Top 10 File Collaboration Tools for Eastern Europe

2022. Microsoft is luring G Suite users with huge discounts



Recently, Google closed a loophole that allowed owners of old corporate accounts to retain free access to the Workspace (G Suite). Microsoft decided to take advantage of this and began luring Google cloud users to its own Microsoft 365 platform with huge discounts (60%). Now users are faced with a choice: start paying Google, while harboring a grudge, or switch to a competitor, for rational reasons or out of spite. Those wishing to switch to Microsoft's wing have three plans to choose from: Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium. All of them provide access to office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Teams messenger, OneDrive cloud storage, email, and also offer the ability to link services to a custom domain.


2017. G Suite adds Shared Drives



Until now, files in Google's online office G Suite were stored only on individual drives (in Google Drive). Of course, each user could share a file or folder with colleagues, but this option isn't always suitable for larger companies where data security is highly valued. Now, G Suite introduces Shared Drives, which are created by the administrator for specific projects or departments. If an employee leaves, the files they collaborated on with colleagues won't be lost and will remain in the shared drive. New employees can also be onboarded more easily. Simply grant them access to specific shared drives, and they'll receive all the files they need. The administrator can grant read-only, comment, or edit access.


2014. Dropbox increased storage size for paid accounts to 1 TB



Dropbox can't yet completely lift cloud storage limits (as Google Drive and Box have done), but it's getting close. Dropbox has increased the maximum storage for Pro subscribers (costing $9.99) to 1 TB. Along with the plan update, the developers added password-based sharing controls, the ability to create shared links with expiration dates, and the ability to grant read-only access. Dropbox has also added additional security tools in case of loss of a device containing data. If a smartphone, tablet, or computer is stolen, the service's files can be remotely erased.

2012. How Box plans to beat Salesforce? Speed.



Salesforce has unveiled ChatterBox - file storage and synchronization service, that may be the worst news ever for Box.net. According to rumors, Marc Benioff decided to create a competitor to Box in response to Box poaching several top managers from Salesforce. The confrontation between the companies began even though Salesforce is one of Box's investors. But Box is no longer a small startup that will hold its breath while big brother destroys its business. Box is getting ahead of the game. Just before Dreamforce, Box unveiled its new global data network, Box Accelerator, which increases data loading speeds on Box.net by 10%. Now Box claims that their service offers data transfer speeds that are twice as fast as Google Drive and four times faster than DropBox. After all, speed is important for business, right?


2012. Insync (Dropbox for Google Docs) becomes Free


The popular online file storage service DropBox - is in danger. And this danger comes from Google Docs. The fact that before now DropBox had one great advantage over Google Docs - it could synchronize files between online account and several computers. Now this opportunity has become available for the users of Google Docs / Google Apps, and for free. Actually you need only to pay for disk space (over 1GB), but it's much cheaper in Google Docs than in DropBox. And all this - thanks to the startup InSync. It becomes free and not due to business problems, but right after almost $1 million funding. InSync runs almost invisible - you just create a folder on your PC or Mac and it syncs with Google Docs account (watch the video). Google Apps users can create shared folders for the entire company.


2011. Microsoft created SkyDrive app for iPhone and Windows Phone


After the recent Microsoft's announcement that it's working on Office for iPad (by the way, today OneNote has become available for iPad), today's launch of the SkyDrive app for iPhone is not very surprising. From now the SkyDrive users can access their files on the iPhone, open them, share to others, create new folders and synchronize files to the online account. The same application has appeared for Windows Phone 7.5 (watch the video below). And judging by some vacancies that Microsoft posts on the job-sites, the company is already working on the SkyDrive version for Android. Recall, SkyDrive offers free 25GB of cloud storage, which is much larger than its main competitors: Box.net, DropBox and Google Docs.


2011. Box.net Named Market Leader in Mobile Collaboration Solutions



The analytics company Forrester published a report on the mobile collaboration solutions market. The results are a bit strange. For example, Google (which provides great mobile access to almost all of its services) was at the bottom of the list. And Microsoft is completely absent (but its new division, Skype, turns out to have the best mobile strategy). As for the leader, Box.net, this service has really achieved great success recently. With a feature-rich but effective app and strong marketing, Box.net regularly attracts investment and new customers. Take, for example, its latest contract with Procter & Gamble for 18,000 workstations. The service has a total of 6 million users. However, this includes users of the free version, which offers a whopping 5GB of free storage. As for mobile access, until recently, Box.net only supported iPhone and iPad perfectly. However, the service recently released a mobile app for Android.


2009. Online file collaboration: DropBox Vs Box.Net



DropBox and Box.net - are, probably, the most popular and successful online file sharing and collaboration services. And though they use two different approaches to the SaaS file storage, they both have alike strategy, supposing constant upgrades and new features development. During the recent months both services did a good job and it's interesting to compare their results. ***


2005. Microsoft acquired file collaboration tool Groove Virtual Office

Groove Networks develops Groove Virtual Office, a collaboration software for geographically distributed teams. Groove Networks founder Ray Ozzie is also the founder of Lotus Software and the author of Lotus Notes. Groove products will be included in the Microsoft Office suite, and Ozzie is slated to be appointed the corporation's chief technology officer. Groove Virtual Office, tightly integrated with Microsoft Outlook and Office, enables communication and secure sharing of files, calendars, sketches, task lists, and more over the Internet. Microsoft is confident that Groove products will complement its own collaboration tools, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, Windows SharePoint Services, Office Communicator 2005, Office Live Communications Server, and Office Live Meeting. According to Microsoft representatives, Groove technologies are also planned for use in Longhorn.