Box and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced a multi-year strategic partnership designed to transform how organizations use AI to extract value from their content.

Building on the pair’s existing long-standing relationship – which focuses on delivering enterprise-grade AI capabilities with Anthropic Claude and Amazon Titan – this latest strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) will see the creation of new Box AI agents that leverage AWS’ advanced AI services and infrastructure.

Box has also released a range of new integrations with AWS, including support for Amazon Quick Suite, customization of Amazon Q Developer, as well as compatibility for Amazon Strands, Kiro, and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore.

The intelligent content management (ICM) platform provider said the new capabilities will help customers streamline content-centric workflow automation and improve the quality of actionable insights.

“AI is only as powerful as the context it can access – and that context often lives within the contracts, plans, and ideas that make a business run,” explained Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. “At Box, we’re focused on unlocking the insights from enterprise content that enable AI agents to deliver real impact.”

Box said the new AI-powered content solutions and integrations will help organizations extract greater value from their sensitive enterprise data to reap productivity and operational gains – especially those in regulated industries that require high-level security and compliance.

“By collaborating with AWS, we’re giving customers a secure, scalable foundation to turn their content into a competitive advantage,” Levie added.

Agentic integrations

Powered by Amazon Bedrock, the new Box AI agents aim to help organizations automate workflows and create new content directly from enterprise data by summarizing documents, generating multi-document FAQs, extracting metadata, as well as creating intelligent workflows that automate routine content tasks.

Box will also be able to perform advanced multi-modal content analysis through Amazon Nova Multimodal Embeddings to enable insights from diverse content stored within its platform.

From today, joint customers can utilize the new Amazon Quick Suite integration with the Box remote MCP server, enabling them to act on their Box content directly within Quick Suite.

Meanwhile, customization of Amazon Q Developer on the Box SDK and self-hosted MCP server aims to streamline the application building process.

The Box SDK now also includes compatibility with Amazon Strands, Kiro, and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore.

“Today AI agents are transforming how we work," commented Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Agentic AI at AWS.

"Through our Box collaboration, we're excited to help customers securely leverage their valuable business content with agentic capabilities, transforming how industries operate by making every piece of content work effectively."

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Cloud document and content management provider Box has introduced three new AI capabilities to its platform: Box Automate, Box Extract, and Box Shield.

According to the company, these new additions will help organizations get more value from their data while also keeping it more secure.

Speaking to ITPro ahead of the official launch at BoxWorks 2025, the company’s CTO Ben Kus said Box Extract was a way to solve the perennial issue of making use of unstructured data.

“Most of your data in an organization is actually in the form of this unstructured data – 90% plus of most organizations – it's data in an unstructured form, but it contains an awful lot of very useful structured data as well,” said Kus.

He added that, in order to make use of this information, a human would have to sift through it all manually. The advent of generative AI, however, has changed that.

“Generative AI was born on unstructured data, so it can understand these things, and this is where you suddenly have the ability to not only use and analyze unstructured data in its raw form, but also the next generation of capabilities to extract structured data,” Kus said.

“We've been looking at this for a long time and while you used to be able to get labels out of image or train a model to … do handwriting recognition and OCR.

But it was very limited on what it could work on, because you had to very specifically train these very specific models,” he continued. “Now, with something like Box Extract, we can pull almost any structured information out of almost any file type … almost like a human would do.”

While Box Extract allows businesses to collect relevant information from documents of almost all types, Box Automate helps streamline business processes using an AI agent.

Kus gave a hypothetical example of a company that required 15 checks before a product release was published.

“You might need to have specialists double check it first and that can take a lot of time,” said Kus.

“There are delays where people don't have time to review it and so on. Now, with an AI agent you can actually have it look through all of the checks … and then be able to route the process to say ‘ah, this looks a little bit wrong. I'm gonna notify the person to change something’. Say a contract review has a risky clause, the AI can route it to a lawyer to spend more time on this topic.”

By cutting out the need to have specialists internal or external involved in the process unnecessarily, processes are more efficient, customers have a better experience, and “everything progresses more smoothly,” claimed Kus.

Box Shield Pro

Box Shield Pro is the third AI service launched at Boxworks which the company said will bring “the next-generation of content protection” to information stored in the Box cloud.

Shield Pro, which integrates into Box’s existing Shield offering, is an AI agent that automatically labels documents according to their sensitivity and sets permissions accordingly.

“It's almost like there’s an IT security professional who assists that person in labeling the documents, who can say ‘I think it should actually be labelled differently’ – but the AI can help by saying it [at the outset],” explains Kus.

“None of these policies are like ‘the AI will decide, and then anything can never change it’. It becomes something that is more there to help you with some of these laborious processes of determining these classification levels up front.”

Box Extract and Box Automate will be available to customers on Enterprise Advanced plans “in the coming months”, the company said, while Box Shield Pro will be available as an add-on SKU for current Box Shield, Enterprise Plus, and Enterprise Advanced customers.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Box looks to “supercharge” AI offering with Alphamoon acquisition
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• New AWS and Box collaboration brings AI models to enterprise content

Content management platform Box and AWS have announced an expanded strategic partnership to make leading AI models available directly through Box AI.

Available now, Box Enterprise Plus customers can use Amazon Bedrock within Box AI to build new applications using Anthropic’s Claude and Amazon Titan foundation models.

Amazon Bedrock is a fully managed service designed to equip customers with a range of capabilities – such as models, private data tools, and agent creation - to help build, deploy, and scale generative AI applications.

The new integration will enable customers to combine these advanced AI models with their own data stored within Box’s Intelligent Content Management platform to build new applications and maximize their productivity.

In an announcement, Ben Kus, chief technology officer at Box, said modern enterprises want to work with tech companies that they can trust to be both accurate and secure with AI implementation.

“This is why we are partnering with AWS to integrate industry-leading AI models in Box AI and revolutionize the way organizations apply intelligence to their content,” he explained.

“This partnership will expand the value of Box’s Intelligent Content Cloud and put choice into the hands of Box’s customers, allowing enterprises to apply the AI models they know and love to the place where work is already getting done in Box."

Box connector

Additionally, customers can now also leverage a new Box connector for Amazon Q Business, Amazon’s work-focused generative AI assistant, to generate answers, summarize information, produce content, as well as complete tasks using their Box-stored data.

Amazon Q Business features more than 40 built-in, secure connectors to popular enterprise applications to pull together disparate data and create a unified generative Ai experience.

With the new addition, the pair said customers will be able to securely index content stored within Box as well as benefit from an AI assistant capable of calling upon data specific to their organization.

‘Seamless’ integration

These new integrations mark the next stage of an almost decade-long collaboration between Box and AWS, which is also using AWS’ global infrastructure footprint to power Box Zones, a tool designed to help customers meet their compliance and data residency requirements.

Commenting on the freshly expanded agreement, Vasi Philomin, AWS’ vice president of generative AI, said the ongoing aim is to help businesses simply and securely utilize their own data and content to drive greater value.

“Together, we are making it easy and seamless for our joint customers to apply today’s most advanced generative AI models and applications to their data,” he said.

“The result will be new capabilities that will unlock innovation for industries, companies, and people around the world.”

Content management giant Box has announced the acquisition of Alphamoon, a Polish AI startup that specializes in intelligent document processing (IDP) technology.

The acquisition marks Box’s latest effort to expand its Intelligent Content Management (ICM) platform, following its purchase of Crooze, a provider of no-code enterprise content management applications, back in January.

In an announcement, the firm said Alphamoon’s technology will enable Box AI to automate document-related tasks and extract key metadata from critical business content across a range of industries.

"We are entering a new era of Intelligent Content Management and this acquisition represents a pivotal moment in our mission to revolutionize how enterprises derive value from their content," commented Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box.

"By integrating Alphamoon’s cutting-edge AI technology with Box AI, and bringing the talented Alphamoon team to Box, we're poised to address the longstanding challenges of metadata creation at scale and empower our customers with unprecedented new automation capabilities."

Alphamoon’s IDP offering combines large language models (LLMs) with proprietary OCR and document processing technology to help organizations structure documents at scale.

Box said its integration will “supercharge” its AI offerings and enable its platform to understand complex document structures by leveraging Alphamoon’s advanced OCR technology.

As part of the deal, customers will also be able to easily structure their unstructured content, thanks to the inclusion of third-party AI models such as GPT-4 and Google's Gemini model in driving the latest metadata extraction capabilities.

Additionally, the firm will apply its enterprise-grade security and policies to AI implementation to ensure customer data is safe and secure.

The expansion aims to tackle a variety of use cases, including the automation of metadata extraction from business documents to allow users to pull data stored within the likes of invoices, purchase orders, and contracts.

The technology will also help customers determine whether information is missing from key documents, integrate extracted information with external applications such as Salesforce, as well as enhance industry-specific processes such as analyzing clinical studies in life sciences or financial documents.

Box did not reveal availability and pricing for its new IDP capabilities in its announcement but said the details would follow “at a later date”.

“Alphamoon’s technology is truly next level,” commented Diego Dugatkin, Box’s chief product officer, in a blog post. “They’ve cracked the code on combining state-of-the-art language models (LLMs) with their own proprietary OCR and document processing tech.

“As we work to integrate Alphamoon’s technology natively into the Content Cloud, we’re paving the way for richer, more seamless, and highly customizable document workflows.

“This acquisition represents a significant step forward in our mission to provide enterprises with the most advanced, AI-powered content available.”

Cloud storage provider Box has announced the appointment of Samantha Wessels as president of Box Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

A seasoned tech industry veteran, Wessels arrives with more than 20 years’ experience and has built a reputation for successfully leading teams at high-performing SaaS companies and large-scale integrators.

Most recently, she served as vice president of international at cybersecurity firm Snyk, where she is credited with driving double digit growth in both EMEA and APJ. 

Prior to that, she held the role of vice president of EMEA sales at Elastic, establishing a successful go-to-market motion across key European markets.

She has also previously held leadership roles at NTT, including stints as senior vice president of global cloud sales, and senior vice president for group sales operations and enablement.

At Box, Wessels is tasked with leading the company’s next phase of growth across the EMEA region as it looks to successfully navigate major technology trends – such as the automation of business processes, the acceleration of AI innovation, and the need for secure data management. She replaces Sebastien Marotte, who vacates the position after three years in the role.

“As we enter into this new phase of opportunity, I’m thrilled to welcome Samantha to Box,” said Olivia Nottebohm, COO at Box. “Samantha’s appointment underscores our commitment to providing our EMEA customers with cutting-edge solutions and unparalleled support.

“Her track record of growing teams and driving business growth will be instrumental in accelerating the EMEA business, while navigating the unique opportunities and challenges of the EMEA market. I would also like to thank Sebastien Marotte for his three years of leadership at Box, and wish him the best in his next endeavor.”

Since first launching its business in EMEA in 2012, Box has established itself as a key player in the region and now has offices in London, Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, as well as new research and development offices in Warsaw’s Varso Tower, the EU’s tallest building.

The company has also achieved sustained growth with prominent organizations across EMEA adopting its Intelligent Content Cloud platform – including the Met Police, AstraZeneca, Arriva, BETC, Rémy Cointreau, and Eurostar.

“I am absolutely delighted to join Box at this important moment,” Wessels commented. “As organizations come to understand the untapped potential of content, the demand for a secure, intelligent platform to manage that content will continue to grow.

“Box’s innovative AI-driven solutions and strategic vision make it exceptionally well-positioned to meet this demand. I’m confident that Box is well-positioned to drive even greater value for enterprises across the EMEA region.”

Cloud-based content management specialist Box has unveiled fresh enhancements to its Box AI offering, including unlimited user queries for enterprise users and upcoming integration with OpenAI’s GPT-4o.

Enterprise Plus customers can now take advantage of unlimited end user queries in Box AI for Hubs, Documents, and Notes, while GPT-4o integration, support for image and spreadsheet files, and the Box AI for Metadata API are expected to be available later this year.

Launched in 2023, the Box AI capabilities suite integrates advanced AI models to Box’s Content Cloud – a platform leveraged by more than 115,000 enterprises to secure, store, and collaborate on critical business content.

Built on the firm’s platform-neutral framework, the offering connects with popular large language models (LLMs) including Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI.

As demand for Box AI has increased since its launch, Box said is now removing its query caps so enterprise users have unlimited access to enterprise-grade AI capabilities. Previously, the plan offered users 20 queries per month, with 2,000 additional queries available on a company level.

“The improvements we’ve made to the Box AI platform – combined with the decreasing cost of AI over the past few months – have driven tremendous efficiencies and, as a result, we are removing our query limits in Box AI,” explained Ben Kus, chief technology officer at Box.

“The combination of AI and unstructured data represents the biggest untapped opportunity in enterprise IT, and we want Box customers to be on the leading edge of innovation with Box AI as a core part of the Box platform.”

All the new Box integrations and features

In addition to unlimited user queries, Box is also introducing support for OpenAI’s new GPT-4o later this year. 

The firm said the model offers advanced capabilities that will help Box Hubs improved answers and support for more than 20 additional languages.

Box Hubs users will be able to leverage enhanced text-related functionality that includes multimodal understanding, ethical and sensitive content handling, as well as task-specific adaptation.

File type support

With support for natural language queries on image file formats, customers will also soon be able to ask specific questions about images stored across the Box platform, with additional support to include querying on spreadsheets.

It means users will be able to run precise data analysis in spreadsheets – a function Box said will simplify interactions with large structured datasets and drive insight generation.

Metadata API

Additionally, Box is introducing the Box AI for Metadata API which will enable developers to integrate Box AI with custom applications to automatically extract key information and data from documents at scale. 

Currently in beta for customers on Enterprise Plus plans, users can pair the API with Box’s workflow automation tools to automate processes based on file metadata, extract key fields from unstructured content, as well as save information to external applications such as Salesforce.

Pricing for the Box AI for Metadata API will be revealed closer to general availability, Box said, along with pricing for other platform API calls and end user metadata queries within the core Box application.

Commenting on the additions, Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, said Box AI’s expanded functionality will help enterprise customers drive further efficiencies across their businesses.

“Since Box AI became generally available earlier this year, we’ve seen significant interest from customers to upgrade to Enterprise Plus plans so they can benefit from the power of AI with their content,” he said.

“Today’s announcements will make it even easier for customers to roll out Box AI across their enterprise while also delivering new innovation so they will be able to get additional value from Box AI.”

Box has launched a new e-signature function as a free addition to its platform that allows users to complete transactions entirely in the cloud.

The company said that 'Box Sign', which is available now, will also come with a robust set of application programming interfaces (APIs), which will allow businesses to modernise and manage all their agreements via the cloud.

With businesses transitioning into hybrid environments where employees are separated between the office and the home, Box hopes its new feature can help to streamline its customer experience by removing any need for physical documentation.

"Every day, more transactions are moving from paper-based manual workflows to the cloud, and we will only see this trend accelerate as companies shift to a hybrid work environment," said Diego Dugatkin, chief product officer at Box.

"With the addition of natively embedded e-signatures, Box customers will be able to manage the entire content lifecycle in the cloud, realising the value of their content - at no additional cost. From the moment a file is created to when it's shared, edited, published, approved, signed, classified, and retained, the entire content lifecycle can now happen in the Box Content Cloud."

The ability to sign off documents in the cloud has come from Box's $55 million acquisition of Dutch startup SignRequest, which was only announced in February of this year. The takeover was seen as a way for Box to muscle in on Dropbox's territory, with Box Sign touted as the first use case at the time of the deal.

The cloud service has reportedly come under some investor pressure for middling stock performance during the pandemic and there were even suggestions that the company's leadership were considering a sale and had held talks with potential buyers.

Box was thought to be well placed to grow during the pandemic and, while it has benefited from the shift to working from home over the last 12 months, its growth has been far lower than rival cloud businesses.

In 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has propelled many of us into the world's largest 'WFH experiment', testing previously unconsidered ways of working that will have profound implications for how we do business for generations to come. Drawing on exclusive data, Paul Chapman, Box's CIO of Technology and Trust, explores the immediate impact of the crisis on how companies are getting work done, how we return to 'business as unusual' and what the long-term impact will be, and how IT leaders can lead the way in building a strategy and technology platform to prepare teams and organizations for this new way of working.

Paul Chapman

Global CIO, Box

Paul Chapman is the Global Chief Information Officer at Box, where he is responsible for leading the company’s global information technology strategy, cyber risk and compliance practices and customer advocacy. His mandate includesthe development and delivery of key technology initiatives to support the company’s growing workforce and customer base, cyber risk programs for business and product security operations, product security assurance, physicalsecurity and compliance.Prior to Box, Paul was the CIO of HP Software for HP, where he led the IT organization and supported the development and delivery of IT solutions. Chapman also served as Vice President of Global Infrastructure and Cloud Operations and Vice President of Enterprise Applications at VMware.He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Filton Tech in the United Kingdom.

If you want your cloud storage solution to offer more than simple file-sharing services, Box is the place to go. It also offers an excellent range of business-class collaboration tools and app integrations in addition to file storage, making it quite feasible for remote employees to do a lot of their work using just a web browser.

Box Preview is a key feature, as it allows users to open, view and annotate personal and shared documents without ever having to download them to their PC. Furthermore, if users have the relevant app installed locally or can access cloud services such as Microsoft 365, they can open files directly from their personal Box web portal, work on them and leave Box’s integral file versioning to save all changes back to their cloud storage in real-time.

They won’t need much training, either, as the Box web portal is easy to navigate and opens with an overview of private and shared folders plus recent documents. Users can create new folders, share their contents with work colleagues and apply one of seven access permissions ranging from viewing only to full editorial rights.

An unlimited number of collaborators can access selected folders, but this isn’t as smart as it looks. When an invitation is sent to someone outside your business, they are deemed to be a collaborator and must have their own Box account to access the share.

On the plus side, file upload requests from non-Box users are supported, where you choose a destination folder in your portal and select the File Request option. Copy the web link provided and email it with an appropriate message so the recipient can drag the required file or folder into the web page it presents and send them to you.

Third-party app integration is outstanding. Box supports a huge range, and users can access permitted apps directly from their portal with available choices in the file drop-down menu based on the file type. You could, for example, open a Word document with Office, Microsoft 365 or Google Docs, send it directly to your Adobe Sign or DocuSign cloud account, email it via Outlook or Gmail, pass it to Slack or even start a Zoom meeting to discuss its contents.

Box has finally phased out its older Sync desktop app, with the new Drive app designed to save on local storage by keeping all your files in the cloud so they’re accessible from anywhere. You can mark selected Box folders from Windows Explorer or the macOS Finder for offline access so they’re downloaded and stored locally, and these can be tracked in the portal’s Synced page.

Factor in this impressive range of features and Box looks good value, with the second-tier Business Plus subscription on review costing £20 per user per month if you pay yearly. The maximum file upload size is pegged at 15GB, but it provides unlimited cloud storage for each user, retains up to 50 file versions, supports Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and Slack out of the box and can work with ten more integrations of your choice.

The Box admin console offers a wealth of user management features and tools, plus insights into activity and storage usage. It provides custom portal branding services too. Plus, you get the standard Box Relay service for creating automated workflows, which can trigger a customisable set of actions when files are uploaded.

Cloud file-sharing features are on a par with many other solutions, but Box Business Plus stands above them with its slick collaboration tools. Security and admin features are extensive, the portal is easy to use, and the wealth of app integrations makes it extremely versatile.

Box has always been one of the top business file-sharing and collaboration solutions, and it’s recently added a raft of features aimed at improving the lives of remote workers. One notable arrival is Box Collections, which lets users organise their files, folders and web links into custom groupings, without having to actually move the items around between shared folders.

Then there’s the new Box Preview screen, which lets you browse and annotate cloud documents without needing to download them or open the parent application. The Box web portal, meanwhile, gets a fresh coat of paint, and there’s integration with the Zoom videoconferencing platform for extra convenience.

Box offers four plans. The basic Starter tier costs £4 per user per month (assuming you pay yearly), while the Business, Business Plus and Enterprise options cost £12, £20 and £28 respectively. All three business tiers include unlimited cloud storage, with the ability to retain and restore up to 50 file versions. The only real restriction is a maximum 5GB file upload size: that’s smaller than many rivals offer, but should still be enough for most businesses.

One thing we like about Box is its wealth of management tools, which include advanced user and security reporting, custom portal branding and Active Directory and single sign-on integrations. Getting your team members enrolled is a simple matter of sending them an invitation email; this contains a link enabling them to set a password, after which they can install the local agent and log in to their personal cloud portal.

At this point, those who’ve used Box before may need to relearn a few things. The old Box Sync software has been replaced by the new Drive app: by default this now keeps all files and folders in the cloud, although items can be marked for offline access if you want to retain a local copy.

As mentioned, the web portal has been redesigned too. Happily, the new layout is easy to get to grips with, opening with a tidy view of your folders and recent documents. Your own collections of cloud content can also be pinned here: to add a file to a collection, you simply browse to its original location, then choose a collection from the dropdown menu. Your collection can then be added to the portal’s homepage with a click.

Another neat online feature is the new Preview screen. This isn’t just for quickly checking the contents of a file: if you add comments to a cloud document, they’ll be visible to all other users with shared access. With the Box Tools component, you can even edit Office documents directly from the preview screen.

On that note, desktop integrations for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Teams are included as standard. The Box for Office add-in lets users access cloud files directly from any Office app, while new options appear in Outlook for sharing cloud files and uploading attachments.

Box can even integrate with a range of external services, including Adobe Document Cloud, Salesforce and Slack. The regular Business plan lets you enable one such integration, while Business Plus users get three.

A final interesting feature is the ability to initiate Zoom conferences from the Box portal. After we’d picked a set of invitees, we were smoothly transferred to the Zoom interface, while colleagues received an email link enabling them to join the call.

The 5GB file size limit may be a deal-breaker for some, but with great app integrations, smart collaboration tools and unlimited storage, Box Business is a terrific package. The price is right too, and the latest feature updates only make an already strong product even better.

Cloud storage news

07/09/2018: Dropbox Paper adds more preview support

Dropbox Paper now boasts additional preview support for three new tools, which the cloud storage firm says will help prevent users from getting lost in a sea of browser tabs.

The cloud storage giant explained in a blog post that users can now add Dropbox folders, Airtable and Lucidchart elements into their Paper documents and get instant content previews.

When pasting links to Dropbox folders, users will be able to see all the files stored inside it – as well as being able to navigate through its sub-folders straight from a Paper document. Should the documents inside the folder change, the preview will also update to reflect its new contents.

There’s also new support for Airtables in Paper, meaning users can simply add a base’s embed code in order to generate a preview in the view of preference – such as main, in progress, Kanban, gallery, form, or calendar. Similarly, new preview support for Lucidchart diagrams means that any Lucidchart publish links inserted in a Paper document will also automatically generate a preview without having to open the chart completely.

Dropbox Paper users can utilise the new additions now – simply insert a Dropbox folder, Airtable base or Lucidchart diagram into a document to get started.

29/08/2018: Google One is now rolling out to US customers

Google has now launched its new Google One service in the US, with the rebrand bringing new, affordable pricing options to customers wanting to store their data in the cloud.

The service offers greater flexibility for users compared to Google Drive, with new price plans starting at $1.99 per month for 100GB of storage space. There’s also a $2.99 per month plan for 200GB of storage space, whilst those currently paying $9.99 per month will now have up to 2TB rather than the 1TB offered upon signup.

For customers that require larger storage capacity, Google is also offering a 10TB service for $100/month, 20TB for $200/month, as well as a 30TB plan for $300/month.

"Google One gives you more storage across Drive, Gmail, and Photos," Google explained in a blog post. "With plenty of space, your most important memories and files are stored safely in the cloud and available on all your devices. We've improved the price of some of our plans and added new plan options, so you can find one that works for you."

On top of new cloud storage tiers, Google One also delivers a variety of additional services – including a new Family Sharing feature that allows users to share their storage with up to five family members. There’s also instant access to 24/7 support, too, meaning no long waits to resolve account issues.

US customers can upgrade to Google One now – although no rollout date has been revealed for international users.

28/06/2018: Google's Cloud Filestore offers high-performance storage for the enterprise

Google has announced the arrival of Cloud Filestore - a new, fully managed file storage solution that provides high-performance storage for applications requiring a traditional filesystem interface.

Due for beta release next month, the service offers a simple network attached storage (NAS) experience in the cloud with fine-tuning options - which Google says will deliver "predictably fast performance for your file-based workloads".

"Cloud Filestore offers low latency for file operations," Google says. "For workloads that are latency sensitive, like content management systems, databases, random i/o, or other metadata intensive applications, Filestore provides high IOPS with minimal variability in performance."

Filestore also offers personal control over the IOPS and the required storage capacity, providing both flexibility and the ability to tailor the filesystem to your specific workload. Google also promises that performance for your customised workloads will remain consistent over time.

It's fully integrated with the wider Google Cloud, too, providing fluent communication with Google's cloud VMs and the Kubernetes Engine.

There's no full release date for Filestore yet - but Google has revealed that the service will come in both premium and standard tiers, priced at $0.30 per GB/month and $0.20 per GB/month respectively.

To register for the Cloud Filestore beta, simply enter your email address at Google's signup page.

15/05/2018: Ryanair to swap Microsoft for AWS cloud

Budget airline Ryanair is to ditch its data centres and shift its infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the firm has announced.

As reported by our sister website IT Pro, the low-cost firm does currently use the Amazon cloud for sections of its business - such as its website Ryanair.com and Ryanair Rooms - but will now shift the rest of its data into it over the next three years.

Ryanair also plans to build a data lake on Amazon's S3 service that will leverage Amazon Kinesis to gain insights from both customers and its wider business. The company will also ditch Microsoft SQL Server, instead switching to Amazon Aurora for its European email marketing campaigns.

"We've chosen to work with the world's leading cloud to develop and deliver services that will transform our customers' travel experiences," said Ryanair CTO, John Hurley. "By rebuilding core applications, converting data into actionable insights, and creating intelligent applications, we are putting the solutions in place to continue our leadership in the travel industry."

On top those changes, Ryanair will also work with AWS's ML Solutions Lab to create an application that detects surges in demand for certain flights and predicts changes to flight schedules.

"Ryanair will be able to employ [our] services to drive greater customer and employee satisfaction," said Mike Clayville, vice-president of worldwide commercial sales at AWS. "We're excited to help them create first-class experiences on AWS as they continue to use our capabilities and services at an accelerated pace."

16/03/2018: Microsoft to open new cloud data centres in Europe and the Middle East

Microsoft is expanding its number of cloud storage data centres, the company has announced, with additional locations set to open in Switzerland, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

Announcing the news in a blog post, the Redmond firm said its Azure service now offers more regions than any other cloud provider, having more than doubled its number of locations in the last three years.

"By delivering the comprehensive, intelligent Microsoft Cloud - comprising Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 - from datacenters in a given geography, we offer scalable, available and resilient cloud services for companies and organizations while meeting data residency, security and compliance needs," Jason Zander, corporate vice president at Microsoft Azure, explained.

The new UAE data centres, which will be located in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, represent the company's first cloud storage foray into the Middle East, while locations in Zurich and Geneva make the Redmond giant the first cloud storage operator to introduce a cloud region to Switzerland.

Elsewhere, new cloud storage expansions in Germany will "compliment the options currently available for customers today", Microsoft said, with the additions providing enterprise-grade reliability and performance.

The firm also announced the opening of regions in France for its Azure and Office 365 services, with existing Office 365 customers now able to opt-in to have their data moved to local cloud regions.

12/03/2018: Dropbox partners with Google for Gmail, Docs and Hangouts integration

Dropbox has teamed up with Google Cloud to bring Gmail, Google Docs and Hangouts integration to its cloud storage service, the company has announced.

Revealing the move in a blog post, Dropbox said the initiative aims to deliver a "unified home for work" that streamlines projects and the way users collaborate. Available later this year, the features will allow users to create, edit, open, save and share Google Docs, Sheets and Slides straight from Dropbox - while document management will function just like

any other content, the cloud storage firm explained.

The additional Google Hangouts and Gmail integration also promises to improve communication with collaborators and colleagues, Dropbox said, with the features allowing users to select files from their Dropbox account and send links straight from Gmail and Hangouts.

"Our goal is to make G Suite accessible no matter what tools you bring to work, and these integrations help our shared customers better collaborate in the tools they use every day," said Ritcha Ranjan, director of project management at Google Cloud. "Working with Dropbox to make our apps work better together helps our customers focus their time on work that matters."

Dropbox previously introduced a similar Microsoft Office integration, allowing users to open, edit and save Dropbox-stored files from within Microsoft's productivity suite.

23/02/2018: Microsoft targets users of rival cloud storage services

Microsoft is offering its OneDrive services free of charge in a bid to convert users of rival cloud storage platforms Google Drive, Dropbox and Box.

Announcing the move in a blog post, the Redmond giant said that those using its competitors' services can switch to OneDrive for Business and not have to pay anything until their existing subscription expires.

Microsoft's offer runs until 30 June and is only open to those not already subscribed to OneDrive for Business or Office 365. Organisations must also transfer 500 or more users to the service, the company said.

Ron Markezich, an Office 365 corporate vice president, also revealed that 350,000 businesses are now using Microsoft's OneDrive services following a period of "amazing" growth. Last year alone, storage and file-syncing figures tripled for both small and large organisations, he claimed.

A key appealing factor has been OneDrive's innovations, Markezich added, with more than 100 new features having been added over the past year. These have included secure external file-sharing for those without a Microsoft account, OneDrive Files on Demand, multi-geo capabilities, Apple Files integration and more.

Those wanting to make the switch can do so over at the Microsoft website.

Which cloud storage is best for you?

Cloud storage comes in many flavours, and the choice is only growing as more and more businesses harness the power of the cloud. But with such a wealth of options, it’s hard to know which one to go for. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best cloud storage providers, to help you decide which is right for you.

Amazon Cloud Drive

While Amazon Web Services has been a titan in the enterprise cloud market for some time, its personal offering has not seen the same success. That’s a shame, as it’s actually not a bad deal at all.

Amazon Cloud Drive offers 5GB of free cloud storage for every Amazon customer with a maximum file size of 2GB, and unlimited photo storage if you’re a Prime member. While this isn’t as expansive as the allowances granted by some of its competitors, it’s not the worst.

It’s also good value when it comes to additional space. If you’re finding yourself running out of room, you can up your allocation to 20GB for just £6 per year. The company offers tiered pricing options all the way up to 1TB of storage for £320 per year. These start to become less of a bargain the higher you go, however.

Amazon Cloud Drive is accessible via the web and through Android and iOS apps – no Windows Phone support though. Naturally, support is also baked into all of the company’s Fire devices.

One big benefit of opting for Amazon’s service is that it leverages the company’s high level of cloud expertise and proven track record of security and reliability. With that in mind, customers can be confident that their data is unlikely to be put at risk through negligence or inexperience.

Google Drive

A relative latecomer to the game, Google hasn’t dominated the cloud storage market in the way it has other areas. It’s slowly gaining ground, however, due to the fact that it’s built in to the hugely popular Android operating system by default. It’s also available on iOS and online.

The initial offering on the service’s free tier is a hefty 15GB, which is likely to see many consumers through. However, this is split between Google Photos and Gmail as well, so if you’re an intensive user of either application, you might find yourself running out quicker than you think.

Thankfully, tiered pricing offers the ability to expand your storage space; the only problem is the rather steep incline. From 15GB, the next option up is 100GB for $1.99 per month (annual and UK prices are both unavailable). It’s not particularly expensive, but a happy medium would have been welcome nevertheless.

For SMBs, or the truly data-hungry consumer, storage options also go all the way up to 30TB for £299.99. It’s also got extensive integration with Google’s other products, including Google Apps for Work, as well as the standard suite of Docs, Sheets and Slides.

Dropbox

At first glance, Dropbox’s 2GB cloud storage allowance appears a meagre offering – and even more

so when comparing the service against rivals such as Google Drive. It’s all part of the firm’s unique tactic to widen its userbase, however, with users able to expand their storage capacity by referring friends, family and colleagues to Dropbox (up to a maximum of 18GB.

Should you want more than the basic service, Dropbox naturally offers a variety of premium

packages that provide much larger allowances and extra perks.

For business teams, Dropbox’s Standard package serves up 2TB of storage for £10 per user/month,

whilst the Advanced tier offers “as much space as needed” for £18 per user/month. Both tiers offer an array of tools and services, such as anywhere access, Smart Sync, extensive collaboration and productivity tools, as well as Dropbox’s advanced data protection perks.

Dropbox’s Enterprise tier takes it up another gear still, essentially scaling its cloud storage service to meet the needs of larger businesses. This tailored service means you’ll have to contact Dropbox for pricing, but the plan offers the firm’s full range of tools and functions – including enhanced deployment tools, additional device security, APIs for integration with IT systems, as well as dedicated support 24 hours a day.

Box

Although Box’s offering is unabashedly focused on enterprise usage, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t got a robust platform for personal cloud storage. Its basic tier, for example, has a sizable 10GB maximum allowance, with the catch that there’s a 250MB limit on uploading individual files.

The Personal Pro package raises this upload limit to 5GB, with a 100GB total storage cap to match. It’s a little steep, however, at £7 per month – a considerable amount more than most of its rivals.

Business users have considerably more choice. Box’s Starter pack for businesses costs just £3.50 per month, and comes complete with a 100GB maximum allocation, enhanced sharing tools, encryption and a 2GB file transfer limit.

The next tier up, Box for Business, offers unlimited storage, a 5GB file cap and enterprise mobility management capabilities for £11 per user per month. Box Enterprise is the big kahuna, however, and offers all the features of lower tiers as well as much more in-depth controls over how your data is stored, accessed and used. Due to the highly specialised nature of Box Enterprise deployments, pricing is agreed on a case-by-case basis.

OneDrive

Microsoft has also leveraged its not-insubstantial infrastructure power to provide personal cloud storage for its users. OneDrive customers are given 15GB of storage for free, with further allocations priced at £1.99 per month for an extra 100GB, and £3.99 per month for an extra 200 GB. It’s also got a full suite of mobile applications – including being one of the relative few that supports Windows Mobile.

Unsurprisingly though, where Microsoft’s cloud offering really shines is in its integrations with the rest of the company’s software. As part of the Office 365 platform, each user on a subscription receives 1TB of space free. OneDrive accounts also interface excellently with the other products in the Office range, with sharing and syncing option built directly into the software.

The company also provides a professional version, in the form of OneDrive for Business. As incentives to adopt its cloud platform over other, Microsoft touts its security credentials, as well as the in-app integrations with Office 365 software, allowing real-time collaboration between co-workers.

Verdict

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to the cloud. The nature of your data needs defines which cloud storage provider is going to be best for you. With that said, however, we’d recommend Google Drive for basic personal use, as its large allowance and strong integration with the rest of Google’s software make it an easy option for the uninitiated.

For enterprise users, Box remains the best choice. Its three-tier business portfolio provides a range of choices at different price-points, all of which are geared around implementing cloud storage within an enterprise IT framework.

Dropbox, Box and Google Drive all vie for the attentions of businesses and consumers, but which offers the best value for both channel partners and for end users? We take an in-depth look at these look at the options.

Latest news

31/08/2018: AI upgrade makes it easier to find files in Google Drive

Box users will soon be able to take advantage of new Activity Stream and Recommended Apps features, which the cloud storage firm says will provide a shot in the arm for productivity and improve cross-platform collaboration.

Announcing the additions at BoxWorks 2018, Box explained that the new activity stream will pull information from a host of third-party apps and services, allowing users to complete more tasks directly from within the Box platform.

"Our new and enhanced activity stream adds additional visibility into how content is being leveraged across the organization, by bringing third party app activity happening around a file into Box," Faizan Buzdar, senior director of platform product management at Box, said in a blog post. "This means users can easily see all updates on that file across related apps, and quickly take action in those apps."

Positioned on the right of the Box suite, users will be able to click on an update shown in the stream and jump straight to the third-party application responsible for the activity. There’s also the new Recommended Apps feature which will display a list of applications that can be used for each file stored within Box. Upon previewing a file, users will be shown a list of recommended apps to use from within the platform – a function the cloud storage firm says will eliminate the wasted time spent switching between various services.

There’s currently no rollout date for the new features - but both will be available in the coming months, Box said.

16/03/2018: AI upgrade makes it easier to find files in Google Drive

It is now easier to find and organise your shared files within Google Drive thanks to an overhaul of the cloud storage service's artificial intelligence, Google has announced.

In a blog post, the tech giant revealed that freshly revamped G Suite interface will now predict which files you are looking for before you actually search for them.

Instead of using filters, Google Drive's "Shared with Me" section will now intelligently organise documents that have been shared with you by other users - with the interface now displaying the file owners as well as the files they have shared.

"Searching for content by owner is the most popular way to search for content in Drive today," Google said. "The new interface will use artificial intelligence to predict the people and files that you're most likely to search for and make them more visible.

"We hope that this will help you find the files you're looking for more quickly."

Google says these suggestions will also improve over time as the new artificial intelligence learns and adapts to how each individual uses Google Drive.

"We're also working on more features which will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to make it easier to find files and collaborate more efficiently in Drive," the company added. "Look out for more over the next few months."

20/02/2018: Google Drive adds preview commenting for Microsoft docs

Google Drive users can now add comments to Microsoft documents and PDFs from within the service's preview feature, eliminating the need to open up their native apps to do so.

The changes work in much the same way as commenting on Google Docs, allowing you to highlight sections of text and then add an accompanying comment. Any changes made will also be reflected in the document's native application - making the process more fluid and less cluttered with windows and apps.

In a blog post, Google revealed document management company AODocs has been trialling the feature for the last few months.

"We frequently use the comments feature in Google Docs and Slides when preparing specification documents, reviewing project proposals and creating marketing materials," said Stéphane Donzé, CEO and founder of AODocs. "With commenting in Drive Preview feature, we can now extend the same collaboration, review and validation processes to Microsoft Office Applications, images and PDFs."

Google added that the addition of preview comments is "just one example of interoperability between G Suite and Microsoft Office products" - and that users can also take advantage of a Drive plugin for Microsoft Outlook that enables smoother integration between the two.

25/01/2018: Dropbox now lets you preview Adobe XD files

Dropbox users can now preview Adobe XD files thanks to a new Adobe Creative Cloud integration, the cloud storage firm has announced.

Building on the companies’ existing partnership, the new integration eliminates the need to download XD files first - instead displaying each design’s home artboard within Dropbox.

”Adobe XD is an innovative all-in-one tool for UX designers,” Daniel Wagner, engineering lead at Dropbox Previews, said in a blog post. “Our goal is to unleash creative energy through an expanding partner ecosystem, and connect design tools like Adobe XD with core Dropbox mobile, web and desktop products.”

The integration makes it quicker and easier for users to find their required XD document, the company says, and allows UX/UI designers to share their work with collaborators via Dropbox web, Android and iOS. Those same team members can also utilise Dropbox’s comments and annotations features to keep communication flowing.

“Our aim is to make the design process more efficient with Adobe XD,” explained Kate Eom, senior product manager at Adobe XD. “That’s why we’re excited to bring Dropbox native file preview to our users.

“Now, designers and their extended team members can preview XD from Dropbox without opening the file.”

The announcement is part of Dropbox’s efforts to expand the number partnerships and integrations it supports, which includes tie-ups with Microsoft’s Office 365 suite and other key business software products.

07/12/2017 - Dropbox acquires team from publishing startup Verst

Dropbox has acquired the team behind New York startup Verst, a blogging platform designed to help publishers and creators optimise revenue.

The publishing firm will officially shut down on 21 December, at which point its team will join Dropbox in an as-yet undisclosed capacity.

“In short, we will be shutting down the platform on 12/21 so that we can apply everything we’ve learned towards Dropbox’s mission to simplify the way people work together,” said Verst CEO AJ Frank in a blog post.

Dropbox has not disclosed financial terms of the deal or even revealed what the Vert team will be working on, but told TechCrunch: “We’re excited to welcome the Verst team to Dropbox. Their talent in building simple, powerful publishing tools will help us create new product experiences that unleash our users’ creative energy.”

Prior to its current guise, Verst began as DWNLD – a platform for turning full websites into mobile apps complete with customisable features and analytical services.

The service previously secured a $12 million investment from Greylock Partners, before evolving into Verst and shifting its focus onto generating revenue for publishers and creators.

28/11/2017: Dropbox announces partnership with Autodesk

Dropbox has announced a new partnership with Autodesk that allows users to share large design files straight from AutoCAD desktop applications.

A new integrated desktop app enables users to open and save their .DWG files to Dropbox without having to leave AutoCAD – helping teams to collaborate more efficiently, Dropbox says.

From 2018, users that don’t own Autodesk will also be able to view and comment on .DWG files from within Dropbox thanks to a new CAD Previews feature across select Dropbox subscription plans.

The partnership means users will have access to their entire .DWG library across all devices, Dropbox says – eliminating the need to keep syncing devices or store copies locally.

“AutoCAD is one of the most widely used applications among architecture, engineering, construction and manufacturing professionals, and with more than 1.5 billion .DWG files stored in Dropbox, we’ve built one of the largest collaboration networks of Autodesk design files in the world,” said Billy Blau, global head of business development and partnerships at Dropbox.

“Dropbox brings teams together by making content collaboration simple and efficient. Our technology partnership with Autodesk is an exciting step in delivering innovative features that our customers have been asking for.”

Users can download the free Dropbox for AutoCAD app from the Autodesk App Store now.

25/10/2017

Dropbox announces Dropbox Professional for individual workers

Dropbox has launched a new subscription option, Dropbox Professional, which brings Smart Sync business features to individual workers for the first time.

The addition allows users to store and access their files in the cloud -- without the need to back them up on their hard drive.

Announcing the new subscription in a blog post, Dropbox said Professional users will be able to store, share and track their work from one place -- as well as take advantage of brand new feature Dropbox Showcase.

"Showcase gives you a new way to present your work in a single, professionally branded page--a great tool for designers, salespeople, and marketing pros," Dropbox said. "Instead of burying your work in a pile of links or email attachments, Showcase lets you tell a story."

With Showcase, users can stamp their brand on the service by adding their logo and an introduction, whilst visual previews, customised layouts and captions allow for a clear and informative portfolio.

"What's more, Showcase lets you track how people interact with your work, so you can see things like who has--and hasn't--taken a look," Dropbox added. "Instead of following up with countless emails, you can rest easy knowing exactly what your clients have seen."

Windows and Mac users can upgrade to Dropbox Professional with 1TB of space for £19.99 per month - or a yearly subscription of £199.

Privacy measures

The Safe Harbour agreement guaranteeing the protection of EU data transferred to the US has been ruled invalid, after the European Court of Justice decided that America would value anti-terrorism measures over user privacy.

While data transfers from the EU to the US remain legal, US companies are now striving to re-examine how they can win customer trust by providing guarantees that EU citizens' data will not end up in the hands of the authorities.

The EU and US have until 31 January 2016 to agree on a new Safe Harbour deal, but Stephen Attree, managing partner at MLP Law, warns that in the meantime, even providing EU datacentres to store customers' data may not prove adequate if Microsoft does not overturn a court ruling that demands it give up emails stored on Dublin servers to the US authorities.

“This could mean any arrangements to replace the Safe Harbour arrangements, which were already under review before the ruling was made, may not be enough,” Attree says. “Guidance is awaited, but to be safe, businesses need to counsel caution as the cloud may not be the best place for their data.”

Box

CEO Aaron Levie has already come out to assure customers his company should be able to offer an EU storage facility by next year.

His company may leverage its partnership with IBM to use one or more of the latter's EU datacentres to store customer data.

Dropbox

Despite previously stating that an EU datacentre was not in its plans, Dropbox now says it is reviewing the consequences of the Safe Harbour ruling.

A statement from the company reads: “Dropbox is committed to upholding the security and privacy of customer data. We are currently reviewing the court’s decision in detail, and will continue partnering with our EU users and customers on their ongoing usage of our services.”

Google Drive

Google will rely on its European datacentres to provide adequate protection for customers without a valid Safe Harbour agreement. Just as for Box, this could prove mistaken if Microsoft's appeal against its own court ruling fails, but if a new Safe Harbour agreement is reached by the January deadline, it will prove a satisfactory stopgap.

Dropbox vs Box vs Google Drive: an overview

More and more people are choosing to store their files in the cloud, where they are often more secure than they would be sitting on a desktop hard drive, safe from computer crashes, and easier to share with colleagues and friends.

In fact, collaboration is one of the main drivers behind the adoption of file-sync-and-share services in the workplace, with many tools starting off being used by a few colleagues on a freemium basis, before they are adopted more widely.

But with plenty of products on the market, how do you know which one best meets your needs?

Read on to find out as Channel Pro compares three of the giants in the file-sharing space, Box, Dropbox and Google Drive, to see which one suits you the most.

Company backgrounds and funding

Box

Founded by young entrepreneur Aaron Levie in 2005, Box targeted the enterprise space from the start. It went public at the beginning of 2015, raising upwards of $175m to grow the business. Revenue stood at £42.4m in June 2015, though the business also made a net loss of £30m.

It counts 47,000 paying customers, including 51 percent of Fortune 500 companies, and some 37m users worldwide.

Dropbox

Credited as the company that popularised the concept of file-sharing, Dropbox started in 2007, working on a freemium model to hit 400m users around the globe in 2015, while its enterprise product, Dropbox Business, counted 150,000 paying customers as of September 2015.

Investors have poured a total $1.1bn into the business over six rounds, according to Crunchbase.

Google Drive

Google’s own cloud storage project launched relatively late, in 2012, but became an extremely popular tool partly thanks to the tech giant’s high profile as well as integrations with a wealth of other Google products.

As of September 2014, Drive had 240m users, according to Fortune, and Google claimed it has a million organisations paying for Drive in September 2015.

Dropbox vs Box vs Google Drive: storage tiers and pricing

Box

Box’s services are focused on the enterprise, but it also understands that enterprise take-up can start with individuals using the service for free.

Its most basic service, Personal, offers a generous 10GB of storage along with a 250MB cap on any file size - plenty for files, but more of an issue for those saving videos and seriously hi-res images to their account. Personal Pro – at £7 a month – offers users 100GB storage and a maximum file size of 5GB.

Business users have a choice of three offerings, with a £3.50 per month Starter package giving 100GB of storage, a 2GB max file transfer size, and mobile sync and share capabilities.

Aimed at groups of three to 10 people, it also offers document encryption, external collaboration, and gives IT the ability to manage users and decide who can access what files.

Its Business offering, meanwhile, is for a minimum three users, and for £11 per user per month gives you unlimited storage, a 5GB cap on file transfers, enterprise mobility management capabilities, and integrates with Microsoft Office 365.

If you need even more from your file-sharing tool, Enterprise may be for you. This is Box's premium offering, and includes all Business-level features as well as Box's highest level of content security and management software, workflow automation and control of users' metadata. Instead of standard pricing, anyone interested should contact Box to find out costs.

Dropbox

Dropbox Basic starts with 2GB of free storage, but you can grab yourself up to 16GB more space by referring friends to the service. A big bonus on Dropbox is that its apps don't put any size restrictions on file transfers – even the browser version will allow anything up to 10GB through in one go.

For £7.99 per month (or £79 per year), Pro will give you a whole terabyte of storage space, and will share file links with anyone - whether they have Dropbox or not. It also boasts Office 365 integration and a remote wipe function for lost devices.

Meanwhile, you can set passwords and expiry dates for shared links, as well as managing permissions for any shared folders you control, giving you an extra layer of security on top of the Basic offering.

In September 2015, both these products benefitted from a ‘for work’ facelift that will let you create team folders, switch between personal and work accounts, and create custom lists of users to share files with.

Dropbox for Business now has 150,000 users, the company claims, and is designed for businesses where upwards of 100 people will use the service.

Starting at £11 per month for each of at least five users, extra functionality includes unlimited storage, the ability to manage employee accounts, limit who can access what folders, and the ability to connect personal and work accounts.

Google Drive

Drive gives you 15GB free storage – such a generous amount that it might meet your needs entirely - but if you find you do need more, it offers tiered pricing here on out (though only in US dollars). For 100GB, you'll pay $1.99 a month, 1TB is $9.99 per month, 10TB comes at $99.99 per month, 20TB is priced at $199.99 per month and 30TB will set you back $299.99 per month.

There is no annual pricing, but the big benefit of Drive is its integration with Google Docs - an online set of document editing tools, including a word processor, spreadsheet software, and PowerPoint-esque application.

Google Photos is another integration, letting you throw photos into albums, but it's worth bearing in mind that Drive shares its initial 15TB allowance with Photos and Gmail.

Any user with a Google Apps for Work account gets a default 30GB of storage, while those who upgrade to Google Apps Unlimited get unlimited storage, or 1TB per user for four or less individuals.

Apps for Work admins can buy extra Drive storage licenses, assigning them to specific users, and individuals can buy more storage space for themselves.

Dropbox vs Box vs Google Drive: Channel strategy

Box

The enterprise file-sharing company inked a deal with IBM in June 2015 to offer IBM customers access to Box, and to give Box customers access to IBM’s supercomputer-powered Watson Analytics.

The pair have plans to develop new products aimed at specific verticals, too, and let developers integrate Box APIs into enterprise apps and web services under IBM's MobileFirst initiative.

When it comes to Box’s own approach to the channel, it has two main models, its VP of sales and alliances, Wayne Cook, tells Channel Pro.

Firstly, it offers “significant margins” to sales partners who either resell Box or refer opportunities to Box that the company then closes directly.

Its other model is aimed at resellers like service partners and systems integrators who offer their own services on top of the file-sharing product.

“It could be change management around new processes as businesses transform into digital businesses,” says Cook. “A lot of that requires services around improving processes for efficiency, so a partner can start that change process, help them deploy new automated processes within Box as a platform, new applications built on top of Box on the content layer, integrations into existing systems and the like.”

Another approach has been to wrap Box into other offerings.

“We've just been able to get into partners actually providing services to third-party customers based on Box. They will develop an application of which Box is a component of that app,”Cook explains.

“You talk about O2, they have a bundle of digital services they sell wrapped around their mobile offerings, they would be very interested in the resell component of that.”

Dropbox

Dropbox declined to share its channel plans with Channel Pro, but the company’s quick rise came partly thanks to giving free storage to users who persuaded their friends to use the service, something it still does today.

The firm has also relied on deals with the likes of Samsung and Vodafone to pre-load its app onto their new phone models in order to grow in other markets.

However, it will focus on its in-house sales teams, rather than partners, to grow its European business user base, Fortune reported in April 2015.

Google Drive

Drive is also sold through the Google Apps for Work partner programme, with 10,000 resellers already distributing the toolset.

They are encouraged to provide add-on services to Apps for Work, such as consulting, deployment, training, support, vendor integration, security management, mobile-device management.

While Google bills customers directly, it doesn't interfere with partners’ pricing of their own services.

Premier partners, who get exclusive sales and marketing opportunities, must show competency in Google Apps through consistent customer success, an investment in certified professionals and joint marketing.

What’s the best cloud storage?

Previous news

25/09/2017

Google is retiring its Google Drive desktop app

Google is officially shutting down its Google Drive desktop app on 12 March 2018, with support to be cut off on 11 December, the company has confirmed.

If you're a Drive user, from October you will begin to receive notifications about the change - along with options to switch to either the Backup & Sync app or Google's new Drive File Stream for enterprise users.

Released back in July, the relatively new Backup & Sync app provides general users with a direct replacement for both the old Google Drive and Google Photos apps, offering all the functionality and tools as its predecessors.

The second option is the new Drive File Stream app, which will be fully available from 26 September. Drive File Stream is designed to save storage space on your device, whilst also providing quick access to all of your Google Drive-stored files - without long syncing times.

"[The Google Drive app] will no longer be supported starting on December 11th, 2017, and it will shut down completely on March 12th, 2018," Google said in a blog post earlier this month.

"We encourage you to use Drive File Stream. As an alternative to or in addition to installing Drive File Stream, you can upgrade to the new version of Drive for Mac/PC, called Backup and Sync."

08/09/2017

Dropbox Paper now includes document previews and other updates

Dropbox Paper users can now preview documents before opening them and utilise a host of new design tool integrations, following the latest round of updates to the service.

As well as previewing files, users of the collaborative note-taking tool can also now move Paper documents to and from freshly created folders on their mobile device, as well as delete and archive files straight from their phone or tablet.

The company has also made it possible to embed Invision and Figma content into Paper documents, whilst a new API endpoint makes it easy for developers to create and edit Paper documents in third party applications.

In addition, Dropbox has refreshed its homepage to further improve document tracking and organisation. Users will now see more information regarding their documents -- including unread activity such as comments, mentions and shares.

The homepage now also displays files and Paper documents that have been recently uploaded, edited, viewed or starred, regardless of the platform the actions where performed on.

The Dropbox enhancements follow hot on the heels of rival service G Suite from Google, which recently rolled out improved collaborative tools and a refreshed version control bar.

24/08/2017

New Google integration brings AI to Box

Cloud storage service Box has announced a new partnership with Google Cloud Vision, bringing advanced machine learning and image recognition to enterprise content.

Available now in private beta, Box says this integration allows businesses to improve their workflows and take advantage of advanced insights into unstructured content.

"Organisations today have no way to extract insights from the massive amounts of unstructured data that are essential to their business, missing a huge opportunity to drive innovation, efficiency, and cost savings," said Box CEO Aaron Levie.

"By combining the machine learning capabilities of Google Cloud with the critical data businesses manage and secure in Box, we are enabling our customers - for the first time - to unlock tremendous new value from their content, digitise manual workflows, and accelerate business processes."

Images are the fastest-growing category of unstructured content stored using Box and the new, Google-powered AI allows businesses to "revolutionise" how they manage them, Box said.

Users can leverage the technology to retrieve important data from images, including individual objects and text through optimal character recognition (OCR) - as well as the ability to add notes and keyword labels for improved filtering.

It also offers faster detection of any quality control issues, Box said, along with enhanced team collaboration through a single project search stream and the creation of digital asset management (DAM) repositories using metadata and saved searches.

08/05/2017

Dropbox announces end of Hackpad service

Dropbox has announced it is closing its browser-based document editor Hackpad, the start-up it acquired back in 2014.

The cloud storage firm says its new Dropbox Paper service is effectively replacing Hackpad by building on its best features and adding new tools, such as improved security, faster searching and improved team visibility.

The collaboration service will close permanently on 19th July, with all Hackpad documents set to be automatically transferred to Dropbox Paper before that date. Users can also choose to migrate sooner or, alternatively, export everything to a zip file.

Those that no longer wish to use the service at all can simply opt out and have their data deleted on Hackpad's closing date.

In a message to users, Hackpad founder and Dropbox Paper lead Igor Kofman said user input has helped shape Dropbox Paper.

"That feedback has been really helpful for designing Dropbox Paper - a product inspired by the Hackpad community," he said. "With millions of docs created by teams around the world, Paper is off to an exciting start.

"Paper takes many of Hackpad's best features - like instant collaboration, comments, and real-time editing - and adds a lot more, including additional security features, faster search and more visibility for teams."

27/04/2017

Box introduces flexible new pricing tiers

Box has revised its Box Platform storage prices in a bid to help developers and businesses better predict their monthly storage costs.

Customers will now be able to choose between three tier options - Starter, Pro and Custom - that Box believes will provide better scalability, customisability and predictability for companies.

Each subscription choice offers different levels of resources for a fixed monthly cost - incorporating MAUs, API calls, bandwidth and storage use - while different subscription lengths can also be chosen.

Box said the revamped pricing options allow Platform to better cater for a range of businesses, from start-ups to larger, more established companies.

"We've combined the best qualities from various pricing models to reduce the friction for businesses of any size to start building on Box Platform," said Jeetu Patel, senior vice-president at Box Platform. "On the one hand, emerging businesses and startups need flexible pricing that makes it easy to scale as their company grows. On the other hand, enterprise buyers prefer predictability to simplify planning."

He added: "Box platform now offers the best of both worlds, changing the game in cloud content management and making it easier than ever before for developers to create engaging and immersive new experiences around content in their applications."

Box will continue to offer its free Developer tier, so developers are able to experiment with its APIs.

10/04/2017

Dropbox launches new and improved website

Dropbox has rolled out a redesigned website that places greater emphasis on collaboration and team conversations.

Announcing the interface overhaul in a blog post, the company detailed a number of key new elements designed to improve user experience and enhance "sharing relationships".

"Dropbox.com is designed to bring your files to life with team-first functionality - so it's not just a place for your files, but for people and conversations, too," Dropbox said.

A new, simplified navigation system now makes it easier to share files and Paper documents, leave feedback and track changes to documents, minimising time spent tracking edits via email. The toolbar has also been redesigned to show only the relevant steps for the file selected.

More information about each document is now available at a glance, with a new thumbnail view allowing users to browse visually - whilst each file and folder also displays the names of other collaborators. Improvements to the search function also make it easier to find required files and Dropbox Paper documents.

Improved account separation now makes it simpler to switch between work and personal accounts, too, with users now only seeing notifications and search results for the account there are working in.

Dropbox additionally teased a refresh of its admin console that will be launching "soon". With a cleaner and more streamlined design, the console will "simplify the way Dropbox Business admins manage their team," the company said.

28/12/2016

Google Drive adds annual payment with discounts

Google Drive has now added yearly subscription options.

Until now, users of the cloud service have only had the option to pay for their storage allowance on a monthly basis. Now, customers can save 16-17 percent by switching to the new annual payment plans.

The annual subscription option is available for the 100GB ($19.99 per year) and 1TB ($99.99 per year) plans, meaning customers save $3.89 and $19.89 respectively. However, users requiring the larger 10, 20 or 30TB options will still need to pay monthly.

The new discounted prices mean that Google Drive now offers the same rates as rival Dropbox for the two storage options.

As Android Police notes, however, the Google Drive support page has not yet been updated to show the new yearly payment pricing – and the plans are not yet appearing on Google Apps accounts just yet either.

Users currently paying for their storage on a monthly plan can switch to annual payments via their Google Account settings.

09/12/2016

Offline folders rolling out for Dropbox mobile

Dropbox has announced new offline folder support for its mobile apps.

It means premium users will soon be able to save documents locally for easy offline access, eliminating problems that can arise in areas of poor connectivity.

The feature aims to boost productivity when working in remote locations - with users simply needing to select the new "Make Available Offline" option for files or folders. Once selected, the app will then sync the requested file or folder to the users' device.

"This feature has been a top request from users," Dropbox explained in a blog post, "so we're excited to bring it to our Dropbox Pro, Business and Enterprise customers."

It added: "With mobile offline folders, you can tag an entire folder to have its contents automatically synced to your phone or tablet - no need to mark individual files for download. Just open Dropbox while you're connected to the internet, and the app will take care of the rest. "

The addition will also allow the cloud storage company to better compete with rival services - such as Google Drive - that already include the function on their apps.

Offline folders will roll out to Dropbox Pro and Business users on Android over the next few days, the company says, while iOS users will receive the feature "early next year".

10/11/2016

Box partners with Skyhigh Networks

Box has announced a new partnership with cloud security firm Skyhigh Networks.

The two will work together to provide greater control for users storing data in the cloud, allowing them to identify and automatically classify sensitive data. Thanks to the new partnership, it will also be possible to implement collaboration control policies - with no change in customer behaviour required.

John Fran, Senior Director at of Product management at Box, said: "As Box Trust Partner of the Year, Skyhigh helps our joint customers address security and compliance challenges at scale.

"Skyhigh's integration with Box for security classification is a powerful solution that enables businesses to enforce granular policy decisions across thousands of users and millions of documents globally."

Research from Skyhigh Networks found that 18 percent of files uploaded to Box contained sensitive data - such as credit card details and health information.

Now, Skyhigh is able to apply data classification to files uploaded to Box (including those previously stored). For example, if a document being uploaded contains protected health information, it is classified automatically -- preventing those without the required authorisation to access the file.

Chris Cesio, VP of Business Development and Channel at Skyhigh Networks, said: "Companies are flocking to Box not only for a powerful work tool, but for superior security.

"With Skyhigh and Box Governance, our joint customers can create a secure collaboration platform that the security and compliance teams love just as much as business users."

More previous news

04/11/2016: Google Drive to end XP and Vista support

Google Drive will no longer support Windows XP or Vista, the company has announced.

The desktop app will cease support for the older Windows iterations on 1st January 2017 - as well as Windows Server 2003.

Google has encouraged users to upgrade to a newer version of Windows in order to take advantage of a maintained Google Drive. The current app will continue to work for XP and Vista users, but potential security flaws will no longer be fixed.

Should users not wish to upgrade, the website version of Google Drive can still be used, as long as the browser supports its features.

In a blog post, Google said: "Today, we're announcing that on January 1, 2017 we will discontinue support for the Google Drive desktop app on Windows XP, Vista and Server 2003 since these platforms are no longer actively supported by Microsoft.

"The Google Drive desktop app (officially: "Google Drive for Mac/PC") will continue to function on these platforms, but will not be actively tested or maintained.

"If you are still on one of these unsupported platforms, we encourage you to move to a newer version of Windows to continue using Google Drive desktop app."

The move follows Dropbox's decision to end support for the operating systems back in April.

11/10/2016: Privacy Shield certification for Dropbox

Dropbox now has Privacy Shield certification, the company has announced.

The accreditation means customers' data will now be protected when transferred from the EU to the United States.

Dropbox had previously relied upon the former EU-US data transfer agreement, Safe Harbour, but the guidelines were scrapped in October 2015 after being declared invalid.

After lengthy negotiations, the new Privacy Shield framework was introduced back in July - and companies have been able to certify themselves since 1st August.

Philip Lacor, EMEA Vice President at Dropbox, said: "Dropbox is committed to protecting the privacy and security of customer data, which is why we welcomed the adoption of the new EU-US Privacy Shield framework providing another mechanism for the transfer of personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the US.

"We applied early to be certified under Privacy Shield and are delighted to announce that we have now received certification."

The European Commission has, however, stated that companies that transfer data from the EU to the US must also abide by the EU's own data protection laws.

Lacor continued: "Protecting our customers' privacy and keeping data secure is our highest priority. In addition to offering technical measures like encrypting files in transit and at rest, we were also one of the first major cloud service providers to achieve the ISO 27018 certification, a global standard for cloud privacy and data protection."

"We will work hard to maintain our Privacy Shield commitments and look forward to the success of the program," Lacor said.

"We support the new framework as a means to protect individual privacy while enabling users and businesses to benefit from the free flow of data that is so critical to the global economy."

16/09/2016: Box announces new Google and Microsoft partnerships

Box has announced improvements for its storage app, with new Google and Microsoft partnerships allowing for a more streamlined user experience.

The cloud-based file storage company is incorporating improved integration of Google Docs, Sheets and Slides to the platform – meaning users will be able to edit documents within the Box app and save them to the cloud.

Support for Google’s enterprise search engine Springboard will also be included within the app and will allow users to search through Gmail, Docs, Calendar and Drive. Additionally, the new partnership means that users can also search through their own Box documents.

Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie said at the company’s BoxWorks conference: “New, simple and powerful connections between Box, Google Docs and Google can power better ways to work in the cloud.

“The combination of Box’s enterprise content platform with Google’s world-class cloud technology will help businesses of all sizes unlock productivity across their organisations.”

Box has also built on its existing Microsoft Office 365 support, with users now able to annotate documents from within the Box application.

Users will also be able to view a timeline of activity for each document – meaning easier tracking and improved transparency.

There is also a new viewer for Excel documents, similarly allowing for editing within the Box app.

In a company blog post, Levie said: “Instead of having different experiences and tools for all of your content, now all of this information can come together in a central place - the all new Box.

“You don't have to worry about losing great work to a battle with version control or important processes being disconnected from the documents and the teams responsible for them, or important ideas being inaccessible by the right people, at the right time.”

18/08/2016: Dropbox looks to go public following $600 million cash injection

Dropbox is apparently planning to float on the stock market in 2017 after announcing it has raised $600 million from various investors in the last few years.

The news comes after Bloomberg spoke to people "familiar with the matter", who told the news agency Dropbox has met with advisors to talk about the possibility of an IPO.

"The conversations were exploratory and no final decision has been made on a potential IPO, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private," Bloomberg said.

Despite having a strong customer base, Dropbox is yet to make a profit. It's free cash-flow-positive, meaning it's in a strong position, but many critics say it's not worth the $10 billion valuation.

With a business customer base of 200,000, the future looks bright for Dropbox, whether it makes the decision to float on the stock market or not.

08/08/2016: Google Drive goes down

Google Drive's cloud storage and file backup service has gone down for many of its customers, although it said only around 1.5 per cent of its customers were affected.

The service was down for around three hours and Google hasn't yet revealed why those users were unable to access their files.

"We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support," the company said. "Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better."

26/04/16

Dropbox debuts Project Infinite to allow easier desktop access to files

Dropbox has unveiled Project Infinite, which it claims “fundamentally reimagines how teams find, access, and collaborate with large amounts of data in their Dropbox.”

The firm says the tools that many people use on to access their data like corporate file servers and newer, browser-based solutions aren’t suited to the way modern collaborative teams work. Project Infinite, it says, will allow users will be able to access all their company files in Dropbox from the desktop, regardless of the size of their hard drives.

“The amount of information being created and shared has exploded, but most people still work on devices with limited storage capacity,” says Genevieve Sheehan, Dropbox project manager. “While teams can store terabyte upon terabyte in the cloud, most individuals’ laptops can only store a small fraction of that. Getting secure access to all the team’s data usually means jumping over to a web browser, a clunky user experience at best.

“Project Infinite will enable users to seamlessly and securely access all their Dropbox files from the desktop, regardless of how much space they have available on their hard drives. Everything in the company’s Dropbox that you’re given access to, whether it’s stored locally or in the cloud, will show up in Dropbox on your desktop. If it’s synced locally, you’ll see the familiar green checkmark, while everything else will have a new cloud icon.”

With project Infinite, every file you’ve been given access to—even ones that aren’t stored locally—will appear in Windows File Explorer and Mac OS X Finder. The firm claims you can drill down through folders to find what you need, without the lag of a network drive or the inconvenience of a web app. Plus, you can view key info like file size, and creation and modification dates through your desktop file system, no downloading required.

Files and folders stored in the cloud can be organised via drag-and-drop from the desktop. And when you need to open something from the cloud, just double-click it like any other file. Dropbox will automatically sync and open the file for you.

Project Infinite also supports cross-platform access and backwards-compatibility on any computer running Windows 7 or higher, or Mac OS X 10.9 and up. IT teams can bring the power of Project Infinite to the systems they manage and you can share and collaborate with ease.

12/04/16

Box Zones unveiled to help European firms get around data storage laws

Box has announced Box Zones, which it says provide enterprises with the choice to store data regionally across Europe and Asia.

By tapping Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM Cloud, Box Zones will allow content in Box to be stored in Germany, Ireland, Singapore and Japan based on customer needs.

Box Zones is scheduled to be available in May for an additional fee and leverages Amazon S3 on AWS Regions in Germany, Ireland, Japan and Singapore. Box Zones is also scheduled to be available via IBM Cloud in Europe and Asia later this year for an additional fee.

“We believe customers should have the freedom to choose where and how their data is stored,” comments Terry Wise, VP of worldwide partner ecosystem, Amazon Web Services. “With Box Zones leveraging Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), customers can better meet the highest levels of security and regulatory compliance required in their respective geographies.”

“As enterprises turn to cloud as an innovation platform, data is at the center,” says Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president, IBM Cloud. “Box Zones on the IBM Cloud, with new technology from the recent acquisition of Cleversafe, will provide a platform for clients who prefer to store data in country for performance, security or other advantages. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Box and helping serve clients in Europe and Asia through our network of IBM Cloud Data Centers.”

08/03/16

OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive leading cloud storage pack in EMEA

According to a new survey that explores IT professionals’ use of cloud-based storage and collaboration, Microsoft OneDrive has been deployed by 31 percent of organisations in EMEA, followed by Dropbox at 30 percent and Google Drive at 21 percent.

The report by Spiceworks also says OneDrive will see the most growth in the next 12 months with an additional 22 percent of IT pros in EMEA considering it for use. When respondents in EMEA were asked to identify which cloud storage and file sharing providers their employees are using without IT approval, 72 percent said Dropbox, 60 percent said Google Drive, and 47 percent said OneDrive.

When IT professionals in North America and EMEA were asked to detail how they perceive cloud providers, Google Drive was most frequently associated with the top two purchase drivers (cost-effectiveness and reliability), but Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox followed closely behind. When it comes to security, OneDrive and Google Drive tied for the lead.

Notably, a significant number of IT professionals didn’t strongly associate any brand with quality customer support.

16/02/16

Box lays off employees in efficiency drive

Box has reduced its UK workforce, as the cloud company tries to become “more efficient”.

Channel Pro’s sister title, Cloud Pro, reports the recent lay-offs amount to around 10 percent of its London-based staff.

As of December 2013, Box had 100 employees based in its London office, which first opened in 2012.

The file-sharing firm said a desire to realign resources was behind the reduction.

Says a Box spokesman: “We have decided to realign our resources between the global and regional offices to be more efficient in our go-to-market strategy. The restructure has resulted in us reducing some regional positions in the UK office.”

Cloud Pro understands the redundancies affect all divisions, including sales and marketing.

Read more here.

15/02/16

Dropbox invests in European business

Dropbox has announced a series of investments in its European business

The firm announced in December it planned to start hosting customer data in local markets in 2016 – it has just confirmed that the data will be hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Germany from Q3 of this year.

In his blog, Thomas Hansen, global VP of sales & channel at Dropbox, said the vendor was committed to the security and privacy of customer data. “We appreciate the hard work of the US and European negotiators to reach a deal regarding transatlantic data transfers and we look forward to hearing more about the “Privacy Shield” agreement in the coming weeks.”

Approximately 75 percent of Dropbox users are outside of the US and the firm says “a significant portion” of that usage is by European businesses and consumers.

Dropbox has also opened a new office in Amsterdam, following its Dublin HQ and offices in London in Paris opened in 2015. In addition it plans to open an office in Hamburg to serve the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) market.

27/01/16

Dropbox announces MS Office integration

Dropbox has announced further integration with Microsoft.

As of today Dropbox users can start working with collaborators on the same Office document – right from their browser. Using Office Online, they’ll be able to see what changes team-mates are making as they make them and communicate with them using comments.

They can also share Dropbox docs straight from Outlook. Files stored in Dropbox will soon be available as attachments within the new Outlook.com. Files can be sent as traditional attachments, or as links to Dropbox.

Office Online co-authoring integration is live today, and Dropbox sharing in the new Outlook.com will be available in the next few weeks.

19/01/16

Box expands IBM deal; Dropbox offers users P2P

In December 2015, Box extended its strategic partnership with IBM (first signed in June 2015) to ensure the pair can work together for at least 10 years.

“IBM and Box are committed to delivering world-class solutions that transform how businesses work,” said Box CEO Aaron Levie.

Big Blue is bringing Box’s expertise to bear on its latest product, IBM Case Manager, which gives case workers access to all sorts of data - from within their company but also including social media and other information.

Box also helped develop IBM Datacap, which is able to lift information from images of documents for users to use them in other applications.

Meanwhile, Dropbox has successfully applied for a patent for peer-to-peer synchronisation, allowing people to bypass its storage servers to share files directly with one another.

Users can collaborate on the files too without them needing to be hosted by Dropbox, under the patent.

Dropbox explained: “Peer-to-peer distributed sharing of the content items in such an online content management system can eliminate bottlenecks, thereby increasing the speed at which the content items can be shared among the individuals.”

It also mitigates the risk of external parties, like hackers or governments, being able to steal files stored with a cloud service.

However, the nature of P2P means that any file changes made by one person would not automatically be visible to the person they were collaborating with.

Dropbox's patent tries to solve this issue by including details of a cryptographic key, which would let them see if they have the latest version of the file or not.

07/12/15

Dropbox claims 5x faster sync time than rivals

Dropbox is claiming a technical lead over its competitors with an independent technology assessment firm finding it is 5x faster than the other solutions evaluated. When comparing averaged sync times head to head, Dropbox for Business was 9.7x faster than Box, 4.7x faster than OneDrive for Business and 2.3x faster than Google Drive.

17/11/15

Box releases Windows 10 version

Box has now released a Windows 10 version of its app, with new features including the ability to receive updates on document changes as they happen, via the Windows notification centre.

Available in the Windows store for PCs and tablets, the app will also have a smartphone version available once Microsoft releases a Windows 10 operating system for mobile.

Dropbox has also signed a deal for Hewlett Packard Enterprise to become a premier reseller, while Ingram Micro and Synnax are now distribution partners.

It has also launched the Dropbox Partner Network to grow its presence in the enterprise space. It allows partners to connect their own applications to Dropbox, offering them APIs to do so.

The network also offers Premier partners enhanced technical resources, marketing development funds, and lead referral bonuses.

Dropbox launches Enterprise storage

Dropbox has also introduced a new tier of cloud storage, titled Enterprise.

Designed to compete with Box's own Enterprise offering, the service boasts more deployment tools, more advanced controls, as well as the features offered in the Dropbox Business product.

An API integrates Enterprise with a company's existing IT systems, while the company's own platform team will help with any custom integrations required. Administrators can migrate existing Dropbox users from their current tiers over to Enterprise with domain verification and account capture tools.

28/10/15

Schools given Dropbox guidance

According to the BBC, some schools in London are being issued advice about using Dropbox and other cloud products among fears about using them following the Safe Harbour ruling (below).

“There’s no new and immediate threat to individuals’ personal data that's suddenly arisen that we need to act quickly to prevent,” the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told the BBC.

Confusion over what is and is not permitted caused Lewisham Council’s information and communications technology chief to email his colleagues last week.

“If you still use Dropbox as a quick-win cloud storage solution for your school please consider that recent changes in rulings regarding the validity of the Safe Harbour Agreement means that data stored outside the EU is now officially at risk for EU based Data Owners - ie schools in the UK!” wrote Neil Iles.

“Please do consider the prompt migration of your data away from Dropbox or other non-EU cloud data services (watch out for iPad Apps that store data in the cloud too!) Currently your data and your ability to demonstrate compliance with the Data Protection Act are at risk by using these non-EU services.”

Dropbox, however, says it has adopted model clause contracts to ensure its EU customers can continue using its service

“We were one of the first, and are still one of the only, major cloud service providers to achieve ISO 27018 certification – a global standard for cloud privacy and data protection,” says a spokesman.

“Along with the rest of the industry, we eagerly await guidance from the European Commission on the revised Safe Harbour framework, which will help determine the most effective long-term solutions.”

20/09/2016

Box Zones unveiled to help European firms get around data storage laws

Box has announced Box Zones, which it says provide enterprises with the choice to store data regionally across Europe and Asia.

By tapping Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM Cloud, Box Zones will allow content in Box to be stored in Germany, Ireland, Singapore and Japan based on customer needs.

Box Zones is scheduled to be available in May for an additional fee and leverages Amazon S3 on AWS Regions in Germany, Ireland, Japan and Singapore. Box Zones is also scheduled to be available via IBM Cloud in Europe and Asia later this year for an additional fee.

“We believe customers should have the freedom to choose where and how their data is stored,” comments Terry Wise, VP of worldwide partner ecosystem, Amazon Web Services. “With Box Zones leveraging Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), customers can better meet the highest levels of security and regulatory compliance required in their respective geographies.”

“As enterprises turn to cloud as an innovation platform, data is at the center,” says Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president, IBM Cloud. “Box Zones on the IBM Cloud, with new technology from the recent acquisition of Cleversafe, will provide a platform for clients who prefer to store data in country for performance, security or other advantages. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Box and helping serve clients in Europe and Asia through our network of IBM Cloud Data Centers.”

Box CEO Aaron Levie has warned that the actions of Google and Facebook are a "contagion" which could result in major organisations losing trust in Silicon Valley as a whole.

Speaking to Recode's Kara Swisher, he said that Box - and, by extension, other enterprise-focused companies - could find themselves suffering if the actions of more well-known tech firms casts doubt over the motivations of Silicon Valley at large.

"The worst-case scenario for us is that Silicon Valley gets so far behind on these issues that we just can't be trusted as an industry. And then you start to have either companies from other countries," he said, "or you have just completely different approaches and architectures to technology."

Even though enterprise-focused tech companies might think that they are separate from the current wave of data-harvesting and privacy scandals by virtue of the fact that they don't handle public data in the same way, the blow-back it causes could potentially result in a loss of confidence throughout the market.

"We rely on the Fortune 500 trusting Silicon Valley's technology, to some extent, for our success," Levie said. "When you see that these tools can be manipulated or they're being used in more harmful ways, or regulators are stamping them down, then that impacts anybody, whether you're consumer or enterprise."

As a company, Box itself isn't worried by the looming threat of increased regulation - something that has been mooted as a potential way to curb the excesses of Facebook and Google. By virtue of the fact that many of Box's customers are in heavily-regulated industries like banking and life sciences, the company is "almost by proxy regulated", Levie says.

The biggest barrier to regulating the largest tech companies, he argued, is that they're so broad and diffuse that it's difficult to apply single regulations to them. Instead, what's more likely according to Levie is the application of separate pieces of legislation regarding individual issues, such as campaign financing, self-driving vehicles and AI use within healthcare.

In order to successfully achieve this, he said, government and regulatory bodies should be staffed with "super-savvy" individuals who understand the industry and the tech which they will be dealing with.

"We have an extremely strong vested interest in ensuring that Silicon Valley and DC are operating effectively," he said. "We care that we get through this mess, and that Google resolves their issues, and Facebook resolves their issues, and so on."

Image credit: Stephen Brashear

Cloud collaboration firm Box opened a new European headquarters in the heart of London's Silicon Roundabout yesterday.

Box's new building will be not just its UK base, but the headquarters for its entire Europe region and the 28,000-square-foot space has been built to accommodate the company's aggressive growth plans, including room for future expansion.

"Our decision to expand our presence here in london was really borne out of a view that this city is the most vibrant tech community in Europe," said Box senior vice president and general manager of EMEA, David Benjamin.

"Shoreditch is fast becoming a center of creativity, innovation and originality which are perfectly aligned to our values here at Box and I'm very confident that this building our new home will act as a symbol of our achievements in the past, our ambitions for the future, but also our determination to create an environment and a space where the most talented people in our industry can do their work."

The office was officially opened by Matt Hancock, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, who praised Box's decision to base its operation in the UK.

"I've followed you since about 2012, when I first heard about the work that you're doing here in London. I'm delighted that you've doubled down on London as the European HQ of Box. I think that is testament to London's vibrancy," he told staff as part of the ceremony.

"You're doing great work not only providing high-quality jobs and vibrancy, and adding to the London ecosystem but helping private companies and vital public services to use technology that's increasingly available to improve people's lives. Ultimately, that is what this technology, used right, can do, and the fact that you're working, for instance, with the Met Police to turn 50,000 police men and women into digital police will help them to keep people safe across London, and that is a classic example of people using tech for good."

The opening of its new headquarters kicks off a busy year for Box, in which it launches several new products, including its first foray into machine learning and artificial intelligence, Box Skills. The company is also focusing heavily on the incoming enforcement of GDPR, Benjamin said, which will come into effect on 25 May.

Main image credit: Adam Shepherd/IT Pro

Box's third quarter financial results show revenue increases of 26%, reaching $129.3 million (96 million), which marginally beat industry estimates of $128.64 million (95 million).

Overall, its losses were higher than the same quarter of 2016 as it invested more money in marketing to compete with other cloud storage services such as Dropbox.

This led to the company's shares dropping by 8.5% as investors expressed concerns it would lose its cash flow positive status. However, values started to rise again shortly after the decrease.

On a more positive note, its user base grew to 80,000 businesses, including some high profile firms such as LionsGate, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the US Food and Drug Administration.

Next year, the company wants to put more focus on innovation following the successful launch of Box Skills, Box using Azure and Box Relay, Box's co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie said in response to the results.

"In Q3, we continued to extend our lead in cloud content management by innovating on our core products and by unveiling new capabilities like Box Skills and Box Graph that will help enterprises bring AI and machine learning to their content in Box," he said.

"By making Box the most intelligent and secure cloud content management platform, we are becoming more and more critical to powering our customers as they modernize their businesses and drive digital transformation."

However, to reach Box's goal of $506 million (374 million) in revenues next year, this will also come with some cost-cutting, the company's co-founder and CFO, Dylan Smith added.

"We are driving operational efficiencies across our business as evidenced by a year-over-year improvement of $21 million in our cash flow from operations to $14 million," he explained, "With our ability to balance innovation, growth and profitability, we are well-positioned to achieve our $1 billion revenue target in the coming years."

What is cloud storage?

Modern cloud storage can be traced back to the early 1990s, when technology firm CompuServe offered its consumer users 128k of disk space to upload stored files.

That space might represent a measly amount when compared to the terabytes of data individuals create and store today on an annual basis, but CompuServe’s approach provided an important stage post towards the modern form of cloud storage.

What such initial developments reveal is how the modern cloud is actually an evolution in technology. Cloud storage – where data is held on virtual servers by third parties – is only possible today because of the coming together of various factors, most notably stellar progress in terms of computing power, storage availability and networking technology.

Who is it aimed at?

Cloud storage comes in two distinct flavours: enterprise-focused approaches and consumer grade services. Consumer file hosting services act like online storage lockers, allowing individuals to store and potentially share data with other users on connected devices.

At the enterprise-focused level are huge suppliers who provide infrastructure-as-a service (IaaS). Market leading services, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Platform, provide elastic storage that business users access through the network. Storage can be reduced or increased on-demand.

Beneath these enterprise providers rests a layer of popular cloud storage specialists. Facilities such as Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Apple iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive offer a small amount of storage provision that can be increased via a monthly subscription. Users can access their information online through dedicated apps and portals.

There is, however, a large amount of crossover between enterprise-focused provision and the more popular services. Box, for example, started as an enterprise specialist before moving into the consumer market. Dropbox, on the other hand, became hugely popular amongst consumers, many of who then wanted to download the service onto their enterprise devices.

Many of the larger cloud storage specialists are starting to expand their offering to offer wider flexibility for customers, enabling them to mix and match vendors to get the best of all worlds. Microsoft, for example, rolled out an update for the StorSimple 8000 series, allowing customers to use their preferred cloud services as the backend storage for their StorSimple solution.

The update now supports Amazon S3, Amazon S3 with RRS, and OpenStack-based clouds, such as HPCS - HP's cloud solution that offers public, private, hybrid, and managed private clouds based on OpenStack technology. Data, backups and other management processes can be carried out from the Azure StorSimple service, making it easier to manage, too.

Guru Panga, general manager of Hybrid Storage at Microsoft explains: "At Microsoft we continue to deliver innovative and important hybrid cloud storage solutions globally – and I am excited to see our customers embracing our new innovations. With StorSimple Update 1 we can now deliver even more cloud connectivity, automation, redundancy and data migration capabilities to our customers."

How does it impact the market?

Spending on the cloud is such that Gartner recently lowered its growth expectations for the traditional server and storage systems market. This reduction was due to a higher than previously anticipated switch to cloud-based services. The analyst says the cloud storage market continues to evolve rapidly, with increased signs of price competition and consolidation amongst suppliers.

Cloud services will remain a hotbed of enterprise activity in 2015, reports IDC, with $118bn in spending directed towards the greater cloud ecosystem. The research says there will be brisk growth (36 percent) in the adoption of IaaS provision. It also expects market leader Amazon to come under attack from a range of directions, as suppliers focus on new services.

Growth is such that IDC expects spending on public cloud services to grow from $56.6bn in 2014 to more than $127bn through 2018. This represents a five-year annual growth rate of 22.8 percent, which is about six times the level for the overall IT market. By 2018, IDC estimates public cloud services will account for more than half of worldwide software, server, and storage spending growth.

However security still remains to be a big concern for organisations and it could be sticking point for some organisations in the months ahead. A report by CTERA revealed that almost three quarters of businesses are considering an alternative to public file sync and share technologies and this is providing a huge opportunity for private cloud storage service providers.

In fact, a report, by the Cloud Industry Forum explains that security is the biggest barrier to companies signing on to use cloud services in the UK. 70 per cent of those surveyed said data security was the biggest thing stopping them from moving their infrastructure to the cloud.

Data privacy was the biggest single concern, with 61 per cent of respondents saying it was preventing them from exploring the cloud, while 40 per cent said loss of control/manageability of their IT systems was a key issue.

CIF chief executive Alex Hilton said: "As stated previously, hybrid will be the modus operandi for the majority of organisations for the foreseeable future, being either not yet ready to move everything to the cloud, or unwilling to.

"There are a number of contributing factors here: fear of losing control of IT systems, security and privacy concerns, and lack of budget currently stand in the way of greater adoption of cloud by businesses."

This means private cloud infrastructures are becoming more prevalent, with the report revealing that 59 per cent of companies prefer to a sign up to a private cloud FSS solution run either on hosted private infrastructure or in their own datacentre.

Rani Osnat, VP of Strategic Marketing at CTERA comments: “Cloud storage is simplifying and accelerating data services across the enterprise. However, an increasing number of data leakage events, and a desire to exercise more control over file sharing and data protection are forcing organizations to investigate and deploy alternatives to public cloud storage services.

“In our second year of research, the trend continues, demonstrating that organizations are leveraging cloud storage for efficiency gains and cost savings, while combatting security, control and governance requirements with virtual-private or fully-private topologies.”

Points of interest

As with other areas of the cloud, security concerns remain paramount for IT leaders who are dealing with online storage, particularly when it comes to the blurred interface between personal and enterprise cloud storage. CIOs must dedicate time to people and policies, outlining carefully which cloud storage providers can be used and what information can be stored online.

Even then, errant individuals will still find ways to circumnavigate policies. The risk of an information compromise will be huge for a business, both in terms of reputation and the potential cost of a fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office. The perceived security risk of the public cloud means a large sub-market exists for companies who provide specialist tools and training.

Channel Pro opinion

Cloud storage has transformed the way individuals and companies store and use data. The speed of that transformation has been rapid and the pace is only likely to quicken. With analysts pointing to tremendous growth in cloud storage spending during the next few years, IT leaders must embrace the change and work with employees, senior executive and technology partners. Successful businesses will create a cloud storage strategy that provides flexible, yet secure, access to information from any location.

Cloud-based identity management vendor Okta has marked its first 12 months in Europe with news it has signed up 60 customers and 30 local channel partners across the region.

The San Francisco-based firm provides directory services, single sign-on, strong authentication, provisioning, workflow, and built-in reporting to enable IT departments to manage user access across any application, person or device. UK customers include Gatwick Airport, Peterborough Council and M&C Saatchi.

Speaking at its European Cloud Summit in London, Okta EMEA VP, Philip Turner, explains: “We set out 12 months ago with an aggressive growth plan — which we’re delivering against furiously. We’ve built a strong UK sales and marketing team and we are seeing the fruits of our labour in the high-calibre customers and partners participating in today’s event.”

Okta claims more than 75 percent of its sales are indirect in EMEA, but this includes its relationships with technology partners such as Box. Pure channel sales currently account for less than 10 percent of its total sales in the region.

However, Bill Fitzgerald, VP channel sales worldwide tells Channel Pro that the firm is investing in the channel with the goal of winning mindshare – including recently revamping its certification process, shortening the timescale of partner certification from 6-10 months to just four days.

“We see a lot of value from LARs – they talk to a lot of prospects about identity,” says Fitzgerald, who reveals that he is due to speak with two major channel companies while visiting London this week.

He adds that Okta is aiming for 25-35 percent channel sales worldwide, and in EMEA he “would expect it to be more.”

The vendor currently divides its sales channel into two parts: the Okta Technology Alliance (OTA) comprises technology partners such as Box and ServiceNow, while its Okta Solution Partners (OSP) are VARs and SIs that integrate cloud and mobile technologies into their customers’ existing infrastructure.

Cloud-based identity management vendor Okta has detailed its plans to build out its indirect channel as it ramps up its European operations.

The San Francisco-based firm provides directory services, single sign-on, strong authentication, provisioning, workflow, and built-in reporting to enable IT departments manage user access across any application, person or device.

With its European HQ in London, Okta has had a presence in the region since September 2013, and counts Gatwick Airport and Peterborough Council as customers in the UK. It is headed-up in the region by VP of EMEA, Philip Turner.

The vendor currently divides its sales channel into two parts. As part of the Okta Technology Alliance (OTA) it partners with a number of ISVs such as Box and ServiceNow to connect their products with Okta to enable single sign-on, simple and secure directory integration, and/or user provisioning.

Meanwhile its Okta Solution Partners (OSP) are VAR and system integrators which are looking to integrate cloud and mobile technologies into their clients’ existing infrastructure.

VC-backed Okta says more than 75 percent of its sales are indirect in EMEA, which it reckons is unusual for a vendor which is still relatively early into building out its EMEA business.

According to Bill Fitzgerald, VP channel sales worldwide at Okta, the majority of the vendor’s channel business is delivered in conjunction with referrals from its OTA (ISV) partners.

“This is more of a reflection of the maturity of our ISV relationships and the need to have channel partners engaged in the sales and professional services process of our deal. As we continue to grow our business within the region and scale our channel ecosystem (system integrator, security and Microsoft partners), we expect the majority of our partner deals to come directly from our channel sales ecosystem,” he says.

Currently the firm is working with around 15 ISVs in EMEA and has five partners signed up to its OSP programme.

However Fitzgerald says that the company is looking to partner with 15-20 new OSP partners: “We’d rather recruit a smaller number of committed partners than a larger number of partners who aren’t equally committed to us or that we’re unable to properly support. It’s very much a vision of quality over quantity.”

He says Okta is splitting its partner recruitment plan into a number of areas.

The firm is trying to replicate some of the work its US team has been doing with a number of the global systems integrators, such as CGI and Avanade.

In EMEA, it is also targeting regional cloud integrators and consultancies that have built business around cloud advisory, implementation and integration services, including Microsoft-centric partners deploying Office 365 and smaller, specialist consultancies that have a niche practice deploying Google Apps, Salesforce.com and ServiceNow.

“We’re also working with some of the more traditional VARs in the market due to their wide customer base and ability to quickly help us scale,” says the exec. “Lastly, we’re working with some of the specialist IT security and identity management consultancies.”

While there are a number of players in the evolving identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) market, Okta claims its “true IDaaS” offering – which it defines as solutions which don’t require any on-premise servers to work – is cheaper, quicker to implement and offers better user experiences and simplified administration compared to on-premise identity & access management solutions offered by the likes of Oracle, CA or IBM.

“With the way the market is evolving, it’s services that can help our partners transition their business from being based around legacy services and software, to cloud-focused integrators, consultancies and resellers – something that most, if not all, partners are currently investigating,” claims Fitzgerald.

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UPDATE: Okta's statement that 75 percent of its sales are indirect in EMEA includes relationships with tehnology partners such as Box, rather than its own channel sales.

The burgeoning enterprise file sync and share market has been the subject of countless column inches over the last 12 months – driven to some extent by cash-rich Silicon Valley start-ups with ambitious growth plans.

Today the UK channel officially welcomes another player to the pack in the form of California-based Egnyte. Active in the US for a number of years, the firm has now taken its first baby steps into the UK channel by signing up its first partners, Stafford-based 848 Group.

After closing a $29.5m a Series D funding round in December 2013, the privately-held firm said global expansion was on the cards, and that it would make strategic investments in product development, sales and marketing.

One key investment was the appointment of former NetApp and EMC channel bigwig, Jeff Nollette, as its VP of channels in April this year. (The vendor had also announced former-EMC exec Mark Rattley was on board for the role of general manager for Europe, but he later accepted a job at SAP.)

Despite this investment, Egnyte continues to proceed cautiously when it comes to building out its European organisation. While it claims to have a few people on the ground acting as consultants to partners and customers in the region, the firm says it is waiting to hire the new GM for the region before launching any channel recruitment campaigns.

“We want to make sure we’re aligned with his go-to-market strategy for the region before we recruit the partners we’re going to go to battle with,” explains Bart Giordano, Egnyte’s sr. director of business development, who says the plan is to have “one or two partners in half a dozen countries or so.”

Explaining Egnyte’s channel base in the US, Nolette says: “There are two ways we’re going to market; with MSPs and with the traditional VARs. We’re having great traction with the MSPs – this is just another service that they offer and we’re having fantastic results.

“On the VAR side, we’re at beginning of hockey stick. We do have a number of partners signed, who are mostly in the training and enablement stage, and a few that are further along putting together go-to-market bundles.”

Cloud is “not enough”

Egnyte’s slogan is “the cloud is not enough”, and it aims to distance itself from its competitors by offering customers a choice of cloud-only file access, on-premise storage access or a combination of the two. The firm says this hybrid approach to file services enables the channel to take advantage of continued on-premise storage sales as well as third-party software integrations, such as Google Drive and DocuSign.

In addition, Egnyte’s software runs on hardware from storage vendors NetApp, Netgear and Synology, which all have established indirect sales channels. The firm adds that EMC might also “be coming down the pipe pretty soon.”

“Customers like to have the option,” says Giordano, adding that Egnyte’s ‘and/or’ offering is ideal for companies such as legal or finance, or companies that don’t want to host their sensitive data in the cloud.

“Our most popular solution is the hybrid solution; our Storage Sync product that allows customers to sync directly from the cloud onto a local storage array. No-one else in the market can sync like that. That’s a key differentiator for us,” says Nollette.

Viable business model?

Clive Longbottom, founder of analyst Quocirca cautions that Egnyte is stepping into a crowded market. “There are also Huddle, Citrix ShareFile and several others who offer a hybrid or an ‘and/or’ approach, which makes differentiation difficult. Top this up with IBM, EMC and other behemoths who can offer similar services in an ‘and/or’ model, and it doesn't look so cosy for the likes of Egnyte. That more people are becoming more comfortable with a pure cloud environment also makes life difficult for them in the mid to long term,” he warns.

“However, for those who still do have issues around their perceptions of the security of information or the location of information in the cloud, the likes of Egnyte do offer a viable alternative to just storing everything in an enterprise document management system where migration to the cloud at a later date may be difficult.

“The key is in reaching critical mass through offering additional value-add services to survive.”

But it was Egnyte’s hybrid approach which attracted 848, which says it works with vendors that understand that “every end-user company had an existing IT strategy and any of the benefits of working in the cloud would need to be ‘folded into’ an existing budget cycle and set of decisions that had already been made.”

Elsewhere Egnyte has also been publically dismissive of its much bigger rivals; in particular taking swipes at fellow Silicon Valley start-up Box, which landed in the UK with a bang last year.

Egnyte, which is backed by venture capital firms, and has so far, raised $62.5 million from investors. This compares with Dropbox’s total of $607m; and Box with $414m and has plans for an IPO valued at $250m.

But in numerous interviews Egnyte CEO and co-founder Vineet Jain, has argued that while its rivals are well funded, their freemium business models cost a lot of money to maintain, which is why they’ve had to raise large amounts of capital.

“We have plenty of money in the bank and our burn rate is significantly less than our competitors,” says Nollette. “We don’t have any issues about running out of cash next year.”

US cloud-based file sharing and backup company Box is has taken a significant step in building its UK sales channel with the signing of its first distributor, SDG, and three new VARs: Softcat, Bytes Software and Comparex.

The company used its first European customer conference in London to outline its ambitious plans for growth.

Box, which was founded by CEO Aaron Levie and CFO Dylan Smith in 2005 as a college project, provides a secure content sharing platform that can be accessed through smartphones and devices, and extended to partner applications such as Google Apps, NetSuite and Salesforce.

The California-based firm – which has doubled customer growth in Europe just since landing in the UK in June 2012 – has signed up ex-McAfee EMEA president, David Quantrell, as its general manager for EMEA. In turn, he has recruited his former colleague, Wayne Cook, to expand Box’s European channel base. (The two previously worked together at McAfee, Mercury Interactive and Clarify.)

Meanwhile, ex-Sophos cloud services business development manager, Neil Furby, will head up the firm’s UK channel operations.

Currently 15 percent of Box’s business comes from outside of the US, with “much of that” emanating from the UK, according to Quantrell. But the firm’s aggressive and well-funded growth strategy has seen Quantrell spend much of his time so far hiring new employees. Since last June, Box has grown its London team to 40 people, and yesterday revealed plans to shortly open offices in Paris and Munich.

The latest partner signings bring Box’s UK channel partner total up to 22. Cook says the firm has also identified, and is in discussion with a further 15-20 key partners.

“European businesses are primed to transition from traditional legacy IT solutions to more user-friendly, flexible and scalable cloud platforms,” says Quantrell. “Increasingly, a company’s ability to facilitate collaboration, while securely managing information, is critical to their competitiveness.

“The channel is looking for a way to be relevant in this new cloud environment,” he adds.

“Simple, secure content-sharing is a crucial element of any workplace, especially in set-ups where employees work from home or from their own devices,” says Matt Helling, networking & security manager at Softcat.

“There’s a real need for greater security, where users can be sure that company information is protected and accessible only by registered users. Softcat is delighted to be able to provide our customers with these scalable sharing solutions through our new partnership with Box.”

At present 30 percent of the company’s UK business goes through these partners, but Cook wants to see a dramatic increase in this figure: “A lot of SaaS companies talk about the channel, but are 95 percent direct. We want to be the reverse of that,” he maintains. “We want to be channel, with direct sales an exception.”

Commenting on working with SDG, Cook comments: “It gives us the value aspect of the channel, plus the broadline capabilities of Tech Data.”

The channel exec says the firm is seeing particular success in such vertical markets as construction, education and legal.

Box has 150,000 business customers and 15m users globally – including 92 percent of the Fortune 500. In Europe customers include O2, EMI, BAA and the BBC.

The company recently received the highest rating in Gartner’s MarketScope report on Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing.

“Our global growth speaks to Box’s ability to deliver a collaboration platform built for the post-PC world,” comments CEO Levie.