Data files are increasingly sophisticated, and seemingly getting larger. The good news for our everyday lives is that the average computer hard drive is pretty big nowadays, so we can cope with all the extra gigabytes. We’ve gone from top household hard drives being 6-7GB in 2000 up to about 250GB as a minimum standard in 2020-2021, with many companies now comfortably offering TB.
Big files and more sophisticated data are a new reality, but unfortunately for a lot of us, our typical communications channels can’t handle these monster files. We get these messages that files can’t be larger than 20, 50, or 100MB at the most. That’s frustrating when we’re packing PDFs in the hundreds of MBs and then some.
What shall we do about all these large files? Below are some good strategies for better managing these gargantuan files.
1. File Sharing Services
You should first look at large file sharing services. These are an ideal solution because they provide you with fast performance, file tracking, easy receipt, and also useful international services if you’re dealing with file sharing between Australia and countries like China. Engaging a file sharing service is essentially the fastest way to solve all the related problems of large file sharing in one swoop.
In essence, a file-sharing service is really providing an entire file-sharing ecosystem rather than just some convenient channel through which you can move files of any size. The many additional tools and especially the facility for colleagues to cooperate on projects are particularly attractive.
If your business deals with large files and needs to share them on a daily basis, then there’s no other more practical solution, either. Many other solutions are only suitable for those who might have the odd large file that’s a bit of a nuisance one day. Those solutions don’t when every member of your team is being held up by these obstacles almost hourly!
2. File Compression
When trying to send multiple files in one go, compression is a great tool. PCs have long had this facility in the form of programs like WinZip which took your dozens of images, MP3 files, or whatever you were sending and squashed them all into one neat folder for the recipient to get at the other end.
It’s an ideal solution for that type of file that’s really one central folder with many smaller folders inside it and more individual files inside of all of those folders.
3. Use a VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) offers a good solution for times when you’re sending large files over public Wi-Fi and you have reason to suspect that security could at all be compromised. A VPN masks your real IP address and creates an anonymous environment in which to share files.
There are some technical glitches that can happen, however, with some files ending up damaged or losing quality. It’s a good idea for those with the right technical expertise.
4. USB Drives
Flash drives or thumb drives, whatever you call them, have also become quite large in capacity with up to 128 GB or more being packed into a tiny dongle you can attach to your key ring. It’s among the simplest methods you can use to shift large files, but of course, there are obvious issues with practicality here.
USB sharing requires one to be physically present to plug into one computer, copy the file, then move to another computer, and so on. It’s useful for the simple and safe sharing of files within a team in one organization.
Using cloud drives like Google Drive and iCloud solves the problem of having to be physically present, but there are still security question marks, however. Tesla had one departing employee upload their entire self-driving technology source code to his iCloud to allegedly sell to a Chinese rival!
Choose the right solutions that fit your needs and you won’t go far wrong.
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