Why We Use It: Cloud Storage (Part 2)

   box / cloud storage / dropbox / jungledisk      Posted on July 11, 2012 by Cameron

In Part 1, I discussed Blueprint's use of cloud storage and our experience using JungleDisk (from Rackspace). Because of issues with stability and usability, we ended up exploring other vendors.

In Part 2, I'm going to discuss who we chose, why we chose them, and how it's worked out thus far.

We explored using several different services:

• Dropbox
• Egnyte
• Box.com (formerly box.net)

Blueprint chose Box. Why?

Most other cloud storage vendors don't offer native Finder.app / Windows Explorer integration, which means the web interface needs to be stellar. Box's was just that.

Users can drag and drop within the browser, easily share files with just a link, a mature API that allows both Blueprint and tons of other companies to build apps that utilize Box as the storage medium, and more.

In short, Box was the best. While many of us were accustomed to Dropbox for our personal files, they were just getting their business product off the ground.

So how've things gone the last 7 months? Aside from some growing pains, quite well. We're able to have all of our files hosted remotely without worry about if they're actually there. Box takes care of versioning files, so we're no longer creating crazy file names like "Blueprint Case Studies_v5.3_CC_7.11.2012.pdf." Box just manages it all (who uploaded, when, and you can download or revert to a previous version in just a click or two). We're also able to invite third-parties to upload files directly to our storage. No more Yousendit, attachments, or any of that garbage.

Quantitatively, the email use curve has dramatically flattened. For Amy, instead of using almost 4% of our storage quota a month (about 1GB/month) she's grown by 1% a month (250mb/month).

In short, Box has worked out fantastically.