ownCloud Releases Latest Enterprise Sync and Share Alternative

Oct. 11, 2012 - PRLog -- ownCloud Inc., the company behind the world's most popular open source file sync and share alternative, released its latest version today, giving companies even greater scalability, performance and control over their files. The company also announced general availability of the community edition.

With significantly faster upload, download and sync of files – even very large files -- a re-factored sharing engine, greater and more granular administrative control, and greater integration with popular business tools, ownCloud 2012 Business and ownCloud 2012 Enterprise give companies the security and control they need while providing end users the flexibility and ease of use they demand.

Unlike simple apps such as Dropbox and Box, which store data at remote third-party data centers, ownCloud can be deployed on site, seamlessly integrating with existing security, storage, monitoring and reporting tools, giving IT managers unprecedented flexibility and control over corporate data.

“Companies world-wide are beginning to realize that in order to better control the data that employees are sending in and out of their enterprise, they need more than an iPad app and third-party storage,” said Markus Rex, CEO, ownCloud. “ownCloud provides companies the software they need to retain control while giving end users a user-friendly, device-independent way to get their job done.”

Built through active community development and support, the latest ownCloud adds innovative features like sub-admins for groups – the ability to assign a sub-administrator to a group to handle account management, desktop fast syncing – which reduces server load and enhances the sync algorithm for a faster, quicker, better sync with far less load on the server, enhanced permissions – more granular permissions so end users can determine who can do what with shared data, new user-management back ends – so ownCloud can authenticate against remote WebDAV, IMAP, Samba and FTP servers, and enhanced logging – so that administrators have a complete and auditable history for each file on the server.


Major Enhancements

·        Faster syncing: Using a unique ID and algorithm, the sync mechanism now compares file and folder IDs to identify which to sync, rather than time stamps. This removes the need to have times in sync on desktops and servers, and has the added benefit of dramatically reducing the load placed on the ownCloud server.

·        Sub-administrators for groups: Administrators can now assign one or more admins to groups on the ownCloud system, enabling ad-hoc group access and facilitating sharing amongst employees, and between employees, contractors, suppliers and partners.

·        Mounting of external storage: Administrators can now mount external cloud storage (Dropbox, Google, Swift, S3, etc.) and decide whether it is to be accessible by the entire user population, a group, or a specific user. Users can now do the same, providing the first ever file sync and share capability across multiple cloud services, using ownCloud as the single point of access.

·        File versioning: Uploading a file with the same file name in the web interface will now offer the option to replace, rename or cancel the upload. If the file is replaced, the versioning app will store the previous version, improving collaboration capabilities on non-connected ownCloud devices.

·        Enhanced Sharing: Users can now provide more granular permissions when they share a file or folder, including create, update, delete and share rights, can set expiration dates for shared files, and can also set a password on the URL to access a shared link, and much more, all within a significantly faster and more scalable sharing engine.

·        Reworked LDAP module: The popular and widely used LDAP and AD sharing engine is now hardened and enhanced for larger implementations, providing all users enhanced performance when leveraging existing enterprise directories.

Features only available in ownCloud Business, Enterprise and Education Editions

·        Oracle Support: Use Oracle as the database back-end for ownCloud.

·        Logging module: Extensive logging of file-related actions, logs, who accessed what, when and from where. This assures the ability to audit the system.

·        Dynamic user storage: Route users to the storage appropriate for their role and need - no more one-size-fits-all storage.

With more than 650,000 users world-wide, ownCloud offers the ease-of-use of Dropbox, with the flexibility, sophistication and security that can only be provided by software installed on site. ownCloud users can host their own data sync and share services on their own hardware and storage, use popular public hosting and storage offerings, or both – true hybrid cloud storage.


About the ownCloud Community

ownCloud began at a KDE community event in 2010, aiming to bring greater flexibility, access and security to data in the cloud. ownCloud enables universal access to files through the widely implemented WebDAV standard, providing a platform to easily view and sync contacts, calendars and bookmarks across devices while supporting sharing, viewing and editing via the web interface. Installation has minimal server requirements, doesn’t need special permissions and is quick. ownCloud is extendable via a simple, powerful API for applications. For more information, please visit: http://www.owncloud.org.


About ownCloud Inc.

Based on the popular ownCloud open source community project, ownCloud Inc. was founded in 2011 to bring greater flexibility, access and security to unstructured data in enterprises. Company headquarters are in Boston, with European headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany. For more information, visit: http://www.owncloud.com.