IT pros will often tell you that a lot of consumer technology isn't ready for the enterprise. It's not secure, it's not priced correctly, it can't be administered, yada yada. That doesn't stop businesspeople from using consumer tools in their jobs, though. It just stops the people who make the tools from profiting from their use.
Where there are IT administrators, there are budgets, and where there are budgets, there's market opportunity. And I'm not surprised that two very solid personal productivity tools are getting business versions this week and business models to match.
Xobni provides a heads-up display for e-mail.
(Credit: Xobni)The Outlook add-on maker Xobni on Monday released Xobni Enterprise, a new version of the product with links into traditional business data sources. While the free and Plus levels of Xobni will search Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to give users more information about the people who are e-mailing them, the enterprise version will also tap into Salesforce.com, Sharepoint, and corporate directory services. It can also be extended to work with proprietary business apps. This could be pretty cool: users will be able to see latest internal database info from people they're communicating with them, automatically when they're doing the communicating.
And to help IT teams keep their users in line with whatever (ridiculous and restrictive) policies their companies have on employee access to outside data, Enterprise Xobni admins can also turn off access to the app's Twitter features and other parts of the product.
Admins, of course, can provision employees' computers for access to Xobni data from a central console.
Xobni Enterprise starts at $30 a user a year, with prices going down with volume or up for access to enterprise data sources.
The Business edition of SugarSync lets admins pool storage and control access.
(Credit: SugarSync)On Tuesday, the cloud file synchronization product SugarSync gets a business version design for teams. The Business version of the product features pooled storage and central IT control. Customers pay for each user ($10 a month) and for the storage they want, in 100GB increments. Admins have access to all this storage, too. If an employee leaves the company, they can disable access, and then sign on as that person, and recover data. There's no "remote wipe" feature to remove company data from an employee's computer, but CEO Laura Yecies told me she's thinking about it.
A useful feature lets users send files to other people via the SugarSync service, instead of through e-mail. This could compete with the useful, but single-purpose and somewhat expensive product, YouSendIt, except that SugarSync's single-file transfer function can't password-protect files.
In the cloud sync category, SugarSync lagged its major competitor Dropbox in releasing of a free, limited version of the service. There's one now, and Yecies says, "We're finding that free is a good business." She bases this on "conversion" to the paid product, which she says is 5 percent to 10 percent, depending on the offers presented to users.
I use and pay for my own SugarSync account and highly recommend the service. Compared with geek favorite service Dropbox, it's got more flexible configuration options and better mobile device support. The business version freaks me out, personally--I don't want any IT manager getting access to files my hard drive--but this sounds like a good product for the security-conscious IT exec who wants to provide a team file-sharing product along with off-site backup to users.
The SugarSync start screen on Android phones
(Credit: Sharpcast)Although Acer may be applying the brakes to its planned Android Netbook deployment, when the Google-y mini computers do hit the shelves, SugarSync will be ready.
On Wednesday, Sharpcast, SugarSync's developer, released a version of the cross-platform multimedia syncing management software for Android phones and Netbooks. SugarSync for Android lets you view and download files on your Android Netbook or mobile phone, and upload local files to your free or premium SugarSync repository.
Since SugarSync's applications are free (you just pay for the storage you use), you can use it as a makeshift remote access tool, and as online backup. Files you upload from multiple desktops, laptops, or mobile phones are accessible from other platforms or the Web. You'll also be able to share files and folders from the phone.
However, not all SugarSync managers have been created equally. The app is much more photocentric on Android phones, where being able to upload and download mobile photos to and from your SugarSync account is the only media format guarantee. Android Netbook users should be able to view the full range of supported file types.
SugarSync's Android start screen has you tap one button to access your uploaded files remotely, and another button to open local files on your Android phone or Netbook. A word to the wise: uploading files from an Android phone requires a long hold, where you touch and hold the file until you see a pop-up menu and the option to upload to SugarSync.
One complaint is that SugarSync takes some initial setup time on a desktop computer, which is where the bulk of your saved files will probably originate. Android Netbook users should have an easier job getting started, though only time will tell.
SugarSync is available from the Android Market on your Android phone.
SugarSync managers can also be found for the following desktop and mobile platforms:
SugarSync for Windows
SugarSync for Mac
SugarSync for Windows Mobile
SugarSync for iPhone
SugarSync for BlackBerry
Sugarsync, a pricey but excellent file-syncing and backup solution has a new iPhone application that's downright cool. It gives you access to all the files stored on computers linked up to your Sugarsync account. Better yet, it provides instant--and I do mean instant--updates when a file has been touched by you or another user by utilizing some spiffy push technology.
I got a demo of it in action a few weeks back, and it's one of the better looking applications I've seen. Like the desktop version each linked up machine has its own special icon, and all you have to do to access your files is to pick one from a neat spinning wheel. You'll then get a similar view of the file structure, with folders, icons, and more.
One of the application's greatest assets is that it can be synced up to several computers, and then pass over that data between them in the background. In the mobile world, something that makes this system useful is trying to send someone a large file (say 500MB) that you can't just pull down on your phone and send through e-mail. Sugarsync's solution is to simply send your recipient the link and they'll be able to download the file through their browser's download manager.
The application is also set up to let you move, rename, and delete files remotely. Since everything is linked up to the live sync server those changes will go out immediately. In the demo we saw these changes from desktop to phone and back again getting pushed out in about a second, even over EDGE.
For now, one of the only drawbacks is file compatibility. It handles everything the iPhone can just fine (like MS office documents, PDFs, Quicktime Movie files, etc.), but it has had problems with certain movie codecs and audio files. I'm told all supported audio files will play just fine, it's just an issue of trying to let you do other things while the music is playing, as it currently kicks the file onto the full-screen Quicktime player. Future versions should hopefully be able to let you multitask.
The application is free, but Sugarsync's service is not. Users can grab a 45-day free trial of the 10GB service, which normally costs about three bucks a month.
Sugarsync's iPhone app lets you access and manage your files on multiple devices, right on your phone. You can even open and access compatible file types while out and about.
(Credit: Sharpcast Inc. / CBS Interactive)For serious syncers who routinely work from multiple computers or mobile phones, SugarSync is, in more ways than one, a premium solution to file-transferring problems. More flexible than some competing PC-to-PC syncing software or mobile and PC remote access services, Sugar Sync weaves in elements of both. Lite sync some folders for online back-up and fully sync folders or files to load them on each of your computers. A change to one file exacts a change to all.
SugarSync doesn't do everything, and the mobile functionality could use some usability finessing. There are also a few tricks worth knowing to ease your way. Here's a good one--if you're not interested in transferring every icon or EXE to all hooked-in computers, before syncing your Desktop folder, either move the elements you do want to a different folder and bypass the Desktop sync, or throw everything into a new folder on your desktop and exclude it from the syncing.
SugarSync managers are available for Windows, Mac, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and iPhone. A free trial of the service is available for 45 days. SugarSync premium storage prices can be found here.
Today, Sharpcast is launching the public beta of its new file synchronization product, SugarSync (download it from Download.com). Like other sync tools (FolderShare [recently updated] and BeInSync), it performs the useful service of automatically keeping the data on one PC the same as on another. This is a great service for people who use more than one PC -- a laptop and a desktop, for example. It can also be used as a crude workgroup file system (see Groove). I got a tour of the product recently from Sharpcast CEO Gibu Thomas and took some time to experiment with it afterwards.
SugarSync is very different from computer-to-computer sync tools like FolderShare and BeInSync. These systems allow multiple PCs to update each other directly. But they can only transfer files when both PCs are online at the same time. SugarSync uses a Web-based clearinghouse for files: Everything you want to sync goes up to a server in the sky, and when another computer you're keeping in sync comes online, it connects to the server to get and send the latest file updates.
SugarSync can make hosted online photo galleries that are synchronized to your PC or Mac hard disk.
(Credit: Rafe Needleman)SugarSync also has a strong mobile component. Not only can you view your synced files on your smartphone, but there's a mobile app that hooks into your phone's camera and will automatically upload new pictures to a directory on your PCs. The Windows smartphone app I tried was fast and easy to use, unlike many other mobile media access products I've seen that are Web-based and a little clunky.
There's also a Mac client.
There's a good mobile site as well as a dedicated smartphone app.
Despite its middleman architecture, when both sender and receiver are online, SugarSync is incredibly fast -- faster than FolderShare, which I've been using for years. However, there is quite literally a price for server-moderated sync: Someone's got to pay for the storage and the bandwidth on the SugarSync servers. P2P sync products that simply connect users' PCs together can more realistically be run as free or flat-rate services, but SugarSync will cost $49 a year for 10GB of storage; $149 a year for 100GB.
There are advantages: Since files are stored online, SugarSync is a viable online backup product. It's a bit feature-light in that regard (there's no version tracking of files, and no system rebuild function), but still workable. Also, the product's servers can transcode files for display or playback on other devices: If you try to view a synced picture on a mobile device, SugarSync only displays the small version of it, and your PC doesn't have to be on to serve or upload the file. And with server-based sync, not only do you not have to make sure your multiple PCs are on at the same time to make the sync work, you also get Web access to your files even when all your personal PCs are off. You can also share files from the Web service directly, and SugarSync has a nice utility for making sharable photo galleries (example).
SugarSync has another advantage not related to its architecture: It's incredibly easy and straightforward to set up. By default it creates a "Magic Briefcase" folder on each of your systems that's kept in sync among your devices, but you can also point the product at any other directories you like.
With your data stored on a server, though, there's a security concern. All SugarSync data is encrypted both on the servers and in transit, but guess who holds the encryption keys? SugarSync. While they are stored separately, there's no way an individual can protect the company from accessing his or her data. Thomas told me Sharpcast may offer users the capability to set their own encryption keys in the future.
Setup and configuration really couldn't be easier.
SugarSync is a unique product. Properly configured, it can give its users access to all their data from anywhere -- any computer they own or any Web-connected device. It can completely free users from caring where their data is stored, and that's a powerful thing. And while it's a great "hard drive in the sky," it doesn't force you to change your work habits and rely solely on online storage.
It is, however, expensive, unless it's used only to store a small subset of a users' files. That's counter to the product's philosophy: you have to think about what you're going to sync and what not. Until the price comes down to a real-world level at realistic storage capacities, SugarSync won't reasonably do for many people what it would actually be best at.
- prev
- 1
- next
