Box, one of the top cloud storage companies around, has acquired start-up Streem for its streaming technology that specializes in streaming large media files.
It's an interesting acquisition, as the technology that the start-up has in its arsenal, which is called StreemFS, makes its service behave as if it was attached to the user's computer similar to a hard drive.
"The entire team at Streem will be joining Box to help work on the future of content management and collaboration in the enterprise," says Box CEO Aaron Levie, in a blog post.
It allows users to natively access their data in the could via their desktop. Furthermore, users don't have to keep a copy of a particular file on their computer for syncing with the next copy stored on Streem's cloud. They can simply store a copy of the file on Streem and have it streamed to their desktop on demand.
"Files are opened natively on the device, requiring no special software, configuration, or any change in the consumer's behavior," stated Streem when it launched the service in beta back in April of this year.
Streem seems very proud of its technology, as the company claims that by using custom streaming and buffering algorithms, users can open a file from its cloud service just as fast as opening a file natively from the desktop. This is really important for folks who are looking for the same desktop like performance from cloud services.
Additionally, Streem says it has developed what it calls "on-the-fly video transcoder," a feature that allows cloud users to stream video content from any format, in a way that is compatible with the device being used. The technology can even automatically adjust video quality based on the user's Internet connection speed.
The overall plan here is to have Streem fully integrated into Box, though the company is not saying when it will be available for users.
Box in its current form is designed well for business users, though we are guessing Box might eventually put more focus on non-business consumers to fully put Streem's technology to the test.
Customers with accounts on Streem will be fully migrated to Box as both companies prepare to become a single cohesive unit.
Streem planned to charge users $20 per month to use its service after the beta ended. Now the company is owned by Box, which means the price maybe wavered for a long time.
