This article was published on December 16, 2008

Wuala trashes barriers and should now focus on building trust


Wuala trashes barriers and should now focus on building trust

Those of you who aren’t shifting their desktop office to an online one are falling behind. The new generation of ultra geeks is working in… “the cloud”! One of the cool European start-ups facilitating this trend is Wuala, a Swiss online hard disk service. Since the launch in August (after a three-year Alpha), the Zurich-based start-up has “gained substantial traction” – says co-founder and CEO Dominik Grolimund. “The user base grows quickly and 30 million files have been stored and shared already.” Grolimund now expects further growth since he and his team are making the service more accessible.

Taking those barriers away

A new release with a new web interface and API will enable Wuala users to make selected files available on the web, so they can be easily and directly accessed by anyone or embedded in blogs and websites. Users can now also send “secret” links to privately shared files without requiring recipients to register or sign up to view the files. See a typical Swiss example here.

Really, you can trust us

When I wrote that you’re falling behind if you’re not operating in the magical cloud, I of course exaggerated. There are millions of people who wouldn’t even consider storing their most precious and important files online. People prefer their “safe” desktop. Thus the gentlemen from Wuala focus on security. Every press release consists a mention of their unique encryption technology – developed in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

The latest one also contains some reassuring words from co-founder and CTO Luzius Meisser: “Security is a major priority for us. We want our users to feel confident that their files are completely secure in Wuala. They never have to worry about who has access to them because they are in total control.” It shows they realize that their biggest challenge will be to convince average Joe.

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What about you? Are you, probably an early adopter, already storing your files online on services like Wuala and Box.net?

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