In the past year, Online Storage has really come into its own. Services like DropBox and Box.net have risen in popularity. Apple seems to have finally struck a chord with its cloud offerings in the form of iCloud (after two relatively lukewarm previous cloud and online-storage related attempts). Businesses as well as consumers are more and more moving their data to online storage Websites.

Like most areas of tech, online storage is constantly changing. Today´s online storage landscape will undoubtedly give way to something new entirely.

So, what does this sudden upswing in online storage popularity mean, and what´s likely to happen given other tech trends?
Let´s take a look at some of the likely trends in the future of Online Storage:

1. Smartphones and tablets will drive online storage services: One of the reasons online storage has taken hold is because of the availability of apps for mobile devices. Any new competitor to the online storage field will need to provide access not only for a variety of desktop operating systems, but for all of the major mobile devices, as well.
2. Apple and Google will extend their battle to the online storage arena: Accordingly, that battle between Apple and Google in the smartphone arena will heat up in online storage. One or the other will have to offer true support to the other platform if they want to get ahead. This is part of the reason that third party solutions like DropBox have so quickly captured the market share: Google and Apple don´t play together nicely.
3. Legal, confidentiality, and compliance concerns will make online storage even more secure: As legal, healthcare, and financial firms all turn to online storage providers, they will be putting serious pressure on to make sure that those systems have truly world-class security. The rest of us will sit back and reap the security benefits.
4. Other cloud applications will integrate with online storage: Enterprises have been using cloud computing applications for a few years now, but with the exception of web-based email consumers have been slow to adopt. Online storage may well be the gateway consumers need to open up to other cloud applications.

The wide open marketplace and emerging online storage technologies of today will eventually give way to more uniform markets tomorrow. In the meantime, consumers will continue to demand more and more from their online storage services, driving service levels higher and increasing functionality.