The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), a leading IT research, analysis, and strategy firm, today published a series of reports detailing the results of its independent testing and assessment of 13 business-oriented online file sharing and collaboration (OFS) services. These reports, authored by ESG Senior Analyst Terri McClure and ESG Research Analyst Kristine Kao, represent the most detailed comparative evaluation of business-focused OFS solutions published to date.

About Online File Sharing and Collaboration

OFS solutions are internet-based services that enable users to store, access, share, and collaborate on documents and other files in the cloud. These services have become popular in recent years as people look for ways to access their documents from multiple devices, including traditional PCs, tablet computers, and smartphones.

Because today’s knowledge workers won’t give up their tablets and smartphones, IT and line-of-business organizations must increasingly accommodate OFS services. But they must do so in a consistent, standard fashion to maintain administrative control over corporate data assets. As corporate buyers search for a solution enabling that balance, they face a confusing assortment of OFS offerings, each with distinctive functionality, administrative, security, and usability characteristics.

“The OFS market is red-hot because businesses are trying to support mobile workforces addicted to alternative endpoint devices,” McClure said. “IT teams need to rein in data sprawl and maintain file security while empowering those users. OFS vendors, knowing this, are aggressively building out business-focused services. The time is right for a comprehensive analysis of these vendors’ offerings and capabilities.

“ESG knows from its research that corporate customers are looking to OFS services to achieve different objectives,” McClure continued. “Some organizations are laser-focused on mobile workforce enablement. Others want to enhance collaboration workflows. We believe prospective OFS customers will find the Test Drive results invaluable for selecting the right vendor and service offering to meet specific requirements.”

About the ESG OFS Test Drive Program

To help corporate buyers make a more informed purchasing decision, ESG has completed and published a series of ESG Test Drive reports focused on OFS services. Such reports provide IT and business professionals with an independent decision-support tool based on hands-on testing and assessment of the features, usability, manageability, and effectiveness of currently available products/services in a specific IT market segment. Test Drive reports offer in-depth, real-world points of view about product or service features—identifying strengths and areas for improvement from both an administrator and an end-user perspective.

ESG’s OFS Test Drive Program is designed to shed light on the current spectrum of OFS services targeted to corporate customers, with the goal of helping IT and business decision-makers invest wisely in a solution that improves employee productivity while protecting critical information and mitigating risk. ESG carefully evaluated each service according to a standard test plan focused on ten areas: central administration, security, data protection, performance, installation/setup, collaboration/file sharing, mobile device use, versioning/file recovery, end-user self-help, and customer support.

The following vendors were included in the ESG OFS Test Drive Program: Accellion, Box, Citrix ShareFile, Dropbox, Egnyte, EMC Syncplicity, GroupLogic, Huddle, Nomadesk, Soonr, SOS, SugarSync, and YouSendIt.

Individual reports on each vendor’s service offering—along with a consolidated summary of results and supporting methodology documentation—are available online to ESG subscribers at http://www.esg-global.com/test-drive-reports/.

About Enterprise Strategy Group

Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) is an integrated IT research, analysis, and strategy firm that is world-renowned for providing actionable insight and intelligence to the global IT community. Recognized for its unique blend of capabilities—including market research, hands-on technical product validation, and expert consulting methodologies such as the ESG Strategy Lifecycle—ESG is relied upon by IT professionals, technology vendors, investors, and the media to clarify the complex.

For more information visit: www.esg-global.com.