Enterprise file synchronization and sharing

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Enterprise file synchronization and sharing (also known as EFSS and enterprise file sync and share) refers to software services that enable organizations to securely synchronize and share documents, photos, videos and files from multiple devices with employees, and external customers and partners. Organizations often adopt these technologies to prevent employees from using consumer-based file sharing apps to store, access and manage corporate data that is outside of the IT department’s control and visibility. [1] [2]

Contents

Key characteristics

EFSS applications are often characterized by having most or all of the following features and capabilities: [3] [4] [5] [6]

Depending on what an EFSS provider offers, services can be deployed using cloud computing, on-premises, or hybrid. According to Forrester Research, some EFSS providers can provide the ability to lockdown data in certain geographies for companies that have requirements to store content/metadata in specific jurisdictions. [8]

History

Box, one of the first EFSS products, was originally developed as a college project of Aaron Levie while he was a student of the University of Southern California in 2004. Levie left school to run the company full-time in 2005. [9]

In 2007 Dropbox was founded, and officially launched at 2008's TechCrunch Disrupt conference. The same year, Microsoft began beta testing of Windows Live Folders, a predecessor of OneDrive. [10]

Around 2010, the EFSS market emerged with over 100 vendors from a variety technology backgrounds including backup and cloud storage (Citrix ShareFile, Syncplicity), managed file transfer (Accellion, Biscom, Box, Hightail, Thru), enterprise content management and more. Many were developed as alternatives to consumer file sync and sharing services that did not have security features in place to protect company information nor the flexibility to integrate with existing content repositories and business applications. [11] [12] [13] [14]

In October 2011, software company, Citrix Systems, announced that it had acquired private enterprise file sync and share service, ShareFile, to add to the Citrix product line. ShareFile was a competitor of Box and Dropbox but focused on selling its product to IT departments of large organizations. [15] [16]

In 2012, CTERA Networks entered the EFSS market. [17]

In July 2013, Forrester Research released the first “Forrester Wave” report on the EFSS market where they identified and scored products from the most significant providers. [18] [19] [20]

On June 25, 2014, Google announced at its I/O Conference that it was entering the enterprise file sharing market with the release of “Google Drive for Work.” [21] [22]

In July 2014, Gartner Research released its first “Magic Quadrant” report on the EFSS market. The study evaluates the strengths and cautions of the most notable vendors in the industry. [23] [24]

In October, 2014, encrypted vendor Tresorit entered the EFSS market with Tresorit for Business. [25] [26] Tresorit is a competitor of Dropbox and Box, promising businesses more security and privacy compliance with End-to-end encryption. [27] [28]

In April 2015, BlackBerry Limited paid between $100 million and $150 million to buy WatchDox Ltd. for its enterprise file sync and sharing capabilities. [29]

In July 2015, one EFSS vendor, Syncplicity, was sold to private equity firm, Skyview Capital, by previous owner, EMC Corporation. [30] [31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citrix Systems</span> American software company

Citrix Systems, Inc. is an American multinational cloud computing and virtualization technology company that provides server, application and desktop virtualization, networking, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing technologies. Citrix claims that their products are used by over 400,000 clients worldwide, including 99% of the Fortune 100 and 98% of the Fortune 500.

Nuxeo is a software company making an open source content management system.

Wrike, Inc. is an American project management application service provider based in San Jose, California. Wrike also has offices India, Dallas, Tallinn, Nicosia, Dublin, Tokyo, Melbourne, and Prague.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Box, Inc.</span> Cloud content management program

Box, Inc. is a public company based in Redwood City, California. It develops and markets cloud-based content management, collaboration, and file sharing tools for businesses. Box was founded in 2005 by Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith. Initially, it focused on consumers, but around 2009 and 2010 Box pivoted to focus on business users. The company raised about $500 million over numerous funding rounds, before going public in 2015. Its software allows users to store and manage files in an online folder system accessible from any device. Users can then comment on the files, share them, apply workflows, and implement security and governance policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ShareFile</span> Collaboration software

ShareFile is a secure content collaboration, file sharing and sync software that supports all the document-centric tasks and workflow needs of small and large businesses. The company also offers cloud-based or on-premises storage, virtual data rooms and client portals. ShareFile is owned by Citrix Systems.

This is a comparison of online backup services.

Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox was founded in 2007 by MIT students Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi as a startup company, with initial funding from seed accelerator Y Combinator.

This is a comparison of notable file hosting services that are currently active. File hosting services are a particular kind of online file storage; however, various products that are designed for online file storage may not have features or characteristics that others designed for sharing files have.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syncplicity</span>

Syncplicity is a file share and synchronization service developed by Syncplicity Inc. The service lets users store and synchronize files between computers. It supports Microsoft Windows and macOS.

Gladinet, Inc. is an American corporation co-founded by Jerry Huang and Franklyn Peart in 2008 in Lake Worth, Florida. The company provides cloud computing software, including an on-premises, enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS) platform. The on-premises version of the platform is available for service providers and enterprises. There is also a team edition.

Secureworks Inc. is an American cybersecurity company. The company has approximately 4,000 customers in more than 50 countries, ranging from Fortune 100 companies to mid-sized businesses in a variety of industries.

Tervela Inc. is a privately held American information technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, and New York City, New York, United States, founded in 2004 that provides information technology related services across the United States.

AvePoint, Inc. is an independent software vendor of SaaS solutions to migrate, manage and protect data in Microsoft 365. AvePoint was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. The company also has offices in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore, and China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CTERA Networks</span> Multinational enterprise software company

CTERA Networks is a privately held enterprise software company headquartered in New York and Israel. The company has regional offices in the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Australia. As of 2021, the company is designated as the leading vendor in distributed cloud file storage by GigaOm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Levie</span> American entrepreneur (born 1984)

Aaron Winsor Levie is an American entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box.

Tresorit is a cloud storage platform that offers functions for administration, storage, synchronization, and transfer of data using end-to-end encryption. More than 13,000 companies use Tresorit to protect confidential data and share information securely. It is also used widely by Government organizations and NGOs as well as privacy-conscious individuals to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access and data-breaches.

A mobile workspace is a user's portable working environment that gives them access to the applications, files and services they need to do their job no matter where they are.

Citrix Cloud is a cloud management platform that allows organizations to deploy cloud-hosted desktops and apps to end users. It was developed by Citrix Systems and released in 2015.

DryvIQ is a software application that enables businesses to migrate on-site system files and associated data across storage and content management platforms, as well as create synchronized hybrid storage systems.

AppSheet is an application that provides a no-code development platform for application software, which allows users to create mobile, tablet, and web applications using data sources like Google Drive, DropBox, Office 365, and other cloud-based spreadsheet and database platforms. The platform can be utilized for a broad set of business use cases including project management, customer relationship management, field inspections, and personalized reporting.

References

  1. ↑ Robb, Drew (21 May 2013). "Ten Things You Need to Know about Enterprise File Sync and Share". www.enterprisestorageforum.com/. IT Business Edge. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  2. ↑ Rouse, Margaret. "Definition of EFSS (Enterprise file sync-and-share)". searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/. TechTarget. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  3. ↑ Rodriguez, Andres (3 December 2015). "File Sync & Share: When Worlds Collide". www.informationweek.com/. UBM Tech. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  4. ↑ Backaitis, Virginia. "Enterprise File Sync & Share Solutions: What's the Difference?". www.cmswire.com/. Simpler Media Group. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  5. ↑ Ladi, Ananda Rao. "Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) in the cloud". www.itproportal.com/. IT Pro Portal. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Zurier, Steve. "Businesses Embrace Enterprise File-Sharing Tools for Security, Flexibility". www.biztechmagazine.com/. CDW. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Schedule transfer, move or backup data from one cloud storage to another Archived 2017-09-30 at the Wayback Machine .
  8. ↑ McKinnon, Cheryl (19 May 2016). "Navigate The Crowded Enterprise File Sync And Share Market By Asking These 3 Questions". www.forrester.com. Forrester Research, Inc. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "'I was having nightmares for a few weeks': Box CEO Aaron Levie reveals how hard it was to build a $2.5 billion business and take it public by age 29". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  10. ↑ Windows Live Folders
  11. ↑ Dubash, Manek. "Cloud file-sharing for enterprise users". www.computerweekly.com/. TechTarget. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  12. ↑ Darrow, Barb. "Who will be the 'Dropbox of the enterprise?' The race is on". www.gigaom.com. Gigaom. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  13. ↑ Wexler, Steve. "Significant Churn Forecast For EFSS Market". it-tna.com. IT-TNA. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  14. ↑ Sliwa, Carol. "Enterprise file sync and share expands in 2014". searchcloudstorage.techtarget.com/. TechTarget. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  15. ↑ Wauters, Robin (13 October 2011). "Citrix Acquires ShareFile, The "Dropbox For Enterprises"". www.techcrunch.com. TechCrunch. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  16. ↑ Savitz, Eric. "Citrix Buys ShareFile". Forbes . Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  17. ↑ James Bourne (July 27, 2015). "Gartner's enterprise file sync and share Magic Quadrant offers surprises and opportunities". CloudTech.
  18. ↑ Schadler, Ted. "Who are the leaders in the file sync and share market?". ZDNet . CBS Interactive. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  19. ↑ Backaitis, Virginia. "Forrester Names 6 Top Cloud File Sharing Vendors". www.cmswire.com. Simpler Media Group, Inc. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  20. ↑ Schadler, Ted; Koplowitz, Rob; Keitt, TJ; Kark, Khalid; Smith, Andrew. "The Forrester Wave™: File Sync And Share Platforms, Q3 2013". www.forrester.com. Forrester Research. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  21. ↑ King, Rachel. "Google intros Drive for Work as new premium option for Apps users". ZDNet . ZDNet. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  22. ↑ KOKALITCHEVA, KIA (25 June 2014). "Google Drive now has 190M users & a brand new tablet app for presentations". venturebeat.com/. VentureBeat. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  23. ↑ Backaitis, Virginia. "Gartner Rates Enterprise File Sync and Share Vendors". www.cmswire.com/. Simpler Media Group. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  24. ↑ Arlotta, CJ. "Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing". talkincloud.com. Penton. Archived from the original on 2016-07-14. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  25. ↑ "Tresorit Brings DRM To Cloud Data". Forbes.
  26. ↑ "Tresorit Launches Its Secure Sync And Share Product For Business". Forbes.
  27. ↑ "Cloud Storage Startup Tresorit Raises $3M To Put Security Spotlight On Dropbox, Box And Others". TechCrunch. May 2014.
  28. ↑ "Updated UI and expanded data control features come to Tresorit's Business plan". Neowin.
  29. ↑ Lopez, Maribel. "BlackBerry Snaps Up WatchDox For Content Security". Forbes . Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  30. ↑ Konrad, Alex. "EMC Sells Box Competitor Syncplicity To Private Equity Shop Skyview". Forbes . Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  31. ↑ Clark, Don. "EMC to Sell Dropbox Rival Syncplicity". www.wsj.com/. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
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