the file and delete it from the drop box. It worked great, and the only internal management needed was the setup of login names. 

We needed this technology because we were outsourcing so much work.  I'm sure companies of every size face this issue all the time. And I'd bet most are using Dropbox because it's easy to use, despite the potential security risk. I've seen many executives exhibit a "it can't happen to me" vibe...probably because they've never had a problem before.  I relate it to those who never back up because their hard drive never crashed.  
Matthew McKenzie   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/25/2010 10:42:35 AM
Re: It may violate information security policies
@Taimoor: That is absolutely the case. But today, it's easy to name a bunch of technologies and tools -- mobile devices, portable storage, file-synch apps, social networking, Webmail, you name it -- where end-user convenience bumps up against corporate security and risk management.

But the reality is that IT is losing these battles. If a typical enterprise disciplined every employee that violated these policies, it might find itself with an empty office. I'm not saying that's right, but it illustrates a huge conflict that is only going to get worse over time.
Taimoor Zubair   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/24/2010 4:19:55 PM
It may violate information security policies
I find Dropbox to be a cool, smart application which simplifies a lot of things. However, I think its good to be used for personal uses and some organizations may actually ban its usage. The reason I say this is because many organizations are concerned about data security and protecting the company's information. They apply policies such as restricting the use of USBs on the computers, preventing CDs to be written, restriction on sending large attachments through email etc. Since dropbox is effectively like your virtual USB, this may be in conflict with information security policies at some places.
Matthew McKenzie   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/24/2010 11:13:59 AM
Re: Dropbox
...not be able to use VPN or other services becasue they are blocked by an over zealous Hotel chain Network Admin...


Sounds like another way a hotel chain can pick its guests' pockets by offering "premium" WiFi services. I'm still amazed at the number of hotels that want to charge for any sort of WiFi service  -- even though a lot of business travelers will refuse on principle to stay at places that still do this.
sechristiansen   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/23/2010 11:23:11 PM
Dropbox
Dropbox is cool. Especially since I can also use it with my phone. I also really really like Pogoplug. It is another extremely simple to use device (hardware in this case). It also runs over https so it is accessible from any location that allows web traffic (there is nothing more frustrating than connecting to hotel WiFi only to not be able to use VPN or other services becasue they are blocked by an over zealous Hotel chain Network Admin. The great security benefit to these devices is the fact that both the software on your laptop and the hardware device (or dropbox installed on your home PC in this case) generate outbound connections to a central authentication server. As a result there is no fear of an inbound port being opened up for hackers to break into. There are of course ways to hack this but you would have to attack the company's online authentication server, not Joe User's PC. SC.
Matthew McKenzie   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/23/2010 10:25:52 AM
Re: Dropbox
I've actually recommended it to my mom as an easy way to share photos and other stuff with family and friends. Now, she's pretty tech-savvy for someone her age, but since I'm usually the "IT guy" at her house, I'm very careful about what I recommend to her.
batye   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/22/2010 8:15:10 PM
Re: Dropbox

simple to use

I do use it  and recommend to my customers.

similar idea was behind hotmail :)
Matthew McKenzie   Dropbox Proves Simplicity Rules All   6/22/2010 2:49:22 PM
Re: Dropbox
@JPoe: An enterprise class version of Dropbox would look like the regular Dropbox...to the users.

Unless they try to do something uncool, like transfer a bunch of payroll records or software code. Then the intelligence built into the back end would say "no, bad employee!" and rat them out to the security team.

First one to the Promised Land -- an enterprise-friendly tool that users describe as "just like Dropbox!" -- gets to buy Australia and retire.

 
Page 1 of 3   Next >   Last >>


More Blogs from Matthew McKenzie
Matthew McKenzie   9/2/2010   3 comments
Everybody agrees that the United States has long been the global leader in IT innovation -- and in most kinds of technological innovation, for that matter. Today, many people aren't so ...
Matthew McKenzie   9/1/2010   12 comments
Lately most of the discussion about the future of open-source software in the enterprise has centered around one company: Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL). That's not surprising, given ...
Matthew McKenzie   8/31/2010   9 comments
Since the beginning of the year, the market for 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) hardware has exploded. That's not really a surprise, since any enterprise that's serious about server ...
Matthew McKenzie   8/30/2010   37 comments
Journalists love to predict the future. It's fun, it's easy, and unless you play the stock market, nobody gets hurt when you turn out to be completely wrong.
Matthew McKenzie   8/27/2010   8 comments
Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) says it has the answer to managing virtualized environments. But given the reality of how enterprises use virtualization today, I'm not sure Oracle even ...
Latest Archived Broadcast
Cliff Bell, veteran CIO and popular EnterpriseEfficiency.com blogger, shares his firsthand insights into the issues and concerns that give today's CIOs and IT leaders nightmares. From technology upgrades and migrations to cloud computing and security, Bell and E2 editor-in-chief Fredric Paul will discuss the most pressing and most promising solutions for enterprise IT.
Whitepapers and Analytics Reports
Defining Data Center Efficiency: Standardization Is Job One
Data center efficiency begins with standardization, which can lower TCO, cut energy consumption, and help control acquisition costs, among other benefits. Learn how to plan, implement, and manage a successful data center standardization strategy.
Read the full report
Defining Data Center Efficiency: Simplifying Through Virtualization
By making infrastructure and data centers more efficient, IT departments free up money for innovation. Virtualization is a vital tool for implementing a data center efficiency strategy, as illustrated by the tips in this comprehensive report.
Read the full report
Defining Data Center Efficiency: Taking Virtualization to the Next Level with Automation
Virtualization without automation leads to delays and missed opportunities. Find out how companies are automating on standardized, open x86 platforms to prepare for growth -- without ripping out and replacing existing data center infrastructure.
Read the full report
drill into Virtualization
BLOGS
What Happens When Virtualization Gets Real?
9/1/2010 - New products, new pronouncements, and new deals mark VMware's virtualization conference in San Francisco this week
DRILL INTO MORE TOPIC CENTERS
Poll
Coursework
SPONSORED BY DELL
BRIEFINGS
CASE STUDIES
WHITE PAPERS
Roadmap Briefings
9/2/2010 -
Site Moderators
Enterprise Efficiency is looking for engaged readers to moderate the message boards on this site. Engage in high-IQ conversations with IT industry leaders; earn kudos and perks. Interested? E-mail:
moderators@enterpriseefficiency.com

Enabling People and Organizations to Harness the Transformative Power of Technology