My name is Preston Kiser and I am a Software Test Engineer here at ShareFile. Since starting with the company in 2010 I’ve had the pleasure to see a number of new releases and changes to our system, and I would like to take some time to discuss one of my personal favorites – ShareFile Sync.
Today marks the two year anniversary of the debut of Desktop Sync. The release of Sync allowed users to quickly and easily integrate ShareFile into their daily workflow. We found that Sync was able to fulfill a variety of needs – allowing accountants to seamlessly upload tax documents to their client folders and ensuring that sales reps in the field always have the most up-to-date figures. The best part of all – it’s fully automated!
Today at Citrix Synergy, Citrix announced it is opening up ShareFile to create an extensible platform for sharing business data across a wide range of apps, devices and services. The new “Follow-Me-Data” platform will make it easy for third-party developers and vendors to incorporate common data services like search, share, sync, secure and remote wipe into their solutions through a set of open APIs.
ShareFile fits perfectly into the Follow-Me-Data vision of anywhere, anytime access to data and collaboration. The ShareFile service will continue to make it easy for businesses of all sizes to securely store, sync and share business documents and files, both inside and outside the company. Our centralized cloud storage capability allows users to share files across multiple devices and access them from any location, hence “Follow-Me-Data.”
Here at ShareFile, our Development team has been busy at work over the past month releasing a number of small updates for the web application and Desktop Sync tools. These updates include distribution group changes, versioning updates and improved progress bars within the Sync interface.
Within the web application, our Development team made a distribution group upgrade, which will allow empty distribution groups to be added to folders. This is a great update in that it now allows users to create a Distribution Group, set the permissions for that group to certain folders and add the client users to that group as necessary automatically populating their permissions within the folder. More information about our Distribution Groups can be found here.
We also made an update to our File Versioning feature so that listings of file versions will show the date and time for when a specific file was uploaded. Hopefully, this will be helpful for accounts with files that are updated multiple times in the same day. This was automatically updated for all accounts. More information about versioning can be found here.
Finally, our Desktop Sync tool was updated to version 1.2.3, which features improved progress bars for tracking progress in the Sync interface while jobs are running. To learn more about our Sync tool or to download the latest version, please click here.
This month our Development team also released some smaller updates internally, which laid the groundwork for some big security enhancements coming soon. If there are any new upgrades or suggestions to increase usability, please contact us or send an email to suggestions@sharefile.com.
Throughout the month, our Development team continuously releases updates to our application to allow for increased ease of use for our ShareFile users. This month, we have made a number of enhancements within our ShareFile application to help make it easier for Administrators to manage their accounts. These enhancements include a new folder invitation beta feature, an update to the “Remember Me” check box on the login screen and the ability to create new account settings, including the limitation of file versions, creation of case-sensitive passwords and the limitation of IP addresses.
With ShareFile’s new folder invitation feature, folder administrators will be able to send a link granting full folder access to as many email recipients as they would like without having to set the users up with folder access first. This feature is designed to make it easier for folder administrators to grant access to folders to a large group of users. These invitations will allow interested parties to sign up for gain access to folders within a ShareFile account. At the same time, we have also made updates to the “Remember Me” check box on the Login screen of a ShareFile account. Now, the check box reads “Keep me logged in,” as opposed to “Remember Me;” by selecting this option, the ShareFile account will save the email address and password of the user so that it will be automatically filled in whenever you login using the same browser on your computer. For any new accounts opened on the 16th of May or after, the box will read “Remember Me,” but this box will only save the user’s email address, and not their password. This update is designed to improve security within an account because the user must enter their ShareFile password each time they login.
Accounts created prior to the 16th of May can also have this setting updated by contacting our Support team at support@sharefile.com. Finally, this month, our Development teams made a number of new account settings available, including the ability to limit file versions, create case-sensitive passwords and limit IP addresses. In limiting file versions, administrators can change the number of copies of a file that will be saved as separate versions on a folder. Case-sensitive passwords can also be enforced on an account-wide basis and accounts may now also limit account activity to a given number of IP addresses. This allows accounts to limit file access and to discourage distribution to external users. To change both the password settings in your account or to limit the IP addresses accessing your account, please contact ShareFile Support at support@sharefile.com.
Today has been declared World Back-Up Day to serve as a reminder to back up your files and to bring awareness to the importance of file storage. The concept is interesting- back up your files today, “Don’t be an April Fool.” Obviously, you should think more often about backing up and storing your important data but take this reminder to analyze how you are currently backing up your data.
With traditional storage methods, users worry about running out of space on flash drives and CDs or worry about keeping up with a physical device. However, with ShareFile you can upload files directly to your account, which provides an easy and secure online storage solution, customized for almost any small to medium sized business. All data is transmitted and stored with 128-bit SSL encryption, stored in a SAS 70 audited data center, and is audited regularly by a third-party. Users can store files on their account for a specified period of time and can access this information from virtually anywhere, even on-the-go through ShareFile’s mobile app for Android.
We pride ourselves on our customer service and are always looking to improve our service for customers all over the world. This past month, ShareFile made some changes and upgrades to our data centers by opening a new data center in Japan and updating our VDR product to comply with EU cyber-security laws that have enhanced our international presence and made it easier for our customers to manage their ShareFile accounts.
We are proud to announce that we have opened up a new data center located in Tokyo, Japan. This brings the total number of data centers that service our customers to five. We now have two centers in the United States, one in the European Union and two in the Asian region. This new data center should significantly improve upload and download speeds for this region, and we are very excited about this server announcement and what it means to our Asian customers.
ShareFile is proud to announce the newest addition to our collection of integration tools: Enterprise Sync. With this new feature, we are excited to improve the ability of our software to integrate with the workflow of entire offices and corporations by offering better support for network and server environments. Enterprise Sync builds on the convenience of ShareFile Desktop Sync by making this feature easily deployable by a single administrator.
Released in January, ShareFile Desktop Sync quickly became the most popular feature available in the Power Tools line. Like all of the Power Tools, Desktop Sync was designed to better integrate the ShareFile web-based service with processes that our clients already utilize on a daily basis for faster and more streamlined file transfer. With Desktop Sync, local folders can be designated to synchronize with folders located on your ShareFile account, allowing files and folders to be managed through an Explorer or Finder screen. Sync jobs are created and managed though a user-friendly interface, and the development of the tool has been part of a broad effort to offer solutions that are compatible across operating systems. Desktop Sync boasts the ability to run on Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems.
ShareFile Sync is the latest addition to the ShareFile Power Toosl line-up. If you are a fan of ShareFile on Facebook, you may have noticed our Sync shirts the ShareFile team was wearing to commemorate the release of the tool in January. Now is your chance to win one of these shirts!
