The other day I had to send a large file to a friend. I didn’t want to send it through email because it was very large.

I decided to use SkyDrive. SkyDrive is a personal hard drive in the Internet.

To use it you need to sign up for a Windows Live ID. When you sign up you get:

1. 5 Gigs of storage in the cloud (Internet)
2. Personal folders - for private access only
3. Shared Folders - To share files with friends who have a Windows Live ID account
4. Public folders - To share with anyone on the Internet

When you upload a file for public access you get a URL that you can email to a friend or associate. When they click on it they can download the file. If they have a windows Live ID they will have access to all your public folders or shared folders.

At SSW we often require our clients to send us very large files by FTP. This process can be time consuming and requires existing infrastructure. SkyDrive is a free, quick method of sending large files across the Internet.

SkyDrive is also a great place to place files you would like to access when you are travelling or not working at your main computer. All you need to is an Internet connection and you can download the files to a MAC or PC.