Connect Local Data to the Cloud with Box.net

Box.net, in partnership with EntropySoft, introduced ECM Cloud Connect. The new tool enables customers to integrate local ECM (enterprise content management) platforms with Box.net’s cloud-based storage for easier access from mobile devices and improved collaboration.

ECM Cloud Connect enables organizations to have their proverbial cake, and it too, when it comes to data storage. There are benefits and advantages to cloud data storage, but there are also some drawbacks and caveats. ECM Cloud Connect lets customers maintain the existing investment in local content management, while seamlessly integrating it with Box’s cloud data storage platform.

Box.net boasts more than 60,000 customers, including more than 70 percent of the Fortune 500. While Box alone provides a solid cloud-based platform for storing and sharing data, and an ability to seamlessly access data from devices like smartphones and tablets, larger companies in particular are reluctant to simply abandon ECM and migrate all data to the cloud. ECM Cloud Connect lets them have the best of both worlds.

“We want to help the world’s largest enterprises realize the benefits of cloud-enabled content, and building a seamless connection between their existing infrastructure and the cloud is a crucial first step,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. “Mobile access to content and painless external collaboration are critically important for today’s enterprises, and with ECM Cloud Connect, Box can fill these gaps–creating an amazing experience for end users, and increasing the value of existing ECM investments with no hardware or software hassle for IT.”

ECM Cloud Connect links Box to more than 40 other systems, including Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Documentum. Additionally, Box announced integration and consulting support from leading firms Armedia, BPA Technologies, ConvergePoint, and ZSL, the latest additions to its expanding partner ecosystem.

With ECM Cloud Connect, customers can sync data between these ECM platforms and the cloud, trigger automatic archiving of data from Box.net to the on-premise ECM platform, and easily transfer content from the local ECM to the cloud, or from the cloud back to the ECM platform.

For some organizations, ECM Cloud Connect may just be a means of extending the existing ECM data storage to the cloud to facilitate sharing and collaboration with partners and customers, and make the data more universally accessible from mobile devices. But, for some companies it might be a stepping stone that lets them migrate to the cloud–providing seamless integration as a transitional baby step toward using the cloud exclusively.