BitTorrent Sync uses peer-to-peer technology to send information between users' PCs. It eliminates the need to upload data to a third party's computer servers, as is the case with services such as Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive.
But one analyst said businesses were unlikely to be tempted by the idea. Davies Murphy Group's Chris Green said companies would worry about their lack of control over the new process even though it did not rely on a third-party's data centre to update what might be sensitive files.
But he said it might appeal to some members of the public for private use. BitTorrent is an eight-year old San Francisco-based company offering a range of free-to-use products designed to make it easy and quick to send large files over the internet.
They work by co-ordinating the process so that devices downloading material also share small pieces of already-accessed data with others in order to share the load.
Although the technology has become associated with media piracy due to its use by some media-sharing sites, BitTorrent itself is a legal company that makes money by licensing its technology and brands to business customers.
It began testing the new tool at the start of the year. The facility is categorised as alpha - signalling it is still being tested and may be unstable - but the firm announced on its blog that it was now ready to invite the public to try it out.
Source: BBC News
