Box, a well-known cloud storage service and provider of online collaboration tools has announced today a new desktop app called Box Drive. It’s a sync client that gives you access to your content stored on Box.com, but it comes with a twist: instead of letting you sync your files locally, Box Drive will stream all your files from the cloud.
Once the app is installed, it will integrate with the Windows File Explorer or the Mac Finder, giving users of other cloud storage services a familiar experience. If the files are actually streamed, it’s possible to edit and save them like any local file, and the Box Drive client will automatically sync all the changes to the cloud. Moreover, Box Drive provides the same enterprise-grade security and compliance capabilities that Box is known for.
“Box Drive is great for business teams and IT teams alike, because it lets everyone work how they want in a way that’s familiar, while keeping information secure,” reads the blog post. Additionnally, Box claims that adopting its new sync client could help companies cut costs by replacing their old network file shares. “Box projects that customers across industries such as real estate, healthcare and financial services have the potential to realize cost savings of $1.3M to as high as $6 million or more over three years when retiring legacy infrastructure with Box,” explained the company.
If you’re interested in trying the service, you can download Box Drive public beta for your desktop on the company’s website.
