Syncthing is a new data storage & synchronization tool which, in its developer’s own words, “replaces Dropbox & BitTorrent Sync with something open, trustworthy & decentralized.”

Almost everyone who is or has used multiple devices including desktops, laptops, smartphones & Tablets, will also be using some form of synchronization so as to be able to access all you data regardless of your location or the device used.

It has become quite painless to implement folder-syncs with the help of tools such as Google Drive & Dropbox. But this also raises valid security issues. How secure do you feel with all your data storage & syncs being centralized & routed through a remote third-party server?

This is where Syncthing comes into the picture, offering an open source alternative which is also decentralized. There is no central server storing all your data, & none of it will ever be stored anywhere else other than your own “nodes.”

All communication between your nodes & the tool is encrypted & secured using TLS to prevent unauthorized access to your data. Each node gets authenticated by a cryptographic certificate, & only those nodes which you have specifically given permission to will be allowed to connect to your cluster for data storage & syncs.

Sharing data with Syncthing is also very simple. You don’t need to do any configuration or hand over IP addresses. It simply works over the Internet & on LANs, with every machine having an ID. Give the ID, share as many folders as you want with different people & sit back.

Syncthing was written by developer Jakob Borg, & it is still being updated with new features being added with every new release. The full source code is available on GitHub.

It’s easy to use with Web GUI & works across platforms on Mac, Windows, Linux, BSD & Solaris. If you have a network, you can run it on your desktops & synchronize the data with servers on different operating systems.

Image Credit: Syncthing

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