Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Introducing Box Sync for Business

By

Take a look at your organization. For each of your coworkers, you’ll find a corresponding computer – a computer where content is created, edited and stored. At a 20-person company, this translates to 20 information silos, where valuable business content is effectively locked on a single desktop. At a 500-person company, you have a serious problem on your hands.

At Box, we believe that your organization’s content becomes infinitely more valuable when it is centralized and accessible to the right people. We’ve spent the past five years leveraging the power of the web to build a cloud content management platform that can serve as the hub for all your business content. The cloud is the future of content management and collaboration, but the vast majority of content today is still created on the desktop…and often ends up staying there.

Today, we’re excited to share that we’re launching Box Sync for our business customers, creating a bridge from your desktop to Box. We’ve designed Box Sync specifically for the needs of business users, giving you the power to:

  • Select what you sync: Choose specific folders that you access the most
  • Sync collaborative folders: Colleagues and partners can automatically access the most up-to-date content
  • Rely on sophisticated conflict management: Designed to handle situations like simultaneous edits or deleted files

At its most basic level, Box Sync is all about making sharing easier than ever before – you can now share new and updated content with collaborators automatically, straight from your desktop.

To get started, just download the Box Sync desktop client, which will create a “My Box Files” folder under “My Documents.” To sync a Box folder with your desktop, all you have to do is right click the folder and select “Sync Folder to Desktop.” The folder will appear in your “My Box Files” folder, and any changes you make will be communicated to your fellow folder collaborators and also included in your Box “Updates Tab.” It’s that easy.

We’ll be rolling out Box Sync to our business and enterprise customers for free in waves throughout this summer – businesses that are eager to get started with Box Sync sooner can contact their sales rep to get prioritized. And because we believe that connecting the desktop to cloud content management is core to the Box platform, we’ll also be making a modified version available to “Lite” and “Individual” users later this year.

We’re really excited about this feature, and hope you are too. With Box Sync, we’re providing a seamless on-ramp to the cloud, so you don’t have to think twice about whether your content is shared with the right people or accessible across other platforms and devices. Once Box Sync is enabled for your business, take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

Post by Aaron Levie, Co-founder and CEO

  • Hans

    Will this function available to all users?

    • ashley

      Hi Hans – we’re starting with our business customers since we’ve built this version for collaboration, but we’ll be rolling out a modified version of Sync to the rest of the user base later this year. Stay tuned!

  • http://www.willrobertson.ca Will

    Would love to see this feature available to free Lite users soon!

    • ashley

      We hear you! We’re starting with business, but we think it’s a pretty core part of our platform and will be making a modified version of Sync available to the rest of our user base later this year.

  • Denis

    Where’s the download?

    • ashley

      Hi Denis – we’re rolling Sync out to our business customers in waves over the summer. If you’re a business customer and want to get started sooner, you can contact your sales rep to get prioritized. Thanks!

  • Pingback: Eagle M-2010 Fire Department Box with Knox Key Switch | on line savings accounts

  • Pingback: Introducing Box Sync for Business « Box.net's blogs | Business and Financial News

  • Pingback: Introducing Box Sync for Business « Box.net's blogs | Business and Financial News

  • Pingback: Introducing Box Sync for Business « Box.net's blogs | Chordband.com - World Of Business

  • Pingback: Introducing Box Sync for Business « Box.net's blogs | Chordband.com - World Of Business

  • Steven

    Will this be available for Mac OS X?

    • ashley

      Hi Steven – yes! We’ll be releasing Box Sync for Mac OS X later this year. Stay tuned!

  • http://www.marken-boxershorts.de Box Fan

    Hey, very good article – I’m trying box at the moment :)

  • Pingback: Living On The Edge With Ford | Tim Brydges

  • Pingback: Eastern Trout Fly Fishing Flies Sampler Plus Fly Box | Reel Sports Recreation

  • Pingback: Keeping the Lights on: Box Triples Enterprise Revenue in H1 2010 « Box.net Blog – Learn about Box.net's latest Features, Interviews, and More

  • John

    This is kinda “back to the future”…. Us longtime box users remember the early days in 2006 where Desktop Sync was a hot topic, often promised, never realized…

    http://blog.box.net/2006/05/16/news-finally/

  • ashley

    Hi David – good question! The current version of Box Sync is really designed for a business collaboration use case, with features like sophisticated conflict resolution. Some of the challenges faced by businesses with hundreds or thousands of users might not be applicable for personal use, so we’ll take that into account for the version for Lite and Individual users.

  • John

    This is kinda “back to the future”…. Us longtime box users remember the early days in 2006 where Desktop Sync was a hot topic, often promised, never realized…

    http://blog.box.net/2006/05/16/news-finally/

    • mark

      I’m glad we’re following through with that promise now, John :) . Thanks for being a longtime Box fan!

  • Pingback: Scan to Box with Lexmark Printers – The Cloud is Only a Few Taps Away « Box.net Blog – Learn about Box.net's latest Features, Interviews, and More

  • Eric

    Any update on when box sync will be available for Mac? I am currently using the trial version of the business product and so far I love what I see but the lack of syncing to desktop files would be a deal killer for me. It sounds like it is in the works, just wanted to find out if there is a release date on the horizon. Thanks!

    • Mark Saldana

      Hi Eric,

      We don’t have an *official* release date at the moment, but I can tell you that the entire team is working really hard on it! We know it’s a feature that a lot of people really want, so we’re trying to get it out as soon as we can.

      Mark

  • http://raidious.com Brian

    Checking back in on the Mac version – ETA?

  • Russell

    I saw in one of the thread comments that Box Sync for the Mac was supposed be released “later this year.” Just curious if that is actually going to happen (there are only a few weeks left!).

    • Mark Saldana

      Hey everyone,

      Thanks for all of our questions about Mac Sync – it’s definitely still on our radar! We apologize for the delay, especially since we know this a feature that a lot of our customers want. It should be out early next year, but please keep checking our blog and twitter (@boxdotnet) for updates. We promise to get it out asap!

      Mark

  • Martyn

    I’d just like to add my support for the Mac version of box sync. We are business users and we like Box.net, however we have also recently converted to a Mac business, the lack of folder sync is a big missed opportunity.

    Thanks.

  • Torgeir

    Thanks for the update Mark, is it possible to be slightly more specific?

    Does early meen in the Jan/Feb or the first half of 2011?

    Will there be a beta/preview release?

    Thanks!

  • Martijn

    Adding my vote for the Mac syncing. If the sync is good, and available to light users too, Box may beat Dropbox.

  • Jason

    Please add this for the mac. This is the only thing holding me back from moving my company from Dropbox to Box.net.

    • Mark Saldana

      It’s coming very soon (early 2011), we promise!

      Mark

  • http://Www.phoenixbankowned.com Ofir

    Jason…. X2….. Ready to move both of my companies from drop box as soon as Mac desktop sync is ready.

  • http://www.bestsavingsbanks.com Day Light Savings 2010

    lease add this for the mac. This is the only thing holding me back from moving my company from Dropbox to Box.net.

  • Sarah

    Adding my voice to the call for Mac support.

    I’m opening a dropbox account today because I couldn’t keep waiting for the Mac box.net version of this to come out. Sadly, our needs for cloud-based synced files have become too pressing to keep waiting.

  • Neal

    Where is box sync for the Mac????

  • R10

    Where is Box Sync for Mac?

  • Anson

    You guys should check out Joukuu.com, it’s for all box.net users!