OwnCloud has gotten a lot of attention of late, no doubt helped by concerns over the potential vulnerability of cloud storage services to government spying on corporate data.
While the private cloud storage vendor didn’t leap to take advantage of the fallout from PRISM, ownCloud is well aware that its customers are very interested in how they can keep their data safe from anyone. And from that perspective, the government is just one more potential intruder into any company’s data.
(See also: Open Source Challenger To Dropbox And Box.net: OwnCloud)
OwnCloud’s has long offered users the ability to access their data from pretty much any Web browser or mobile app, no matter where the data sits locally. And locally is the key term: data is never stored beyond the company’s own firewall. OwnCloud’s application programming interface (API) enables developers to tap into the storage system and build the Web and mobile apps they need.
API improvements are a part of ownCloud’s latest release of ownCloud Enterprise Edition, which ownCloud announced today. The improvements include a new provisioning feature that enables ownCloud user provisioning to be integrated into existing data center automation tools.
The new release, which is due out in July, will also have native at-rest AES encryption provided by ownCloud on whatever back-end storage system the company needs to use. There is also deeper anti-virus integration, so any malware files should be prevented from being uploaded in the first place.
Behind-the-firewall storage is not the only way to go with storage solutions, but with mobile app and full API availability, tools like ownCloud demonstrate that it’s a viable and flexible option for enterprises to explore.
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