February 2020 Summaries

Box has introduced a new integrations experience designed to enhance productivity by allowing users to seamlessly work with content across various third-party applications. This feature provides a unified platform where users can discover and act on relevant information from their tech stack directly within Box. The integrations experience includes recommended apps that are intelligently suggested based on file type and popularity, allowing users to efficiently perform tasks without leaving the platform. Admins retain control over which applications are recommended, ensuring compliance with enterprise standards. Additionally, a new app activity feature has been integrated into the file activity stream, offering a consolidated view of interactions across supported applications like Slack, DocuSign, Salesforce, and NetSuite. This functionality enables users to easily navigate to the source of an activity and helps administrators track content movement, thus facilitating a more streamlined workflow. These enhancements are now available to all Box customers, with further expansions anticipated.

Box Shield, a security solution from Box, has been enhancing the protection of valuable content since its release, with features that help organizations like financial services and sports leagues safeguard sensitive information. Recognizing security as a collaborative effort, Box Shield integrates with tools like Splunk to enhance threat detection and response capabilities, offering security teams improved insights into access patterns and potential threats. Recent updates include enhancements to the Shield dashboard for better alert management and new classification features that empower users to apply company-defined policies efficiently. Automated classification workflows, facilitated by Box Relay, help ensure sensitive data is protected by appropriate access controls, while improvements to the user experience promote better understanding and adherence to security protocols. Box continues to evolve its offerings, underscoring its commitment to providing secure and compliant work environments for organizations across various sectors.

Box and Splunk have expanded their partnership by launching the Box Shield Add-on for Splunk, designed to enhance automated threat detection and response for enterprises. This integration allows security teams to leverage Splunk's cloud-based monitoring alongside Box Shield's machine learning capabilities, providing insights into data exfiltration, insider threats, and anomalous behavior. The collaboration aims to streamline IT and security operations by reducing the need for custom integrations, offering deeper visibility into user activity and content access patterns, and facilitating efficient analysis of security alerts. Box's internal security team has already benefited from this combined solution, achieving a unified view of data and improved threat detection. This development is part of an ongoing effort to create a cohesive security stack that enhances efficiency and automates response actions.

Becoming a Box Certified Professional offers IT professionals a unique opportunity to enhance their skills in cloud content management and digital workplace integration. This hands-on certification program, available in multiple regions throughout 2020, focuses on fostering collaboration, integration, and security within organizations using the Box platform. Participants will engage in brainstorming sessions to address common challenges, refine technology choices to align with business needs, and connect with a community for ongoing learning. Upon completion, professionals can validate their expertise by earning a digital certification badge to share within their network, with training sessions scheduled in locations such as San Francisco, Austin, New York City, and London.

In response to the challenge of managing numerous applications within businesses, Box has introduced new features designed to streamline the deployment and management of both third-party and custom applications. These enhancements aim to unify content across various applications on a single platform and improve the efficiency of IT teams by integrating Box more effectively with business apps. Box's platform now supports over 1,400 applications, and the revamped third-party application management experience offers improved search filters, a curated list of featured apps, and an enhanced app configuration flow, making it easier for businesses to find and deploy the necessary tools. For custom applications, Box provides an open platform with robust APIs, allowing businesses to integrate, extend, and build apps using Box as the content backbone. The updated admin console now enables admins to manage all applications, including custom ones, from a single interface, thereby simplifying collaboration, increasing visibility of development projects, and reducing time to production. These features are intended to reduce the administrative burden on IT teams, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives while ensuring users quickly gain value from the tools provided.