Ad Image

Microsoft Partners with Box to Sell Content Services

The tech giant Microsoft recently unveiled plans to partner with Box and sell the vendor’s content services to its cloud clients as part of a new initiative. Both organizations will begin selling a “Box on Azure” offering that will enable businesses to use the content services tool while keeping files in Microsoft’s cloud, according to the tech giant.

“Box will use Azure as a strategic public cloud platform, and the companies commit to shared go-to-market investments, including initiatives to co-sell Box with Azure. In addition, the partnership will enable future integration between Azure’s artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities with Box’s cloud content management platform,” Microsoft reported.

Microsoft Azure will be utilized for growing the Box Zones services that takes advantage of data centers from Amazon Web Services and IBM to allow businesses to keep data in certain countries. Box also has plans to integrate Azure’s machine learning offerings with its service in order to get intelligence to their clients, according to Microsoft. Box also reportedly wants to integrate its platform services for developers utilizing Azure’s compute infrastructure.

Microsoft does offer OneDrive, which is considered a competitor for Box causing some to wonder how this deal came to fruition. It’s important to note that many customers of Box reportedly also use tools that Microsoft offers.

Co-founder and CEO of Box Aaron Levie said that the company is happy with the new partnership.

“Azure is a trusted partner in the enterprise, and we’re thrilled to be integrating our technologies and going to market with Microsoft,” said Levie. “Microsoft shares our vision to transform how people and organizations work, and Box and Azure together can unlock incredible opportunities for innovation.”

Microsoft reported that the pair will collaborate on the following initiatives:

Box with Azure

Organizations throughout the global enterprise will reportedly be able to buy Box’s cloud content management solution, extend capabilities like Box Governance and store their Box content on Azure, Microsoft reported.

Advanced machine learning and cognitive computing

“Box will explore integrating Azure’s best-in-class Cognitive Services to extend the capabilities of Box’s cloud content management solution,” according to Microsoft. Advanced content processing technologies such as video indexing could be a possible integration as well.

Box Zones leveraging Azure

Box Zones aims to help businesses tackle data sovereignty issues by enabling in-region data storage. The tool was introduced in April of last year and is now available in eight countries. However, the vendor is planning to take advantage of Azure’s global coverage to expand Box Zones to many other regions and allow clients to have flexibility when it comes to local storage options. Azure has over 40 datacenter regions across the globe and more than any other cloud provider.

Click here for more information on this deal.


Widget not in any sidebars

Share This

Related Posts