Gartner's first Magic Quadrant for the Enterprise File Sync and Share market has a new addition to its litany of companies. It is the smallest and youngest, as well as the only open source-based file sync and share product to make the cut.
OwnCloud has given observers much to discuss as file sharing is quickly becoming a leading tech market idea. With ownCloud making the cut, it should help boost open source sharing and help to increase the openness of the Internet, the company says.
Its appearance on the Magic Quadrant is based on the technology's control, flexibility and privacy background features that give consumer-grade apps the ability to function in the cloud-based society. Gartner's Magic Quadrants are a resource for clients who need an overview of a technology as the quadrants evalute companies in particular tech markets based on which it defines as challengers, leaders, niche players and visionaries.
According to ownCloud, it has more than 1.6 million users and its high-end platform can be easily installed on any web server to give users the ability to host and sync files using either cloud storage or their own hardware storage device. It removes the third party that has been largely part of the cloud storage world, the companies that offered their service as a middle person between files.
"To be included in any Gartner Magic Quadrant, especially for a company as young as ours, is always an honor. But to be included in a report on an industry as hot as Enterprise File Sync and Share, with companies like Citrix, EMC, and Google and beating out close to 100 others who didn't make the cut, is just amazing," said Claudine Bianchi, ownCloud chief marketing officer.
"Businesses are increasingly realizing that the public cloud is just not private and secure enough (and often are against legal or government regulations) for sensitive company data. Our new server-to-server sharing is a game changer, enabling organizations to share across private clouds, while still maintaining complete control of their data," Bianchi said.
OwnCloud came about when businesses and others complained about the tedious nature of syncing files and called for an open source means of syncing their files. In 2011, ownCloud launched and has garnered attention for its ability to deliver file sharing in a way that is easy for most to harness and use.
