Flash drives are ubiquitous products used in every-day life for both personal and business use. There are many products which help in the creation and distribution of flash drives, as well as features and functions found within these flash drives. The ubiquitous look on the outside does not equal the functions on the inside. Below are four examples of how equipment and technology improve the value of a flash drive used in ether personal or professional use.
Using a USB duplicator makes creating and distributing flash drives infinitely easier. These systems are ultra-fast binary copiers and designed to do one thing: copy data really fast. This type of equipment is best suited for organizations that produce multiple copies of content distributed via USB flash drive. Imagine being able to copy 20 or 30 flash drives at the same time with speeds of 1GB a minute to each device. This is a time saving product which directly affects the bottom line and is worth the money invested.
Making a USB flash drive read-only is a very popular feature. Since optical drives are nearly gone from laptops and tower computers, many organizations need a read-only flash drive. Organizations want a read-only flash drive mainly for two reasons: First, a read-only flash drive means the data cannot be deleted or formatted off the drive and cannot be changed or manipulated in any way. Second, because the USB is read-only, a virus cannot jump onto the flash drive and spread to other computers. Both of these features are of great value to many organizations today because it protects both their content and reputation. Making a USB read-only is not an easy task, special software tools are required.
Printing a customized logo or text to the outside of a flash drive helps a user understand what the USB is for. In most situations, the flash drive is printed at the factory, yet many organizations need a printer for in-house production. The organization has either a very short lead time on what must be printed to the drive, or the logo or text has changed from start of the original project. There are flat-bed USB flash drive printers available which make it very convenient to label USB media at the time of shipping, or duplication. One flash drive printer in particular uses a six color system to get very accurate prints and is ideally suited for branding to flash drive media.
Copy protecting content on a USB flash drive continues to be a growing demand. Imagine being able to send a PDF or video and the user could only view the file… they could not copy it, print it or share it? There is no password to access the file, it’s available to everyone, yet no one may copy it. This solution continues to grow with demand because the user experience is so easy, yet the content is secure and safe. As intellectual property becomes more valuable and greater asset for companies, this is a particularly good solution for those who put documents, videos and audio to portable flash drives.
Many confuse the definition of copy protection over that of encryption. There is a difference between the two. Copy protection uses a method to scramble the data so it is secure. Encryption also uses a method to scramble the data so it is secure. The difference is with encryption a password is required to access the data, and once that password is entered, the user can do anything with the data. Print, save, share, anything. With copy protection there is a dedicated viewer program which knows how to unscramble the data and present the file. This viewer is secure and there is no way to print, save, screen capture or share the file. As mentioned before, the user can only see the file, but nothing else.
The products mentioned in this article will help business and organizations manage the production, branding and control of digital content in today’s ever changing world. Nexcopy is one organization that provides a specialized focus on flash memory products. From six color USB flash drive printers to USB duplicators to digital rights management tools, the Nexcopy organization is a good place to start.