Drives can encrypt, store PC settings and will soon have 64GB of memory USB flash drives have evolved from their initial use as marketing tchotchkes to devices capable of addressing corporate needs ranging from mobile computing platforms to files stores with encryption and biometrics protection .

Winson Yu, vice president of sales in North America for reseller USB007.com, said he has watched thumb drives evolve at a staggering pace. Yu began his career 20 years ago selling 5MB hard drives for IBM. Today, he sells thumb drives half the size of a stick of gum with 8GB capacity, which are expected to jump to 16GB capacity by the end of the year. USB007.com sold tens of thousands of 8GB drives to a Fortune 500 company as part of a corporate data backup plan. The company, which asked not to be identified, said it is using the drives for its 10,000-person sales force. "For them to back up their laptops by going through the network is not very viable. So they've installed software on their laptops, and every couple of days it prompts them to plug in the [thumb drive] to back up their data. It's a scheduled operation for them," Wu said.

Another Fortune 500 company that USB007 sells to uses thousands of the thumb drives to upgrade software on stand-alone machinery at remote locations that had previously required the use of a laptop. Business uses of USB thumbwidth:30%;float:right;nding.

By www.computerworld.com

On August 18, 2006

ProductUSB Flash Drive

The USB007 ($69.98), a USB 2 device, is the speediest we evaluated. Its software must be installed on each host drive. On the other hand, it uses PC locking and e-mail that leaves no trace on the host.