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Looks like for years, we've been saying that Amazon will likely try and compete with Dropbox and Box. Looks like that time has come. Having used Dropbox for pe

Looks like for years, we've been saying that Amazon will likely try and compete with Dropbox and Box. Looks like that time has come. Having used Dropbox for personal stuff, and Box for work stuff, I have to say, neither has completely fit my needs. Sure, Dropbox is great for working within small groups/teams, and for personal syncing. Sometimes the sharing functionality gets a bit wonky, but definitely the best implementation by far. Box works decently well in the work environment, but it is definitely clunkier than Dropbox in a lot of respects. No one liked using Box where I worked (FB). On my own, I've found that the most of my clients don't use any of these. In fact, they still try to run things on FTP sites! As a result, I've had to adapt to them and use Citrix ShareFile. It actually serves a different purpose than Dropbox or Box. It's a drop-in replacement for sending/receiving files to people within and outside your organization. I can silo off folders to specific users, companies, etc. I can send a link to folks asking them to upload files to me. It's definitely fit the bill in a lot of respects. So internally, I still use Dropbox. But I don't expose that externally to my clients. It seems that Amazon Zocalo is trying to compete with Google Drive, by allowing you to edit files in the browser, and integrate with your existing IT infrastructure. Not a bad tactic, but I think the service that will do really well in enterprise is one that merges the functionality of ShareFile into Dropbox, with IT integration.

sergiotapia 12y ago
I -hated- my time with Box. It was extremely confusing to use and terrible to find things once I closed the tab and returned. I remember always feeling lost.
- colmvp 12y ago
  You're not the only one. I know so many people who are forced to use Box at notable tech companies in SF and absolutely hated it compared to using Dropbox.
ihnorton 12y ago
> I think the service that will do really well in enterprise is one that merges the functionality of ShareFile into Dropbox, with IT integration. EMC Syncplicity is targeting that usecase (no idea how well it works, yet).
zomgbbq 12y ago
I was just at the keynote in NYC. I didn't hear them mention anything about allowing you to edit files in the browser. The only thing I saw demonstrated was preview of documents with comments collaboration but no create/update functionality. It felt like a read-only version of Google docs with commenting.
- Alex3917 12y ago
  They said they store different versions, so I assume you can edit word docs. But they didn't explicitly demonstrate that.
  - nicpottier 12y ago
    Doesn't seem like one follows the other and having a full editing of Word docs seems unlikely given the complexity of the format. My guess is that the 'different versions' is just that, if you save a new version then they save that away, not that you get to edit online.
meritt 12y ago
I tried using Box for a similar reason (I needed a way to securely share multiple files and/or folders with external clients in a way that did not require them to install software or sign-up for some service) and it just doesn't work. I also desired a way to automatically upload new content to this platoform. No dice. After emailing with 6 different Box employees (all ignoring my requests and trying to sell me on shit I didn't ask for, then would just pass me onto someone else) I was finally told that I could only do that if I paid for an enterprise "call for pricing" license. Sigh. I'm using a http-auth secured index-of directory for now. If anyone has a superior suggestion, I'm all ears.
- techload 12y ago
  One alternative: ownCloud running on a vps. I have a 500gb plan with vpsdime for US$7/month (and you can upgrade up to 2tb). owncloud 7 is just to be released in one or two weeks with several improvements, including server to server sharing.
- terpua 12y ago
  Try using Insync with Google Drive. Right-click on a local folder/file and copy the private link. https://insynchq.com https://insynchq.com I'm a co-founder.
  - trueway 12y ago
    With companies like similarweb [1], collecting click stream from millions of (unaware) users via various browser extensions, you can pretty much forget about the "private link" concept. [1] http://similarweb.com http://similarweb.com
  - dublinben 12y ago
    I thought we learned this week that "private links" for sharing documents are horribly insecure. I'm pretty sure they want it to still be password protected, which ShareFile is.
    - tedchs 12y ago
sliverstorm 12y ago
The hangup is, Dropbox does a pretty good job of being invisible, while in my experience creating slick software is one of Amazon's greatest weaknesses.
gitah 12y ago
Amazon was competing with Dropbox ages ago with Amazon Cloud Drive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=cd_def?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&docId=1000796931 http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=cd_def?ie=UTF8&*Ve... It does Desktop folder syncing just like dropbox. I wonder how this new AWS service is going to interact with Amazon Cloud Drive as they seem to be similar products but one is aimed at Consumers and the other is aimed at the Enterprise.
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
I'm enjoying pydio for file sharing outside of our lan. Its a FOSS LAMP app and its pretty slick. I put it on one of our Linodes and off we go. No need to pay for some cumbersome licensing or yet another cloud provider per app/user. http://pyd.io/ http://pyd.io/
- cheez 12y ago
  What about security?
jdmichal 12y ago
We use Accellion Kiteworks [1] at my place of employment, serving much the same purpose as you describe for Citrix ShareFile. Works very, very well as an FTP replacement. [1] http://www.accellion.com/ http://www.accellion.com/

sergiotapia 12y ago

I -hated- my time with Box. It was extremely confusing to use and terrible to find things once I closed the tab and returned. I remember always feeling lost.

colmvp 12y ago
You're not the only one. I know so many people who are forced to use Box at notable tech companies in SF and absolutely hated it compared to using Dropbox.

ihnorton 12y ago

> I think the service that will do really well in enterprise is one that merges the functionality of ShareFile into Dropbox, with IT integration. EMC Syncplicity is targeting that usecase (no idea how well it works, yet).

zomgbbq 12y ago

I was just at the keynote in NYC. I didn't hear them mention anything about allowing you to edit files in the browser. The only thing I saw demonstrated was preview of documents with comments collaboration but no create/update functionality. It felt like a read-only version of Google docs with commenting.

Alex3917 12y ago
They said they store different versions, so I assume you can edit word docs. But they didn't explicitly demonstrate that.
- nicpottier 12y ago
  Doesn't seem like one follows the other and having a full editing of Word docs seems unlikely given the complexity of the format. My guess is that the 'different versions' is just that, if you save a new version then they save that away, not that you get to edit online.

meritt 12y ago

I tried using Box for a similar reason (I needed a way to securely share multiple files and/or folders with external clients in a way that did not require them to install software or sign-up for some service) and it just doesn't work. I also desired a way to automatically upload new content to this platoform. No dice. After emailing with 6 different Box employees (all ignoring my requests and trying to sell me on shit I didn't ask for, then would just pass me onto someone else) I was finally told that I could only do that if I paid for an enterprise "call for pricing" license. Sigh. I'm using a http-auth secured index-of directory for now. If anyone has a superior suggestion, I'm all ears.

techload 12y ago
One alternative: ownCloud running on a vps. I have a 500gb plan with vpsdime for US$7/month (and you can upgrade up to 2tb). owncloud 7 is just to be released in one or two weeks with several improvements, including server to server sharing.
terpua 12y ago
Try using Insync with Google Drive. Right-click on a local folder/file and copy the private link. https://insynchq.com https://insynchq.com I'm a co-founder.
- trueway 12y ago
  With companies like similarweb [1], collecting click stream from millions of (unaware) users via various browser extensions, you can pretty much forget about the "private link" concept. [1] http://similarweb.com http://similarweb.com
- dublinben 12y ago
  I thought we learned this week that "private links" for sharing documents are horribly insecure. I'm pretty sure they want it to still be password protected, which ShareFile is.
  - tedchs 12y ago

sliverstorm 12y ago

The hangup is, Dropbox does a pretty good job of being invisible, while in my experience creating slick software is one of Amazon's greatest weaknesses.

gitah 12y ago

Amazon was competing with Dropbox ages ago with Amazon Cloud Drive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=cd_def?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&docId=1000796931 http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=cd_def?ie=UTF8&*Ve... It does Desktop folder syncing just like dropbox. I wonder how this new AWS service is going to interact with Amazon Cloud Drive as they seem to be similar products but one is aimed at Consumers and the other is aimed at the Enterprise.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

I'm enjoying pydio for file sharing outside of our lan. Its a FOSS LAMP app and its pretty slick. I put it on one of our Linodes and off we go. No need to pay for some cumbersome licensing or yet another cloud provider per app/user. http://pyd.io/ http://pyd.io/

cheez 12y ago
What about security?

jdmichal 12y ago

We use Accellion Kiteworks [1] at my place of employment, serving much the same purpose as you describe for Citrix ShareFile. Works very, very well as an FTP replacement. [1] http://www.accellion.com/ http://www.accellion.com/