According to foreign media reports, if employees use Dropbox, the Enterprise Information Technology department may not be surprised. However, this does not mean that they will store confidential files on cloud services that they cannot control. Now, Dropbox is trying to curry favor with these corporate information technology departments and try to sell them enterprise-version cloud services Dropbox for teams.
Launch Dropbox for teams service for enterprise
Consumer technology products have been moving deeper into the workplace, such as iphones, Gmail and Skype, and Dropbox is now ready to join the ranks. "The role of the entire IT department is changing as people have the ability to use the equipment they buy to complete their work tasks." "Dropbox is just the latest example," said Ted Schadler, a workplace analyst at Forrester Research, a marketing firm. ”
However, the Dropbox for teams service has a long way to go for large enterprises to accept. "Because it doesn't have the security and the control that the enterprise IT department needs," Chedelles said. ”
Dropbox is now the hottest start-up in Silicon Valley, with venture capitalists valuing it at $4 billion trillion. Its newest service for businesses is to get paid users and to consolidate its position in the fast-growing file-sharing business.
Its current rivals include large companies like Google, Apple and Amazon, which offer increasingly sophisticated technologies for storing, sharing, and synchronizing files, as well as small companies like Box.net, YouSendIt and SugarSync. This month, the Citrix Bae Company acquired Sharefile Cloud storage services, and BlackBerry maker Rim bought Newbay Cloud storage services company.
Dropbox allows people to access a variety of files, such as documents, pictures, and music, on any device anywhere, without annoying uncompressed files or bulky e-mail attachments. When people edit these files, all devices access the latest files through Dropbox. Most people are using the service for free and pay a certain fee for parts that go beyond the free storage space.
Safety performance to be strengthened
Founded in 2007, Dropbox now has 45 million users and is kept on top of more than 2 billion files a week. But it also makes some people worried. In June, a security invasion led to the exposure of Dropbox accounts for hours, and a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission (mini-advertisements Commission) said Dropbox had misled users about privacy.
Dropbox claims that it uses the same security measures as banks. The files that users store on them are encrypted, and Dropbox also restricts their employees from accessing these files. However, this security level is equivalent to only one password set by the user. Dropbox said it was working on a dual authentication technique to allow people to enter a second password to send to their phone to access their account.
"These are things that we take very seriously, because our reputation and the trust of our users is the key to our success." "Chenli Wang, head of the business and sales team, said Wang. At present, millions of users have registered their work e-mail, and Dropbox estimates that at least 1 million companies are using the service.
Powerful Enterprise Tools
Enterprise Cloud services Dropbox for teams provides 1000G of storage space and telephone customer support, and gives the enterprise IT department the right to add or subtract users. Now, the starting price for this enterprise cloud service is $795 a year for every five users.
A bakery in California, Susiecakes, has been testing Dropbox for teams services, sharing petty cash reports with external lawyers and exchanging documents. Houston Striggow, co-founder of Susiecakes Bakery, said the service was better than Microsoft's file-sharing service, Windows Live SkyDrive, "for us, it is really a powerful enterprise tool that can greatly improve our efficiency." ”
However, analysts Chedelles said that before companies widely adopted the service, Dropbox needed features such as security controls to automatically prevent people from sharing confidential documents or storing company documents on their own computers. Dropbox says it is developing new features, including dual security and collaboration tools.
Schadler said that among Dropbox's rivals, Box.net was the furthest away in the corporate market. Google is also catering to corporate users, using tools such as Google Docs, which allow employees to work together on the same document, and Chromebook laptops, which keep all files online, allowing users to access them on any computer. The company is also said to be launching a file-sharing service.
Sujay Jaswa, vice president of business development and sales at Dropbox, says the company's services are very helpful for large companies because it enables the ipad, Android handsets and PC computers to work together.
(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)