Box cozies up to large scale users, debuts new admin tools
Enterprise cloud-based file sharing service Box strengthened its offering on Thursday, announcing new features that will simplify management for IT administrators. The new functionality allows for greater control over security, and the ability to enable enterprise-wide search.
The company also debuted new pricing structures that enable larger companies to adopt its services with more predictable pricing. This is a move away from the traditional per-seat model of the past, and makes cloud storage more cost-effective for large enterprises.
Box counts 11 million users including 120,000 businesses -- 82 percent of the Fortune 500. Box's most recent changes are in direct response to requests by users, and take into account the more widespread use of the cloud in the enterprise versus the isolated deployments of the past.
The changes to search within Box are evidence of this. Searching was previously limited to individual accounts. With the new admin console, administrators now have the capability to search across the entire enterprise, making it much easier to view files and folders and understand how they are being shared both within and outside an organization.
"Enterprises are realizing transformative gains by adopting the cloud, but there is a need for technology that provides deeper visibility, control and data security", Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie says.
Box has improved mobile security, enabling passcode locks for file access on mobile devices and more control over offline file access, and the ability to support more than one domain in a Box enterprise deployment. It is also introducing new logging capabilities to track items comments, tasks and sharing files.
The company says this will be especially useful in industries such as finance and healthcare, where such data must be kept to ensure regulatory compliance.
On the subject of pricing, Box's new Enterprise License Agreement will make large-scale cloud users happy. Instead of a per-seat cost, larger users will be able to enter into multi-year licenses with Box at a fixed rate. This will allow them to plan better for IT costs and will simplify the administration of large contracts.
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