Alternative to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant Leaders – Syncplicity, Box, Citrix, Accellion
November 4, 2015
Gartner recently released their 2015 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing(EFSS). The criteria for a vendor to be included in the list are Revenue, Geography, Commercial Availability, Total Users, Largest Deployment, References and Product Capabilities. Most of the criteria seemed to favor companies backed by venture capitalists or larger enterprises. Other than Product […]
Gartner recently released their 2015 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing(EFSS). The criteria for a vendor to be included in the list are Revenue, Geography, Commercial Availability, Total Users, Largest Deployment, References and Product Capabilities.
Most of the criteria seemed to favor companies backed by venture capitalists or larger enterprises. Other than Product Capabilities and the Cost of the solution, rest of the criteria is not really matter for a company looking to find an EFSS solution for their needs. This blog will cover how FileCloud is a perfect alternative to Gartner's Magic Quadrant Leaders in Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing (EFSS) - Syncplicity, Box, Citrix, Accellion taking into account Gartner's Product Capabilities inclusion criterion.
Gartner's Magic Quadrant Leaders in Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing(EFSS)
FileCloud provides effortless File synchronization across computers running Windows, Mac, Linux and even Netgear ReadyNAS NAS devices. Moreover, FileCloud is one of the few products that enable real-time synchronization of files stored in network folders (CIFS, NFS).
File Sharing
With FileCloud one can create a public or a fully private share to folder or files. Changes to shared folders like uploads or file changes are sent out as notifications via email to everyone connected to the share. Activity Streams for every folder allows users to review and view all changes that happened to a folder or a file over a period of time. Additional powerful features includes ability to limit the maximum number of downloads for a shared file, automatically expire a share after a certain time, anonymous file uploads, prevent downloads, integrated file uploads widget and more.
With FileCloud one can easily view documents using the built-in Document Preview. In addition, one can edit documents from the web browser with a Lock (check-out) feature that will prevent others from editing the files at the same time.
FileCloud's highly rated apps are available for Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, Android Phones, Android Tablets, Windows Phone 8, Blackberry and FileCloud Metro Windows 8 App. And, administrators have the tool to disable any mobile device from accessing FileCloud.
FileCloud provides an array of client apps/plugins such as Drive, Sync & Outlook Plugin. The Sync app works on Windows, Mac and Linux. With FileCloud's Outlook Plugin one can easily provide links to FileCloud files and folders.
FileCloud's security features include Encryption At Rest & Transit, Customer Managed Encryption keys, Two-Factor Authentication, and Anti-Virus Integration scanning. In addition, FileCloud supports SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) based web browser Single Sign On (SSO) service that provides full control over the authorization and authentication of hosted user accounts that can access FileCloud Web based interface.
FileCloud was primarily built for the purpose of easily integrating with existing storage and authentication systems. FileCloud allows your existing Active Directory users to use FileCloud using their existing credentials. In addition, provides support for multiple Active Directory servers, support for Mixed Domain Active Directory (Hosted AD).
With FileCloud, one doesn't need to buy a separate MDM(Mobile Device Management) application. FileCloud has built-in features with which administrators can block any mobile device from access and do a remote wipe for absolute security & control.
FileCloud offers strong integration with popular productivity apps from Microsoft (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Apple Keynote and others). FileCloud's comprehensive API enables seamless integration with Enterprise e-discovery, DRM and Analytics platforms.
In addition to providing an on-premise solution, FileCloud provides ready made images for easy installation on Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. FileCloud Public AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is currently available in Amazon AWS Marketplace. Using FileCloud's AMI and Azure VM, one can host their own file share sync and mobile access solution for their organization is less than 10 minutes.
The built-in FileCloud features such as unlimited versioning, recycle bin support, lock while editing, ability to edit document over the browser provides a powerful set of tools for collaboration.
FileCloud offers a SAML-based Single Sign-On (SSO) service that provides customer with full control over the authorization and authentication of hosted user accounts. FileCloud administrator tools include features such as auditing, detailed logging of activities, and ability to disable access or feature on mobile apps. With ease administrators can set up policies with respect to user access, password setup and client applications usage.
FileCloud can be securely deployed on Enterprise private clouds and on-premise servers. It can also be hosted on public IaaS providers like AWS and Azure. Compared to other vendors listed in Gartner EFSS magic quadrant, FileCloud offers a 100% private cloud deployment without any connection to our infrastructure. One can also run FileCloud in an internal network without exposing to public internet.
FileCloud provides array of features with respect to group policy enforcement, data migrations, backup and so on. FileCloud is bundled with necessary tool to perform full backups of your cloud installation that includes both files and database.Some of the features of these backup scripts:
can be run at anytime manually from command line
can be part of an automated system like cron job.
can be run on a live cloud installation .
can backup to local or remote Linux targets.
With FileCloud Administrators can easily create groups and classify their users. With AD integration and its sync functionality to integrate AD groups to FileCloud specific groups it becomes a lot easier to maintain access control.
FileCloud provides powerful features such as content search, ability to run audit reports and tools to extract critical data from the audit logs. The extensive Auditing support make sure every operation in FileCloud is logged into the Audit logs to help meet some of toughest compliance such as HIPAA.
The below table lists features that makes FileCloud stand apart even from 2015 Gartner's Magic Quadrant Leaders.
FileCloud
Syncplicity
Box
Citrix ShareFile
Accellion
On Premise/Self-Hosted
IAAS (AWS)
Multi-Tenancy
Mobile OS Compatibility
All
All
All
Not All
Not All
iOS, Android Media backup
Integrate – Existing Home Directories
NTFS Support
Network Share Support
Buy
Network Share Versioning
Active Directory Support
Buy
Multiple Active Directory
Buy
Single Sign-On (NTLM/SSO)
Buy
Data At Rest Encryption
File Lockingt
Outlook Integration
API Support
Buy
Amazon S3/OpenStack Support
Mobile Device Management (Block devices, remote wipe, notification to devices)
Limited
Buy
Buy
Limited
Conclusion
With FileCloud, enterprises get one simple solution with all the needed features ready to be installed. Moreover, for a 100 user package, FileCloud costs $5000/year, almost 1/5th to 1/10th the price of Gartner's 2015 Magic Quadrant Leaders - Syncplicity, Box, Citrix, Accellion
