Box, a company that provides document storage and collaboration tools to large corporations, today announced a new program called Box Trust that brings 19 new partners to its platform to provide its customer base with additional security options.
The Trust project is joined by a new app called “Box for Enterprise Mobility Management,” which will help large companies better manage their on-the-go IT setup. Mobile management of data and apps are important areas that enterprise IT groups are still grappling with.
Box’s news comes on the heels of its rival Dropbox announcing a set of partners for its Dropbox for Business API product. Both companies are intensely focused on growing their market share inside of the corporate market — large companies have large dollars, and thus make for strong long-term clients. Box, specifically, has been keen to stress its more than 300,000 seat roll-out to the General Electric client base.
Box Trust includes partners like Palo Alto Networks, and other large companies that are in-market providers of enterprise-scale security tooling for larger companies.
The initiative is part of Box’s work to become the leading cloud storage provider for the enterprise. An early mover, the firm has seen increased competition from younger firms like Dropbox, and older companies like Microsoft and Google. Differentiation from the market mean of unlimited cloud-based storage is the new calculus for its niche.
Box therefore must ensure that it has a host of security-focused firms on its platform, so that any company that has a large number of denizens to its name can rock security in the manner of their own choosing. In a blog post, Box CEO Aaron Levie described the Trust effort in the following terms: “We’re building a security model with a thriving ecosystem of partners to provide all new tools and services that secure content in the enterprise.”
The test of that sentiment will be market reaction. Will the new Trust work bring in more clients? If so, Box’s long-delayed IPO could kick its tires before the end of the first quarter of next year. If not, well, growth only comes at a cost.
