Box is #4 in Top 10 Cloud Storages

Positions in ratings

#4 in Top 10 Cloud Storages

Alternatives

The best alternatives to Box are: DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, Zoho WorkDrive

Latest news about Box

2021. Box acquires eSignature startup SignRequest for new content workflows



Box announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire e-signature startup SignRequest for $55 million. The acquisition gives the company a native signature component it has been lacking and opens up new workflows for the company. While Box has partnerships with other e-signature vendors, this gives it one to call its own, one that will be built into Box starting this summer. As we have learned during this pandemic, the more work we can do remotely, the safer it is. Even after the pandemic ends and we get back to more face-to-face interactions, being able to do things fully in the cloud and removing paper from the workflow will speed up everything.

2020. Box adds new collaboration capabilities



Box is adding some new collaboration functionality in face of pandemic. For starters, they are offering a cleaner interface to make it easier for users to interact with and share files. They are also helping users organize those files with a new feature called Collections, which lets them group their files and folders in ways that make sense to them. This is organized on an individual basis. Next, they are adding an annotations capability that makes it easy to add comments either as a single editor or in a group discussion about a file. Think Google Docs collaboration tools, but for any document, allowing an individual or group to comment on a file remotely in real time, something many folks need to do right now. Finally, external partners and customers can share files in Box from a special landing page.


2020. Box adds automated malware detection to Box Shield security product



Box announced it was adding automated malware detection tools to Box Shield, the security product it announced last year. The company is taking a three-pronged approach with this solution. For starters, it will let users view a file without actually having to download it first, while indicating if there is a risk associated with it. Next, it will actually prevent users from downloading a file with malware attached. Lastly, it will alert the security team when a file with malware has been uploaded to Box.


2018. Box acquired workflow automation startup Progressly



Box purchased Progressly, a startup that focuses on workflow. In 2016 Box launched own workflow tool called Box Relay along with a partnership with IBM to sell it inside large enterprises. It's useful for well defined processes inside a company like contract management or employee on-boarding, but Box wanted to expand on that initial vision to build additional types of workflows. The Progressly team will help them do that. It should allow Box to build workflows that not only run within Box, but ones that can integrate and intersect with external workflow engines like Pega and Nintex to build more complex automation in conjunction with the Box set of tools and services. This could involve both internal employees and external organizations and moving content through a much more sophisticated workflow than Box Relay provides.


2017. Box applied AI to content management



Box has just unveiled Skills and the related SDK, Skills Kit. With these new offerings, organizations and developers now have the ability to pull insights from their massive content stores in Box data sets and apply machine learning to release the intrinsic commercial value in that content. Box is previewing three initial Box Skills, using machine learning tools from Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure to solve common business use cases: Those use cases include: Image recognition (detecting individual objects and concepts in image files, capturing text through optical character recognition (OCR), and automatically adding keyword labels to images to easily build metadata on image catalogs), Audio Transcription & Analysis (uses audio files to create and index a text transcript that can be easily searched and manipulated in a variety of use cases), Video Indexing (analyzes video files to provide text transcription, topic detection and indexing, and facial recognition).


2017. Box introduced Box Elements - pre-packaged content services for developers



Box introduced a new developer tool Box Elements, pre-packaged application pieces designed to deliver Box functionality with a few lines of code. Eventually there will be three types of Elements: UI, app and services. Today, the company is launching the UI pieces, which include Content Uploader, which lets developers add drag and drop file capability into any application; Content Explorer, which lets developers insert Box file navigation in any application; Content Preview, which lets developers display any of 120 different file types inside an application including interactive video; and Content Picker, which enables developers to insert file picking capability inside an application. While none of these sound like earth-shattering capabilities, each one would require a fair amount of development time to build from scratch. What Box is offering here is the ability to implement them quickly with little or no content expertise required.


2017. Box introduced desktop app Box Drive


Box unveiled Box Drive, a desktop application that works on Windows and MacOS. Users will be able to credit, edit, find and share files without pulling up a web browser. The desktop app makes it easier to access the cloud because it creates just another drive on your computer like your C drive, so inherently you’re interacting with your local file experience. The app itself is free, but large enterprises like General Electric, P&G and The Gap pay Box for added functionality. Existing customers will have access to the full range of Box Drive capabilities. Earlier this month, Box announced integration with Apple’s new Files app. It will be another way to access Box documents across iOS devices.


2016. Box Zones will let you choose storage from IBM and AWS



Enterprise file collaboration service Box announced Box Zones - a product that lets customers choose a storage component from another vendor, enabling customers to store files in-country when their privacy laws require it. Initially it will work on Amazon Web Services in Ireland, Germany, Japan and Singapore, but the plan is to expand that over time adding new zones using IBM data centers later this year. Eventually Box hopes to make it flexible enough to add any approved storage you like. The product will allow customers in Asia, the Middle East and Europe with legal and regulatory requirements to store their content in-country using third-party storage, and still use the Box service and everything else it brings to the table.


2014. Box introduced new mobile web interface



Cloud file collaboration service Box announced the newly updated mobile web site (m.box.com) and accessibility site (a.box.com). Now Box mobile web users will enjoy the same intuitive navigation and visually appealing interface that Box native mobile apps offer – without having to install a mobile app. In addition to refreshing the layout and visual design, Box added a set of new features, including high-fidelity HTML5 document previewing, improved collaboration, which now includes inviting and managing collaborators, fine-grained file sharing controls for setting and modifying shared links, support for Box Notes, optimized performance so the site loads faster, especially over cellular networks. The new file preview experience makes sharing your content easy, even on the go. Now when you send a shared link to someone outside of your organization, they can preview and comment on your Box content right from their mobile web browser.


2014. Box unveiled world's first industry specific file storage


File storage and sharing market has become very tough. Pricing tend to zero, and the cloud space - to infinity. Support of all platforms - is no longer a competitive advantage, but a must-have feature. So providers have to invent something new. For example, Box decided to create file storage services for specific industries - retail, medicine, media, education, etc. What is the difference of storing and sharing files in retail and medicine? Well, there is no big difference. But Box marketers have created interesting videos and custom web pages for each industry. Anyway, it's nice when service provider understands the needs of your business. In addition, next year Box developers will add the business processes component - Box Workflow with process templates for different industries.


2014. Box Notes is available on Android



Box updated its Android app and added the lightweight document editor Box Notes to it. With the latest version of Box for Android, you’ll be able to create, view and edit Box Notes just like you do on the web. Box Notes on Android features seamless integration into the native menus, allowing for all the basic editor features you’d expect: cut, copy, paste, bold, italic, underline, bullet list, numbered list, indent and outdent. Besides, it’s now possible to create checklists using Box Notes (on the web and in mobile apps) and the interface is translated to all of supported languages. The Box for Android update also comes with a ton of additional new features to enhance your productivity, including recently opened files, advanced settings for shared URLs and fine-grained admin controls.


2014. Box gives businesses unlimited storage, adds Office 365 integration



Box CEO Aaron Levie announced that Cloud Wars are over. At least in terms of cloud storage costs. From now, the normal price of this resource is zero. In other words, Box cloud storage for business now has no limit on the size and number of files that your employees can upload to your online account. Recall recently Google launched the enterprise version of Google Drive also with unlimited cloud storage. Besides the unlimited storage, Box introduced integration plugins for Office 365. First plugin - for Outlook - allows you to quickly attach file links to emails from Box (instead of sending files). Second - for desktop Office editors - allows to open documents from Box online storage and save them backward.


2014. Microsoft is already afraid of Box



We started to watch the confrontation Box vs Microsoft since those times when Box was a little and impertinent startup that trolled MS Sharepoint. And now Microsoft is seriously afraid of it. The recent post in Microsoft's blog, which announced another round of OneDrive cloud storage price cut was called "Thinking outside the Box". And Microsoft has every reason to worry and cut prices. Recently Box announced the signing of new client - General Electric. This is 300,000 users and tens of millions of dollars per year - were apparently taken away from under the nose of Microsoft. Also today, Box has added to its service the promised online text processor Box Notes, which will compete with MS Word in the near future.


2013. Box provides 10 Gb for free and new cheap version for small business


SaaS file collaboration service Box - is cool. Usually the startups like Box having reached big numbers (180 thousand business customers) and signing big corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Eli Lilly, EA and NBC Sports - forget about individual users (free accounts), and small businesses and focus on making money. But Box - doesn't forget. Recently Box increased the free cloud storage limit for individuals up to 10 GB and added the new cheap version for small businesses: 100 GB for $5/month/user. This is approximately 2 times cheaper than (for example) Dropbox. And don't forget that Box - is not just a cloud store, but also collaboration workspace with access control, comments, tasks, version history, file synchronization between devices, mobile access, online editors.


2013. Aaron Levie answered to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Information Technology



This question may sound in different manner, for example: "What's better, iPhone or Android?", or "What to choose, Amazon or OpenStack?", or "Who will win, Skype or SIP?". In other words, what's better: a finished product made by one vendor or open ecosystem, where you can select the best components from different vendors? Last week news helped Aaron Levy (Box.com CEO) to find the answer for this Ultimate question. Of course, finally, he came to the conclusion that is beneficial to him, but his ideas are anyway very interesting (original here).


2013. Box makes friends with Big Guys. Gives 50 Gb for free and forever



File storage and collaboration service Box was a startup not far ago. And now they're making friends with IT giants. Recently, IBM and Oracle have integrated their products IBM Connections and Oracle Fusion Applications (respectively) with Box's cloud storage. And now Box together with Dell is offering the joint strange promotion - everyone can get 50 GB of cloud storage for free and forever on condition ... Okay, without any conditions, just like that. And you don't have to buy or own Dell computer. Moreover, Whitney Bouck, GM of Enterprise for Box (pictured) recently said “There’s one camp that is all about sync and share — that’s not that interesting. It’s a commodity and probably should be free. Collaboration — making it easier to work together — is where it gets interesting”.


2012. Aaron Levie Gangnam Style dance on BoxWorks stage. Box new version



After enchanting Dreamforce conference there was another big conference Oracle Open World. But this time, Larry Ellison gave us no interesting reason to post news about it. Conclusion: do not buy anything from Oracle, they are so boring. But the BoxWorks conference, recently held in San Francisco, was not less interesting than Dreamforce and Box CEO Aaron Levy - is a showman, no worse than Marc Benioff. For example, during his keynote, he danced Gangnam Style (photo). The Twitter founder Jack Dorsey calls Levi his favorite entrepreneur and the funniest tech CEO. But Box makes not only show, but also business. According to the latest data, Box is already used by 92% of the Fortune 500 companies and by 14 million users in total.


2012. Box and Dropbox implemented two-step login verification



Online file storage and sharing service Box continues to prepare for competition with Salesforce. At this time Box developers decided to significantly improve the security features. The main new thing - is two-factor authentication. If you enable it in your account, you'll receive SMS-message with security code every time you log in (just like it works in GMail). Box also added new features for business account administrators, allowing them to monitor the new files that are uploaded and shared, and receive alerts about any suspicious activity (for example, if a user starts download a lot of files at once). Another Box competitor, Dropbox has implemented the two-factor authentication back in August. And today, they added a new feature to the admin panel in business version Dropbox for Teams, that allows admin to see who on their team has turned on two-step verification, and email those who haven’t, directly from the control panel.


2012. How Box is going to fight Salesforce? Speed.


Today the Dreamforce conference is launching and maybe all our news this week will be about new Salesforce products. One of them - the online file storage service - ChatterBox, maybe will be the the worst news ever for the Box.net. According to rumors, Marc Benioff decided to create this Box rival in response to the escape of some Salesforce execs to Box. The confrontation between the two companies started even despite the fact that Salesforce is one of the Box shareholders. But Box - is not already a baby start-up, which will be holding its breath and waiting until the big brother destroy its business. Box is making one step forward. Right before the Dreamforce launch Box introduces its new global data transfer network Box Accelerator, which enables to speed up the data upload speed to Box.net by 10%. Box now declares that it allows to upload data 2 times faster than Google Drive and 4 times faster than DropBox. After all, the speed is important for your business, isn't it?


2011. Box.net is getting serious about SharePoint with another $81m of funding



A couple of years ago it was funny to watch the cheeky advertising by Box.net, in which the startup attacked the giant SharePoint. But it turned out that Box.net can not only do a noisy PR, but also can effectively run its business and develop the high-quality product. This week the company raised another $81 million of investments from SAP and Salesforce, and its market value was estimated at $600 million. Box.net currently has 100 thousand customers (7 million users). 77% of Fortune 500 companies use Box.net. And this summer the startup succeeded in signing its biggest contract - with Procter & Gamble for 18,000 seats. Box.net is the mobile collaboration market leader according to Forrester. So what is the secret of their success?


2011. Box.net connects Microsoft Office, Windows and Mac to the Cloud


Box.net CEO, Aaron Levy, came up with a new beautiful term "Smart Enterprise". Aaron opposes it Benioff's "Social Enterprise", hinting that a company (and business applications) in result should smart rather than social. And the main goal of business application is not to connect person to person but to connect person to needed content. So in general, all this stuff is quite abstract and unclear, but it sounds good and perfectly fits into Box.net mission - to provide a single, centralized cloud content repository for Enterprise. Box.net wants to integrate content from all (isolated) business applications, computers, mobile devices, offices to ensure that each employee can access the right content at the right time. To achieve this, Box.net has released two major components: Box for Microsoft Office and Box Sync.


2011. Forrester calls Box.net the leader in mobile collaboration



Forrester Research, the technology and market research company decided to create a report on the mobile collaboration market. Why mobile? After all, there are no purely mobile collaborative solutions. Mobile access - is just a feature in such systems. But apparently, this feature has become so important that it deserves a separate report. So the results of Forrester research - on the chart. The results - are quite strange. For example, Google (which provides the cool mobile access to almost all their services) is behind the most leaders. And Microsoft - is absent (while it's new department Skype has the best mobile strategy). But the chart leader - Box.net is really showing the great progress in recent months.


2011. Google and Box.net prepare to meet Office 365



Next week Microsoft will officially launch its online office suite Office 365, and of course, the major competitors, Google and Box.net, want to spoil this party. First, they have integrated their solutions. Now Box.net users can edit any stored document in the Google Docs online editors. In addition, they can (in just one click) create new documents in Box.net folders by opening Google Docs apps. Recall that Box.net also features the similar integration with Zoho Docs, so now users will have a choice. Box.net CEO, Aaron Levy, says that he played with the beta version of Office 365 and that it’s lacking the power and functionality of the bunch Box + Google Docs.


2011. Amazon Cloud Drive vs. Microsoft SkyDrive vs. Google Docs vs. Box.net



Last week, Amazon launched the new online file storage service Amazon Cloud Drive. And taking into account reputation of Amazon, as the online storage market leader, this event, of course, deserves our attention. Let's consider the advantages and disadvantages of this service compared to key competitors. The main parameters - are shown in the table (below). It's turns out that the main advantage of Amazon Cloud Drive - if free 5GB account  with maximum file size of 2GB. However, its main drawback negates this advantage: you can not share this large file with anyone. Amazon Cloud Drive doesn't allow to share files publicly or protected by password. I.e. the only way of using this service - is a private storage for backup or enhancing your productivity.


2011. Box is getting realistic about Sharepoint


As known, Box.net always positioned itself as a Sharepoint alternative. The entire marketing strategy of Box.net has been built on Sharepoint criticism. They created billboards criticizing Sharepoint, distributed T-shirts with the sign "No Sharepoint", collected negative reviews about Sharepoint in Twitter, etc. But business - is business. And Sharepoint - is Sharepoint. This is perhaps the most successful IT system over the last several years. And it's linked to so many others business applications that persuading a company to change Sharepoint to something else - is unreal. So Box.net accepted this fact and came up with the new strategy: now Box.net will be the front-end to Sharepoint. And also to others ECM systems.


2011. New Box.net: more simple, social and with App Store



Business applications should be simple - this is the favorite phrase of Aaron Levy, the founder of collaboration service Box.net. And the main feature of the new Box.net version is again more simple and intuitive interface. It was very simple before also, but Box.net developers continue to redraw and rearrange buttons, icons, menus to make the users even more happy. The new interface is implemented on HTML5 and it allows to open and view files online faster. Also, there are new convenient tools like instant pop-up notifications (imitating Windows tray notifications) and drag and drop support for moving files between folders. In addition, now it's possible to attach discussions not only to files but also to folders. It's useful for discussing projects.


2010. Cloud Content Management - the future of ECM?



Recently we have taken a look at what stage is the introduction of Enterprise 2.0 technologies in the ECM systems. What will these systems look like in the future? Perhaps they will look like Box.net. At least, Aaron Levy, the founder of Box.net believes it's true. He even invented the term "Cloud Content Management" as an alternative to Enterprise Content Management. While this term is mainly for marketing purposes, however, some Box.net ideas really can become the basis of ECM 2.0. The main promise of ECM is creating a unified information space in enterprise. ECM is intended provide user a unified access to all data, regardless of in what repositories/applications this data is stored. But what if a company uses one or more SaaS-applications from different providers?


2010. Aaron Levie: Enterprise apps are sexy



A few years ago (like many startupers now) Aaron Levie, Box.net founder, was making a choice - what service to create. Now he tells why he had chosen the business application. Of course, every entrepreneur wants to create something cool and sexy, something that people will like - he says. And it's usually associated with such projects as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. But Aaron is sure that it's time for business apps to become "sexy." For many years, enterprise IT systems looked just as sexy, as Steve Ballmer in bikini. Due to the lack of competition (when a partner network was the major success factor), they were complicated, awkward and expensive. The emergence of SaaS and Cloud Computing technologies enables young companies relatively easily deliver new business apps. As a result, the market becomes more competitive, and forces IT systems to change.


2009. Online file collaboration: DropBox Vs Box.Net



DropBox and Box.net - are, probably, the most popular and successful online file sharing and collaboration services. And though they use two different approaches to the SaaS file storage, they both have alike strategy, supposing constant upgrades and new features development. During the recent months both services did a good job and it's interesting to compare their results.


2009. Box.net has partnered with Fuze Meeting



Box.net has partnered with Fuze Meeting to add real-time online meetings and screen sharing to its online office suite. Using Fuze as part of your Box account will allow you to conduct meetings, share your desktop (which requires a download), and upload your Box files to a Fuze collaboration space. Box has added the Fuze Meeting support as part of its OpenBox system, which allows users to share their files with a plethora of services. Everything from Gmail to Zoho and beyond can be connected to a Box account, so this is really just another addition to the ecosystem for Box. But Fuze is competing against some extremely entrenched services, namely WebEx and GoToMeeting. To draw in Box account holders, an enterprise user base that is naturally more open to new SaaS tools, might be a big boost in its quest to gain market share.