by Patrick Boberg
Everyone has to watch his or her expenses. Whether you’re a family, a startup or a Fortune 500 company, every dollar counts. Frugality can be even more important when considering technology expenses, as a poor purchase can hang over a corporation for five years or more. Security, dependability, integration, access and ease of use push and pull against each other for every IT dollar. As if that wasn’t hard enough, consumer offerings are starting to become a viable alternative to longstanding enterprise level technology. One business making a strong marketing push for its new enterprise option is Dropbox.
Almost since its debut in 2007, Dropbox has been a hit with consumers. The ability to share files on multiple computers without any advanced computer knowledge is without question a godsend. While not the only company to offer this service, Dropbox has become synonymous with easy file-sharing among casual computer users. Now Dropbox hopes to duplicate that feat by introducing an enterprise offering of its service cleverly titled “Dropbox Business.”
Starting at $750 per year for a five-user agreement, Dropbox Business offers unlimited storage space, file recovery, central user management by IT supervisors, remote storage wipe, folder security and connection of both personal and business accounts. Each of these services is practically mandatory in our modern business environment. Virtually all employees who sit at a computer for a living will find themselves sitting at a computer out of the office and working. Whether it is against company policy or not, modern workers cannot help themselves from working on their phone, at home, and, yes, even while driving. Understanding this fact and embracing it will mean the difference between data security and potentially being hacked.
Most IT managers will say Dropbox Business is unnecessary thanks to virtual private networks (VPNs) that allow remote employees to access files stored on a secure work computer through a secure internet portal. That means employees must understand how to use a VPN and not already be using their personal Dropbox account to access business documents.
The best solution may not purely be enterprise-oriented but user-oriented. Dropbox ticks all security, ease of use, access and dependability boxes. Lastly, there’s integration, which may be the biggest concern of all. Not only will Dropbox let you store any file type, but it also works seamlessly with Microsoft Office software, the most prevalent software in the business world.
Patrick Boberg is a central Iowa creative media specialist. Follow him on Twitter @PatBoBomb.