The technology industry is accustomed to patting itself on its collective back and celebrating how far things have come but when it comes to organizing our business information we haven't evolved very far at all. In fact, we may have gone backwards.

The proliferation of means of storage has led us into a mess or a maze. We know we have that set of notes somewhere but where? On an email? A Word doc? A Post-It note or virtual equivalent? On a voice memo? And if we shared that, what is the latest version of the file?

This is the problem that San Francisco-headquartered Dropbox, which has banked well over $1bn in funding, is attempting to address by providing a consistent version of the file that's stored in the cloud and can easily be shared and updated in real time.

But, and this is very characteristic of the way American software has evolved, Dropbox has a vast field of competitors from Box down the highway in Redwood City, to Egnyte not far away in Mountain View. Some, like Workshare in London, England, have the temerity to be based outside California but this is a classic boxcar derby to become the de facto leader in sync/share/collaboration, and hence achieve vast riches.

To get there, rivals must do everything they can to attract interest (such as free accounts), upsell (additional features) and retain customers (customer service and product upgrades). The bonus in these days of cloud and subscription is that it's relatively easy to switch if you’re not happy with your provider.

There's plenty to complain about in the technology world (and outside it too for that matter) but this sort of competition means that being locked in to a supplier and suffering under the yoke of a lazy incumbent market leader is becoming a thing of the past. For that at least, rejoice.

Martin Veitch, IDG Connect Editorial Director