Review of Box.Net Online Storage

Company background - Since 2005, founders Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith as well as their rapidly expanding team have carved out Box.net as one of the most hot and trustworthy online services for accessing and sharing information from anywhere. Today, at least 2 million individuals, small businesses, and Fortune 1000 companies around the world use Box.Net to simply interact with the files and people that matter most. Box.net is based in Palo Alto, California.

Security Options - Box.Net provides 256bit encryption on files being transferred to and from it's storage servers. The Company host their servers at multiple enterprise-grade data centers with current audits, round-the-clock monitoring and recording surveillance, on-site security patrols, and strict admittance controls. All power & environmental units are in an N+1 redundant configuration to insure fault tolerance. Redundant power feeds, UPS devices, and onsite backup generators assure continuous action and strong infrastructure. Data is automatically backed up to a physically distant place. This ensures that they always have duplicate copies of your files.

Backup Abilities - Box.net is not a backup solution, yet, you can save 5 separate versions of files if you have the Individual account or upto ten versions if you have the business account.

Restore Options - Excepting the file versioning detailed above, there is no restore functionality.

Control and Analysis - This is a web-based product with nothing to setup on the desktop, therefore CPU and bandwidth throttling do not apply.
Logging and Reporting are accessible but exclusively in the Enterprise edition.

Interface - The interface is beautifully smooth and offers effortless uploading and sharing of files and folders via the web portal. The Business and Enterprise editions offer an Admin Portal and the ability to manage multiple accounts.

Device Support - If your device can get to the net, then you can use Box.Net.

Limitations
- The Lite and Individual editions cannot be used for business.
- The Lite edition has an single file size limit of 25mb while the rest of the editions have a 1Gb file size limit on
- There is however, no limit on the amount of data you can transfer.
- File retention for deleted files is 30 days which is the industry norm.

{File Sharing and Collaboration - On all editions, you can invite others to work via email and you can import your email contacts via comma-delimited files or directly if you have an Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail Account.
- Uploaded files can be saved in folders or directly in your home page. Once you have a folder you can:
- Invite collaborators to share the contents of the folder.
- Link|Attach|Connect} to the folder
- Share the folder
- Embed the folder in a website
- Add comments and tags
- Assign a description for the folder
- Monitor activity in this folder via email notifications
- Set the accesslevel for the folder:
- Private, Collaboration, or Global
- If sharing globally, you can assign a Vanity name to the folder
- One additional nifty feature is the ability to set an expiry date on the folder sharing.

Synchronisation - There is no file or folder synchronisation.

Web 2.0 Integration - This is where Box.net shines most bright! Box.net uses the OpenBox standard which means it is directly compatible with an evergrowing amount of Web 2.0 applications. Everything from iPhone apps to Online Office apps suchas Zoho and EditGrid to eFaxing via eFax to managing CRM with SalesForce and all your favourite Social Networking sites. You can even include Google Analytics to your account so you can track how people are accessing your files.

Customer Support
- Phone support is available but not on a toll-free number and only in business hours.
- Email Support is available via a webform on the contact page.
- Non-interactive support is good: There is a good FAQ section; a Knowledgebase; a forum and a blog. A demo and case studies are also provided.
- A free trial is offered for the Business edition.
- We found the support staff to be warm, knowledgeable and keen to help in any way they could.

Usability - Box.Net is really {easy|comfortable|effortless to use. You are up and running in no time. Once you have uploaded or created some content then you truly start to see how easy it is to use. Collaboration is really easy and it becomes a effortless to work online with others when you have a straight-forward, streamlined and clear environment to work in.
Cost
- Box.Net offers 4 packages as shown below:
- Lite: free
- Individual - $9.99 / month
- Business - $15 / month
- Enterprise - Price on application
- Initial setup on all packages is free
- There are no options for added storage.
- There are no limits to the amount of devices that can be used with the service

Initial allowed storage space
- Lite: 1Gb
- Individual: 5Gb
- Business: 10Gb / person
- Enterprise: unlimited

Conclusion - If you are searching for an online backup solution then this is NOT the package for you. If you are searching for a very intuitive,simple and simple to manage online collaboration service then congratulations, you've found it. The functionality to creaet email notifications when files are updated or added in one of your project folders is a especially useful touch.
Box.Net is the best online collaboration tool we have reviewed to date.

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