December 2017 Summaries

Box has been recognized as a leader in the enterprise file sync and share platforms, receiving the highest scores in several key categories from Forrester's evaluations, including strategy and various technical capabilities. As the content management market transitions into emphasizing usability, security, and openness, Box stands out for its unified cloud content management platform. It has been innovating to meet advanced customer needs through tools like Box Skills, which applies machine learning for enhanced content analysis, Box Graph for personalized user experiences, and Box Relay for creating custom workflows. These innovations leverage machine learning and partnerships, such as with IBM, to deliver secure and efficient content management solutions, adapting to the evolving requirements of modern enterprises.

Digital transformation remains a top priority for IT leaders, but the fast pace of technological innovation poses challenges for businesses trying to keep up. With only 42% of CIOs adopting a digital-first strategy, proactive technology adoption is crucial. To address these challenges, Box has launched Box Transform, a service from its consulting team designed to support organization-wide digital transformation. This program provides dedicated Box consultants to implement advanced cloud content management solutions, integrate digital initiatives, and reimagine business processes, offering strategic insights and automation through tools like Box Skills. Box Transform focuses on understanding a company’s culture and operations to deliver custom solutions, emphasizing the importance of agile methodologies and long-term content strategies. The service aims to help enterprises leverage content strategically, save costs, and accelerate innovation, with a history of successful implementations for major companies like General Electric. Box Transform is now available, and Box Consulting offers a complimentary workshop to assess current content strategies and unlock more value from Box for businesses.

Box Skills is a framework designed to enhance content management on the Box platform by incorporating machine learning capabilities, aiming to extract greater value from various types of content at scale. Introduced with three primary features—Image, Audio, and Video Intelligence—Box Skills automatically indexes content, while also offering customization and training opportunities to suit specific business needs. The framework is built to adapt to future advancements in AI, ensuring investments remain relevant amidst rapid growth within the AI sector, which Forrester predicts will expand significantly. Since the launch, Box has encouraged customers to explore diverse applications for machine learning, gathering numerous use cases across different industries.

Connecting securely within the extended enterprise is essential for modern businesses, with distributed IT ecosystems involving both onsite and remote stakeholders. Box emphasizes that cloud content management (CCM) is crucial for securely integrating people, information, business processes, and applications. A key component of Box's strategy is the Box Trust initiative, launched in 2014, which comprises a network of technology partners providing top-tier security solutions. Recently, Box Trust expanded by partnering with Centrify, known for Identity and Access Management technologies, and Cisco Cloudlock, a leader in Cloud Access Security Broker solutions. Centrify's integration offers Single Sign-On capabilities, enhancing user experience and IT management, while Cisco Cloudlock provides an API-based CASB solution to meet compliance needs like PCI and HIPAA. As corporate boundaries blur, Box Trust collaborates with IT and security professionals to ensure enterprise-wide visibility and control, facilitating a secure transition to cloud-based environments.

Box has open-sourced Makefile.test, a tool designed to enhance software quality and development speed by facilitating test-driven development. Makefile.test is a generic makefile that can run any executable tests, supporting parallel and serial execution across various platforms without requiring code changes. It is particularly useful for projects with diverse test scripts by streamlining the execution process, and it supports multiple ways to invoke make while ensuring portability across Linux and macOS. Makefile.test allows running tests in parallel or sequentially, depending on the development needs, and includes robust process cleanup to handle interruptions and prevent orphaned processes. This tool has been rapidly adopted at Box and is open for contributions to extend its capabilities.