Dropbox’s Project Infinite makes it easier to store and access business files

Dropbox says its Project Infinite solution will help business customers manage and access huge amounts of data on PCs and Macs with limited capacity.

Many companies have terabytes of information stored on Dropbox, but most modern computers only have a storage capacity in the region of hundreds of gigabytes.

Project Infinite will display all files that a user has access to on their desktop, but they will be stored in the cloud. Users can see file details, such as size, creation data and last modified, and can drag and drop them – without having to download them.

“It gives you access to all your content from your desktop no matter the size. No one else provides this today, claimed Ben Newhouse, engineering lead for Dropbox Infinite at the Dropbox Open event in London this week.

“It has all benefits of the cloud and the discoverability of a more centralised approach with no compromise.”

Files that have been synced will still have a green “tick” icon, but those stored remotely will have a new “cloud” icon. With a good network connection, files should open in real time, and there is the option to store documents offline for later use.

The feature works with Windows 7, 8 and 10 and with Macs running Mac OS X 10.9 or above and is being tested with a number of selected customers.

“Dropbox Infinite is going to revolutionise how users access information,” boasted Dropbox chief operating officer Dennis Woodside. “Dropbox is the only tech player that invests equally in end users and in IT. That’s because we believe end user experience is the way to improve security and productivity of your team. It’s important to have a desktop client that fits in well to your system of record.”

Dropbox, which has 500 million users and 150,000 paying business customers, used the event to deliver its vision of collaboration to European customers, through new features like Dropbox Paper and APIs that allow for integration with other services such as Office 365, DocuSign and Slack.