Dropbox opens Australian office, launches new business offering
Dropbox is set to open an office in Australia as the company announces new services for the local market, including file sharing and collaboration for business customers.
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Dropbox has today announced a number of new services for its users in Australia, bringing a simpler photo sharing experience to its platform and offering file sharing and collaboration services for business customers.
The launches come on the same day the US cloud storage company announced it will be "opening for business in Australia" with the establishment of a local office in Sydney, run by a small team including "veteran Dropbox leaders" according to the company's vice president of enterprise, Ross Piper.
Speaking about the new locally-based team, Piper said they were planting roots in order to better serve Australian Dropbox users - a timely move, considering the number of new offerings Dropbox is bringing to Australian customers as of today.
Last year, Dropbox acquired Mailbox – an email client that the company considered its "first foray beyond the magic folder" of Dropbox's cloud storage platform. While Mailbox has previously been available to iOS users, the company is bringing the service to Android users from today as well as launching a Beta app for Mac.
Private users of Dropbox are also getting access to a new streamlined image managing interface for Dropbox, known as Carousel. Designed as a "mobile first" platform, Carousel pulls all the photos stored on Dropbox (either uploaded by the account holder, or the images that are shared with them) into a single stream with an identifiable thumb image. Android and iOS users in Australia will have access to the Carousel gallery from today.
Finally, enterprise customers are being targeted with a new Dropbox for Business service, also being launched in Australia today.
Designed to give business users the ability to switch between personal and work-related accounts on their devices, Dropbox for Business also features a suite of admin tools. These offer controls such as remote data wiping; easy account transfer; and a Sharing Audit Log that allows admins to track and control how data is shared inside and outside the business, and with what devices.
Dropbox for Business also includes a Project Harmony tool that works across both Mac and PC, allowing colleagues to collaborate and communicate live as they do so. Project Harmony will be available on Powerpoint, Excel, and Word documents at launch, with Dropbox "looking to extend across other platforms" in the future.
Dropbox for Business is available from today for AU$15 per user per month (minimum five users).