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Open-source enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) software developer ownCloud has announced a modular framework for encryption, Encryption 2.0, part of ownCloud 8.1, the latest version of the company’s EFSS solution.
Encryption 2.0 features a new set of encryption capabilities for EFSS security, making it possible for organizations tasked with protecting sensitive information to collaborate and share files.
Additionally, the new release includes enhancements that could provide up to a four times the performance for uploads and downloads, as well as improved scalability through efficient handling of massive parallel requests, enabling support for 50 percent more users per ownCloud server instance.
“Many companies have to pick between providing extensive control or saving money on a less robust solution—both to ease of use/deployment and financially,” Frank Karlitschek, chief technology officer and co-founder of ownCloud, told eWEEK. “Likewise, many solutions don’t fit easily into their existing infrastructure. Too often budget-strapped companies simply turn to the cloud to control costs, but organizations must leverage their investment in their existing infrastructure and established business policies.”
The platform allows users to adopt their desired encryption standard, and even write a server app to meet their unique encryption requirements; plus, it can be delivered as an app for integration into customers’ existing infrastructure.
“ownCloud provides a software solution that is completely controlled by the customer from end to end, and … being on-premises doesn’t preclude them from deploying in a cloud solution like Amazon,” Karlitschek said. “IT will be able to decide and control who has access to what data. ownCloud provides the flexibility and extensibility to fit into their existing world, while enabling IT to retain complete control of their data—all while providing a frictionless file sharing solution that meets their end users’ needs.”
Any business that deals with sensitive data, including government, financial services, education and health care, will find that platform useful, he said.
“Organizations in these industries often have to deal not only with protecting data, but with keeping up with evolving compliance regulations. ownCloud’s extensibility—and ease of fitting into their current and future infrastructure—puts companies ahead of the game,” he said. “We give them the complete control over and auditability of their data access to meet their corporate governance and regulatory requirements.”
The company also announced the availability of four new deployment service packages that can be tailored to meet specific customer environments and needs.
These services plus ownCloud 8.1 server will be available immediately, while ownCloud 8.1 will be available for enterprise and standard subscriptions in 30 days.
“Just as companies are all different, their encryption requirements are not all the same,” Karlitschek said. “There are different policies in organizations, algorithms, key management practices, legal requirements and key servers. The mission of ownCloud is to provide the optimal security and compliance for each individual customer across all of these environments.”
The Encryption 2.0 system in ownCloud 8.1 provides exactly this flexibility by making it possible to implement different algorithms, key management plug-ins and compliance workflows, according to Karlitschek.
“As customer use cases around encryption continue to evolve in the future, we believe that encryption must become increasingly flexible to meet customers’ evolving use cases,” he said.