Druva , having profiled them on this site before. They’re a small 100 employee company dually head quartered in Mountain View (CA) and Pune (India) and with $17 million venture capital investment from Sequoia and Nexus. It currently has 900k end-points management by its software and 1,250 customers – an impressive list including Nasa, mentor Graphics, DHL, Deloitte, VG, Xerox and McAffee. It sells directly, although it also has a number of OEM contracts in place.
Druva’s inSync software helps manage mobile devices
Druva’s inSync software is used by enterprises to manage laptops and other mobile devices, providing backup, data protection, data loss protection and ‘advanced data insights’ for IT managers through its unified Web console. Its competitors include companies such as Symantec and Kaseya for mobile device management and Asigra, Centrix Software and RES software for discovery and workspace management. The storage associated with its activities can be based in the Cloud or on premise.
Integrating File Sharing & Collaboration with data protection and backup
Today it has launched its inSync File Sharing & Collaboration software, a peer-to-peer application allowing users to share files. Like ownCloud, it focuses on the needs of enterprises, allowing security and compliance policies to be applied to sync, share and collaboration applications which has become very popular with consumers, especially in the adoption of Dropbox. This is the first time someone has integrated sharing and collaboration with data protection to offer a unified solution.
With its mobile device focus, its value is less generic than Microsoft’s Sharepoint, which is widely used (partially because it comes free with enterprise licensing), but difficult to manage (which is why AvePoint and others make good business by adding infrastructure management).
Features of the new application include the ability to share Links with external users, which will automatically expire once used. Druva is charging $4 per user, per month for its new offering, whether deployed on premise or in the Cloud.
A useful addition for BYOD strategies
While BYOD strategies are allowing favourite mobile devices to become part of corporate computing, their users are often frustrated when cut off from applications such as iCloud or DropBox – often banned because they involve storing company data in insecure and unknown locations. Druva’s new application will give them back similar functionality with the advantage of full integration into the organisation’s data retention, protection and compliance policies.
The visibility of sharing files can help organisations understand the flow of information and identify which employees are driving social business – it may even prove useful in eDiscovery cases, since a company will now be able to investigate who shared what with whom, when. There are many potential use cases, although these could be constrained in countries like Germany which have strong laws protecting the privacy of employees.
Druva’s approach is positive – providing IT Managers with a brake to slow the runaway BYOD train speeding towards them, by allowing the mobile workforce to share corporate data effectively and securely.
Image Credit: Martin Hingley