Citrix Delivers Enterprise File Sharing Solutions

With the file sync and sharing market growing more than 70% annually ⁽¹⁾, Citrix Systems, Inc. announced innovations that advance the experience and security offered by a single enterprise file sharing service.

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With more than 55,000 corporate customers using ShareFile, Citrix is seeing increased demand for its enterprise file sync and sharing service from global organizations seeking a comprehensive solution. It continues to differentiate its offering by introducing a ShareFile workspace that moves with customers across four types of devices, and providing a approach to restricting document sharing based on a file’s contents to enable secure collaboration whenever inspiration strikes. Citrix delivers this breadth of consumer-style experiences that people want from their file sharing service with the security that businesses require.

According to the Citrix 2020 Technology Landscape Report, the number and heterogeneity of devices that people use for work is growing exponentially. People need to get more done, and quickly. They expect continuity across any combination of devices, locations and networks where technology is transparent and everything just works, intuitively, naturally and easily. At the same time, IT needs to maintain control over how corporate documents are stored, accessed, synced and shared.

That is why organizations, including Forum Energy Technologies, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and Miami Marlins, are relying on Citrix to meet the mobility and collaboration needs of employees with the security they require. In fact, according to a 2014 survey by independent research firm TechValidate, eight out of ten customers say that ShareFile increases productivity by more than 40% ⁽²⁾. Businesses name ease of use, file size and security as the top three reasons they chose Citrix ⁽³⁾.

Empowering Mobile Employees and Meeting Compliance Requirements: Forum Energy Technologies increased productivity – users are now 85% more self-reliant, gained better visibility of data for compliance audits and realized cost savings with Citrix.

Expediting project funding and fundraising: Cancer Research UK, an largest independent cancer charity, has accelerated projects and fundraising efforts with Citrix. Previously, committee members used a mix of secure removable media or paper-based systems when deciding how and where to allocate charitable grants fundamental to the charity’s research program. Now, confidential documents pertaining to grants are distributed via ShareFile, allowing members to collaborate far more effectively and securely. Cancer Research UK fundraisers are able to securely access benefactor information from tablets and other devices, boosting the security and efficiency of the fundraising program.

Innovations to extend flexible workspace and security advantage:

• Introducing workspace that moves with you
  Providing instant, intuitive experiences optimized by device, Citrix has designed a workspace that moves with customers across four screens. Through a single application, ShareFile, customers can create and outline a PowerPoint presentation or other Microsoft Office document on a phone, collaborate on content with colleagues and vendors from a laptop, dictate speaker notes on a tablet and present via an Apple Watch.

• Collaborate from any browser or computer: Approximately 340 million Microsoft Office files are stored in ShareFile. Soon, working with these files will get easier. From the convenience of any web browser or computer, edit any Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint file without leaving ShareFile. This integration with Office Online, available in June 2015, is made possible by the company’s membership in Microsoft’s cloud Storage Partner Program and longtime partnership with Microsoft spanning more than 25 years. To see how it works, watch the video on the Citrix Blog.

• Enable workflows with unlimited storage (4): More and more enterprises are seeking a single solution that goes beyond addressing their mobility needs. They also want to drive workflows, such as approval chains, and upgrade legacy ‘home drives’ where users store their files and data. In response, Citrix is introducing ShareFile Platinum edition, available in June 2015, which provides a collaborative workspace where anyone can securely exchange, track, edit and e-sign content without storage limitations.

Addressing data loss prevention for security and compliance
Enterprises, especially those in highly-regulated industries like financial services and healthcare, need to be able to control file sharing based on the content inside the files themselves. Through integrations with leading data loss prevention (DLP) solutions from Symantec and others, ShareFile will offer the ability to classify items based on their content and enforce sharing restrictions based on data categories. DLP integration functionality will be available in Q2 2015. For more information, visit the Citrix Blog.

Kirk Koenigsbauer, CVP, Office 365 client apps and services, Microsoft, said: “In February, Microsoft launched the cloud Storage Partner Program to make it easier to work with Office documents no matter where they’re stored. Today, the next milestone in our partnership with Citrix is here, integration between ShareFile and Office Online. With more than one billion people using Microsoft Office – one in seven people on the planet – integration with Office Online offers ShareFile customers more flexibility in how they work with individuals and teams across businesses.“

David Enriquez, senior director, IT, Miami Marlins, said: “We use the ShareFile platform. All of our scouts and baseball operations people are always sharing information over the Internet. Player videos. Sharing of scouting reports. It’s strategy. It’s trades. We need to keep that information very private, very secure. Now, with the ability to have Worx deployed to these devices and using ShareFile, we no longer have the risk of losing data to unsecure devices.“

Qais Al Doub, senior systems analyst, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, said: “From the solutions we investigated, only Citrix ShareFile offered the data sharing, storage and sync service we needed. The solution has been so successful that many organizations within the region are talking with us and following our lead.“

Christopher Kissel, industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan, said: “Citrix understands that subscribers using ShareFile need a service that respects established workflows and is low-friction for the end user. Focusing on the customer experience is both a productivity and security consideration.“

Jesse Lipson, VP and GM, Citrix, said: “With new content experiences across devices and data loss prevention capabilities, only Citrix addresses the file sharing needs of all employees in enterprises. We understand that enterprises require a next-generation mobile workspace with secure IT control and oversight that integrates with what they have today. By focusing and delivering upon this strategy, we are seeing growing adoption of ShareFile worldwide at a rate that’s outpacing many other vendors in the market.“

⁽¹⁾ IDC, Worldwide File Synchronization and Sharing Market Share Report 2014, forthcoming 2015
⁽²⁾ TechValidate. TVID: E62-90A-560
⁽³⁾ TechValidate. TVID: 576-AF2-4B0
⁽⁴⁾ 1TB of storage per user with ability to increase upon request.