Accessing files kept in Dropbox isn’t nearly as straightforward as it may seem at first. Opening a document through the service’s web-based interface is easy enough, but doing the same using one of its desktop clients requires a bulk download involving all the other content in the target folder as well. Fortunately, however, the collaboration giant is well-aware of its users’ woes.

At a London event today, Dropbox previewed an upcoming feature under the codename “Project Infinite” that aims to dramatically reduce the amount of hassle involved in fetching data from its platform. The capability will make it possible to individually specify the files and folders that need to be saved locally while having everything merely represented indirectly in the form of placeholder icons with no substantial storage footprint. According to the company, each such stand-in doubles as a download shortcut that provides the ability to quickly save a copy of the original if and when the need to do so arises.

Project Infinite will thereby kill two birds with one stone and not only reduce the amount of time needed to download from Dropbox but also noticeably cut storage requirements in the process. The addition should make an especially big difference for corporate users, who have to keep much of their data in shared company folders that contain files from colleagues as well. That can add up quickly in a large organization, especially when it comes to areas such as marketing and product design where there is a heavy reliance on internally-produced materials.

Dropbox’s increasing focus on the needs of corporate customers comes as part of a long-running effort to expand beyond the consumer market where its platform currently sees the most use. An organization has much more advanced requirements than a private individual, and is therefore potentially more willing to pay a premium for advanced features like Project Infinite. But the vendors  faces an uphill battle in the enterprise market against Box Inc. and Microsoft Corp., both of which already provide selective synchronization functionality in their respective file sharing services.

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