Is Google Drive the end of desktop computing?

Google Drive recently unleashed some updates to their product that, in my opinion, makes Google Drive the best place to have your files and work both online and offline.

In some posts before I wrote about how the cloud is never going to replace the desktop and I thought the desktop was and would be always the best place to work of all. It simply depends on what kind of work you do. People who work with video edition won't have much advantage using Google Drive except to backup some small videos. People working in an office will have a lot more competitive advantage working with the Drive.

What are Google Drive advantages?

1. Work anywhere and collaborate. Anywhere means you can work even from the metro if you have batery and internet connection. There are no limits or barriers. The drive works just like Gmail does. You access your files fromt he cloud, they are encrypted between the Google servers and your computer and working with any document, spreasheet or presentation is very easy. Collaboration is easier than ever before. Do you remember the good old times when you had to send an email for your time with the sheets and then have each of them work individually and send back the file to you? Version after version, mistake after mistake and the work would be finally done. Now it's simple, just share a file and everybody can work on it in real time at the same time.

2. Use multiple computers. If you are like most people you have a desktop, a laptop and a tablet. Using a pen drive (you can lose) to have the work ready on (almost) all devices is something of the past. Drive allows to work on all computers, at the same time if you want, and get the work done no matter what the computer is, as long as it has internet.

3. Security. It's hard to hack a desktop and today so is hacking the cloud. Google recently released a new feature so anyone trying to hack into your account will have to have your mobile phone as well. Google is serious about security and hacking Google servers is pratically impossible. Your work is safe.

4. Work offline. With Google Drive for the desktop getting everyone on the cloud and working on the desktop is amazing.

5. No cost. How much do you have to pay for an office suite? Probably hundreds of dollars. How much do you have to pay for computer security suites? Almost that amount again. With the cloud for documents and sheets and then some presentations you have to pay nothing. The storage is huge.

For offices and students I predict the desktop does not have a lot of value anymore.