Category Archive

News from ownCloud

25. July 2018

ownCloud today announced that it has been newly recognized as one of two European vendors and is the only open-source vendor in Gartner’s 2018 Magic Quadrant for Content Collaboration Platforms (CCP).

News from ownCloud

18. July 2018

ownCloud announces Scality’s Zenko CloudServer, formerly known as Scality S3 Server, as a certified storage backend for ownCloud Server v10.0.9. This certification is inherited by all Scality products leveraging its open source S3-Server API, such as Scality Ring in combination with the Scality […]

News from ownCloud

3. July 2018

The simple access to all company data via a central platform allows for better productivity, flexibility and, above all, security in day-to-day business. Enterprise file sync and sharing solutions (EFSS) are, therefore, being used in more and more companies. However, if you really want to run an […]

News from ownCloud

12. June 2018

ownCloud and SerNet teamed up and brought major contributions to the SMB Protocol: Enabling seamless integration of Windows Network Drive with ownCloud.

News from ownCloud

7. June 2018

Since 2015, Fujitsu has been providing its customers with the secure and award-winning enterprise file sharing of ownCloud. As a result of this successful cooperation, Fujitsu has now achieved Gold Partner status and can provide even better user experience and support in the future. Fujitsu enables […]

News from ownCloud

25. May 2018

Today on May 25, 2018 is the day that the EU-General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has officially been put into effect. For the past two years companies have been working to make sure that their companies are GDPR compliant in order to avoid penalties. If businesses fail to comply, fines of up […]

News from ownCloud

22. May 2018

We are excited to announce that for the third year straight, ownCloud has been nominated for Storage Insider Readers’ Choice Award for Enterprise File Sharing! The IT Award is presented by the IT specialist portals BigData-Insider, CloudComputing Insider, DataCenter-Insider, DevInsider, IP-Insider […]

News from ownCloud

4. May 2018

Today the privacyIDEA ownCloud app version 2.4 was released. Besides Configuration improvements, we included an important feature that makes it easier for the Administrator allows some users to be excluded from the two-factor authentication.

News from ownCloud

3. May 2018

Recently Radiant Insights published a report, Global Enterprise File Sync and Share Market 2018-2022, that found that the Enterprise File Sync and Share market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.17% during 2018-2022. The press release following the results states that due to low costs and mobility, […]

News from ownCloud

11. April 2018

Last week Digital Shadows announced the results of a report, Too Much Information, which found that over 1.5 Billion files were exposed through misconfigured services including: Amazon S3 buckets, rsync, SMB, FTP, NAS drives, and misconfigured websites. According to the report: “Organizations […]

News from ownCloud

28. March 2018

Last month Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and Georgia Representative Doug Collins introduced The CLOUD (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data) Act to the United States Congress in an attempt to change how data is collected from tech companies stored outside of the U.S. by both U.S. law enforcement […]

News from ownCloud

26. March 2018

With "Phoenix" ownCloud integrates a completely redesigned frontend into its software. In the future, the interface should only contain HTML, JavaScript and CSS files and be completely independent from the server. The new WebUI creates a clearer and easier to understand code structure. The modular […]

News from ownCloud

30. January 2018

by Jörn Dreyer and Tom Needham With the release of user_ldap 0.10.0 on Dec 20th 2017, we greatly improved the performance of our LDAP app. The user_ldap app provides a user backend for ownCloud. It allows to use an existing directory of users and give them access to their data. Because of this, the […]

News from ownCloud

23. January 2018

The security gaps in processors will persist for a long time to come in the context of public-cloud infrastructures. But, even if the companies can minimise this risk with new patches, users could suffer long-term losses in performance, a higher CPU utilization and general rising and harder to plan […]

News from ownCloud

10. November 2017

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you’ve probably heard about the Google Docs glitch that locked users out of their accounts. This latest security issues further underscores the fact that users’ do not have full control over their data. Users reported being locked out […]

News from ownCloud

26. October 2017

With the release of ownCloud X (10.0.x) we have published official Dockerfiles that are maintained by ownCloud developers. We have also added it as one of the recommended ways to install ownCloud into the documentation.  You are more than welcome to try this out and give us your feedback […]

News from ownCloud

12. September 2017

It’s that time of year again. The kids are packing their backpacks and getting ready to head back to school. And while all parents worry about their child’s physical well-being, have they stopped to consider the well-being of their child’s personal information? With Google’s court ruling […]

News from ownCloud

7. September 2017

Google’s “Summer of Code” is over and ownCloud takes stock. The file sync and share specialist took part in the international open source scholarship as a mentoring organization for the second time this year and supervised three student projects. All results received the best […]

News from ownCloud

29. August 2017

All the way back in February (where has the time gone?) I posted a blog, Threats to your Data in the Trump Age, where I outlined possible threats to your data, including a recent ruling against Google and a Microsoft case that was still in the court system. In early February “a U.S. judge has […]

News from ownCloud

11. July 2017

ownCloud is bringing its full set of Enterprise functionalities to the ownCloud Marketplace. This is another big step towards making ownCloud more modular and flexible. In the future you will be able to choose from a variety of apps directly from the ownCloud Marketplace – that means its now […]

News from ownCloud

5. July 2017

After the current waves of attack of ransomware WannaCry in May and its successor Petya a few days ago, agitation prevails in many IT departments: How can you protect your company against these attacks, which have the potential to destroy all files? The economic damage is now already in the billions […]

News from ownCloud

22. June 2017

There are many reasons to run your own Cloud! The latest reason? The Walmart versus Amazon battle that has just commenced—simply put, competition. According to Barb Darrow’s article Walmart Gears Up Anti-Amazon Stance in Wake of Whole Foods Deal on Fortune, Amazon’s plan to purchase Whole […]

News from ownCloud

7. June 2017

May 23 was the day we were all waiting for–ownCloud celebrated the launch of the latest enterprise edition of its file sync and share solution, ownCloud 10.0.2, at the KOMED event center in Cologne. As of now, ownCloud X is fully available to enterprise customers. In addition to exciting […]

News from ownCloud

16. May 2017

There is just one more week left until the grand premiere of ownCloud X Enterprise! Over the past few weeks, we have been introducing new features and capabilities each week, including extended security and extended performance. This week’s latest feature announcement is extended productivity […]

News from ownCloud

8. May 2017

As we have previously announced, the release of ownCloud X is getting closer. Last week we announced the new extended security in the latest ownCloud Edition and this week we are excited to announce that ownCloud X will also offer extended performance features/functionalities. One of the key aspects […]

News from ownCloud

1. May 2017

With the highly-anticipated release of ownCloud X, we are excited to announce that the latest update will offer extended security features/functionalities. The launch of ownCloud X follows the vision of secure file sharing for enterprises and extends it with important improvements and fresh security […]

News from ownCloud

24. April 2017

We are excited to announce that the latest version of ownCloud, ownCloud X, is on its way! ownCloud X marks a new generation in the development of the ownCloud software. It creates a product that extends file sharing with a clear commitment to enterprise-focused security and performance while […]

News from ownCloud

21. April 2017

According to a recent blog published by security specialist Hanno Boeck and to a report published in Golem, use of the bug report function on Github has resulted in the potential publication of passwords by different users. When you fill out a bug report with ownCloud, you are asked for the contents […]

News from ownCloud

13. April 2017

In February I published a blog “Threats to your Data in the Trump Age” outlining the ramifications President Trump’s administration will have on the newly implemented EU-US Privacy Shield and the concerns for the safety of private data following a January executive order. While much of these […]

News from ownCloud

31. March 2017

This past Sunday ZDnet’s Zack Whittaker was the first to report that Microsoft’s document sharing site, Docs.com, has been leaking users’ personal files and information. “Users had complained over the weekend on Twitter that anyone could use the site’s search box to trawl through […]

News from ownCloud

16. February 2017

Just about year after the fall of the Safe Harbor agreement, the European Commission agreed upon a new framework, EU-US Privacy Shield, for data-transfers between the EU and the US this past August and was officially put into place as of February 1st 2017 with the declaration of the EU countries […]

News from ownCloud

14. February 2017

We are so excited to announced that ownCloud has beat out a number of great competitors for 2016’s Linux Questions’ Member’s Choice Awards Open Source File Sync Application of the Year! On the behalf of all of us here at ownCloud—Thank you! It is once again because of our faithful users and […]

News from ownCloud

15. December 2016

Transparency Market Research has published its forecast of the EFSS market as far as 2024. According to TMR: Rising need for digitalization of business processes and file sharing solutions in enterprises is expected to drive the enterprise file sharing and synchronization market. Also, with the […]

News from ownCloud

23. November 2016

Today we announced the release of a new Microsoft Outlook plug-in. This means that you can easily send secure files as well as whole folders. Now, instead of attachments, the plug-in will automatically add the links to corresponding files within ownCloud, without having to change your workflow. The plug-in is fully integrated into Outlook, easy to use, and works with secure SSL encryption.

BW-Tech GmbH developed the Outlook plug-in as an extension to its ownCloud-based file sharing solution epiKshare. But after customization, the plug-in is now available for all ownCloud users.

Outlook is still the default solution for emails, calendars, and tasks at many companies. With the new plug-in, we are opening up a new dimension in secure email-based file sharing for the more than ten million ownCloud users. Many Microsoft Exchange operators have explicitly asked us for an Outlook plug-in. Thanks to our partnership with BW-Tech, we are now able to make one available for the market!

The Outlook plug-in ensures that the link to the files and the password needed for downloading them are automatically sent separately for added security. And to ward off viruses, all the data is checked for malicious software before being sent to the ownCloud server. For those users who often send large amounts of data, this will benefit them greatly, as the data is accessed via a link, meaning there are no size limitations when it comes to sending your data.

The plug-in is now available for both our subscription and community users in German and in English. Be sure to test it out with a 30 day free trial today.

Today we announced the release of a new Microsoft Outlook plug-in. This means that you can easily send secure files as well as whole folders. Now, instead of attachments, the plug-in will automatically add the links to corresponding files within ownCloud, without having to change your workflow. The […]

News from ownCloud

15. November 2016

 451 Research announced a new report stating that they “expects revenue from OpenStack business models to exceed $5bn by 2020 and grow at a 35% CAGR.” What does this mean for ownCloud? This means that, while many continue to say that on-premises storage options will be a thing of the past in […]

News from ownCloud

21. October 2016

The winner of the Storage Insider Reader’s Choice Award for best Enterprise File Sharing has been announced: Platin for ownCloud.






This award is a great honor to all of us here at ownCloud. It is our users who have made it possible and we can’t thank you enough for your continued devotion to ownCloud. So let’s keep going and rack up some more awards!




Love to all,
From the ownCloud team.

The winner of the Storage Insider Reader’s Choice Award for best Enterprise File Sharing has been announced: Platin for ownCloud. This award is a great honor to all of us here at ownCloud. It is our users who have made it possible and we can’t thank you enough for your continued devotion […]

News from ownCloud

20. October 2016

As in 2015, ownCloud was also present at this year’s it-sa 2016 in Nuremberg, Germany. The it-sa is an annual IT-Security exhibition featuring important organizations from the industry and a highly targeted IT security audience. ownCloud was not only present with a booth on the exhibition floor, but also hosted its own Security Event on Wednesday, Oct 19, on the exhibition grounds. The event was attended by a wide range of Business Executives as well as Security Experts and IT-Professionals and featured great talks by the likes of ZF Friedrichshafen and KPMG.

After a relaxed kick-off with coffee and snacks, ownClouds CEO Tobias Gerlinger and Worldwide Sales Director Andrea Mörike started the event off with a warm welcome and an overview of ownCloud’s exciting new developments regarding new employees and business activities.

The microphone was then handed over to Wilhelm Dolle, expert for IT security at KPMG AG. In an insightful presentation, Dolle gave practical tips on the realization of regulatory requirements regarding IT- and Data-Security to help enterprises with the implementation of key IT security measures. Afterwards, Thorsten Krause from ZF Friedrichshafen AG took the stage to give a perspective on how ZF, one of the biggest automotive suppliers in the world, is using ownCloud in their daily business activities. The presentation featured a review on the implementation of ownCloud to the production environment of ZF and how the company will use their “ZF File Cloud” in the future.

The lunch break was a great opportunity for all attendees to network and exchange perspectives on the most urgent security issues of today’s IT landscape. After the break, ownCloud’s Matthias Schmid demonstrated in a live demo how to meet existing security standards with ownCloud. In the closing Q&A session, all attendees were given the opportunity to learn more about how ownCloud can help to solve pressing security issues and ask a great variety of technical questions. The Security Event at the it-sa 2016 was a great success for ownCloud with amazing speakers and a highly engaged audience, and showed how to actively solve current IT security issues in today’s enterprises.

Thanks again to all speakers and attendees, it was a great experience and we hope to welcome everybody again next year!

As in 2015, ownCloud was also present at this year’s it-sa 2016 in Nuremberg, Germany. The it-sa is an annual IT-Security exhibition featuring important organizations from the industry and a highly targeted IT security audience. ownCloud was not only present with a booth on the exhibition […]

News from ownCloud

22. September 2016

Today we announced a new partnership with XTIVIA, Inc., an award-winning information technology solution, consulting, and development company that does whatever it takes to help customers improve their technology and business. XTIVIA provides “database, application development, and integration expertise around Business Intelligence, Data Management & Analytics, CRM, Web Portals, Remote Database Support, and more.”

This partnership will allow us to break into the US market and give our present and future North American customers support and services. In exchange it will also allow XTIVIA to provide secure, private, and custom data solutions to their own customers.

We are very excited about this opportunity and look forward to a great relationship.

Today we announced a new partnership with XTIVIA, Inc., an award-winning information technology solution, consulting, and development company that does whatever it takes to help customers improve their technology and business. XTIVIA provides “database, application development, and integration […]

News from ownCloud

25. August 2016

Connect with the ownCloud Ecosystem
The ownCloud Conference is the yearly main event for community & business users, customers, partners, developers and the ownCloud ecosystem as a whole.

It connects ownClouders from around the world, offers customers & partners valuable insights into the ownCloud development and open source community and provides a platform to share ownCloud expertise, listen to the best in the field, learn best practices, see results in action and try out new ideas on business models, use cases, server, mobile and desktop alongside the ownCloud ecosystem.

Range of talks
At the ownCloud Contributor Conference you will always learn something new, gain great business contacts and get a look behind the scenes of ownCloud. Whether it’s about exciting new technology developments that might impact your own company’s future, or service and product offerings available for developers. You will be most likely to find solutions and answers all around the ecosystem of ownCloud. View Agenda.

Meet the ownCloud Developers
The ownCloud Developers will of course be present and it is a good opportunity to get a hold of them to chat and see the new ownCloud features first hand before everybody else. Gain an understanding how ownCloud will evolve as a software and how it’s future possibilities can impact the effectiveness of your business.

Expert help and business contacts
Meet other ownCloud Partners, the ownCloud Support Experts and IT-professionals that have successfully build their businesses around the ownCloud ecosystem. Profit from the experiences of long-time ownCloud Customers, Partners and Employees and learn how the flexible ownCloud solution can fulfill the needs of your business.

Key take-aways
With the knowledge gained, attendees of the ownCloud Conference will afterwards be able to help their companies to:

• Develop and improve state of the art functionality around the ecosystem.
• Add versatility, agility and stability to your product and use cases.
• Speed up development
• Be faster then your competition.
• And last but not least, keep their developers happy and productive.

To attend the ownCloud Contributors Conference please register here:
https://conference.owncloud.org/conference/oCC2016/register/new

Further Conference Information:
https://conference.owncloud.org/conference

Connect with the ownCloud Ecosystem The ownCloud Conference is the yearly main event for community & business users, customers, partners, developers and the ownCloud ecosystem as a whole. It connects ownClouders from around the world, offers customers & partners valuable insights into the […]

News from ownCloud

24. August 2016

Today we are excited to announce the inception of the ownCloud Marketplace, which will be available in early 2017!

Developers from the community have been approaching us for a marketing platform, so the idea of the marketplace is to give developers and partners what they’ve been asking for; a platform to market and distribute their own commercial and open source apps. They will have the option to generate revenue from licenses, maintenance and support, or they can even distribute their apps free of charge. We hope that with the creation of the market place we will be able to consolidate the ownCloud ecosystem and further expand ownCloud’s leading position in the market.

Here are a few of the greatest benefits the marketplace will offer our developers and partners:

• Developers will be able to market and sell their own apps.
• Web agencies can develop ownCloud themes and offer them for sale.
• Consultancies can market solutions for specific sectors and industries and develop business models.
• Software houses can link ownCloud to their own software and market the integration codes under open source or commercial licenses.
• Workflows: ownCloud Enterprise offers a workflow functionality in Version 9.1. Developers will be able market customer or user-specific workflows within the marketplace.

The ownCloud marketplace will support various license models—not only will the developers and our partners be able to promote enhancements as free open source, they will also be at liberty to charge for maintenance and support, or even offer their software as a subscription with a commercial license. However, any and all enhancements that may be made to the ownCloud core will need to be provided under AGPLv3 so that the ownCloud Commercial License can allow those commercial enhancements.

If you’re planning to attend our Contributor Conference in Berlin September 9-15 we will be showcasing the new marketplace on the 12th.

Today we are excited to announce the inception of the ownCloud Marketplace, which will be available in early 2017! Developers from the community have been approaching us for a marketing platform, so the idea of the marketplace is to give developers and partners what they’ve been asking for; a […]

News from ownCloud

19. August 2016

I am often asked to explain the reasoning behind the ownCloud licensing, the ownCloud Enterprise Modules, as well as any derivative work. However, this is not that easy to explain, so I will try to be as clear as possible in this blog post, but I also expect a couple of comments and questions from contributors around the world and I will surely incorporate updates and/or corrections as needed.

ownCloud is Open Source Software and is licensed under the Affero GNU Public License Version 3 (AGPLv3). For clarity’s sake, I will concentrate on ownCloud Core, where source code is distributed and worked on in the ownCloud Github repository. This repo is covered by the ownCloud Contributor License Agreement (CLA), which essentially assures that every developer gives all rights under copyright law to the ownCloud legal entity, and in return includes a pledge that such code will always be released as Open Source.

AGPLv3 is a copyleft license, which means that any modification of the code is automatically licensed under AGPLv3. This is true for any distribution or – and that is the speciality about the Affero license – if the software is just made available for somebody to communicate with. As the Free Software Foundation explains, „if you run a modified program on a server and let other users communicate with it there, your server must also allow them to download the source code corresponding to the modified version running there.“ In the case of ownCloud, this means that whenever you make ownCloud available for any usage on your server via the Internet you are required to provide any modified source code.

ownCloud has an integrated apps concept. This means that it can easily be extented with ownCloud Apps. In fact, when you download ownCloud Server or ownCloud Community Edition you already get several included apps and via apps.owncloud.com you have access to 150+ additional ownCloud applications from the ownCloud Community.

How does the AGPLv3 apply to those apps and any apps you write as extentions?
Very easily; every ownCloud app is treated as modified work because the code from the ownCloud core is always running in parallel of any such extensions.

From the beginning, when founding ownCloud as a company, we expected people, particullary from large organizations aka enterprises, to expect something different. They want to keep modifications private, particullary as they often happen in the context of IT integration and would reveal other software and data center structures to the public. They also want to develop extensions (ownCloud apps) that they can keep to themselves and 3rd parties to be enabled to deliver additional ownCloud apps, which can be kept private or can be sold using commercial licenses.
Our Enterprise Subscriptions provide to all customers the same ownCloud Core AGPLv3 code licensed under the ownCloud Commercial License. This is commonly called „dual-licensing“.

Since 2012 the ownCloud Commercial License has allowed this all to happen, and all of our customers customers and partners continue to have full access to all of our Source Code and Any modifications they make, can be kept private – if they choose so.

All of our Enterprise only modules are also shipped using this license, which means that full Source Code is available and can be freely modified without the need to publish. This gives our customers, partners and users across the globe the possibility to choose to either publish any and all modifications and extensions to the original ownCloud Core, or purchase a Commercial License which means that this requirement is omitted!

I am often asked to explain the reasoning behind the ownCloud licensing, the ownCloud Enterprise Modules, as well as any derivative work. However, this is not that easy to explain, so I will try to be as clear as possible in this blog post, but I also expect a couple of comments and questions from […]

News from ownCloud

26. July 2016

Today we have announced that Computacenter has chosen to work with ownCloud and Red Hat to deliver Infinite File Service (IFS). IFS includes the ownCloud Enterprise Edition, object storage using Red Hat Ceph Storage, and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform to create a solution that is high performance and scales without any boundaries.

Following the dismantlement of the Safe Harbor agreement, European companies were no longer able to store data in the US. Soon Privacy Shield will be actively in place. It is expected to be contested in court and I personally think that the regulation will not hold up – legal certainty is something else. Our customers also quote reasons like the amounts of data used, integration in existing IT infrastructure and the ability to extend ownCloud as reasons to deploy Enterprise Cloud Services. Those are often based on OpenStack or PaaS platforms like OpenShift or Cloud Foundry with enterprise file sync and share provided by ownCloud as one of the first workloads.

In any case Computacenter promises that IFS is the best option for those companies that need to offer employees access to data and files anywhere and from any device. Computacenter has chosen to work with ownCloud because of the users’ ability to have complete control over data, as well as our Federated Cloud Sharing feature that allows users to access different instances as one ownCloud. This partnership, along with the technology of Red Hat, allows ownCloud to offer a winning solution.

We welcome our new Gold Partner and can’t wait for all the great work that lies ahead.

Some words about Computacenter:

„Computacenter is Europe’s leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services. We can advise customers on their IT strategy, implement the most appropriate technology from a wide range of leading vendors and manage their technology infrastructures on their behalf. At every stage we make our customers’ businesses sharper by removing cost, complexity and barriers to change across their IT infrastructures. Our corporate and government clients are served by offices across the UK, Germany, France, the Benelux countries, Spain and South Africa. We also serve our customers’ global requirements through our extensive partner network. Formed in 1981 by British Harvard graduates Philip Hulme and Peter Ogden, Computacenter today has over 10,000 employees across Europe and Group revenues of over £2.5 billion.“

Following the dismantlement of the Safe Harbor agreement, European companies were no longer able to store data in the US. Soon Privacy Shield will be actively in place. It is expected to be contested in court and I personally think that the regulation will not hold up – legal certainty is […]

News from ownCloud

14. July 2016

Today I am pleased to welcome Tobias Gerlinger as ownCloud’s new Managing Director and CEO.

Tobias is a graduate in business administration and mechanical engineering. He started his career as a sales and marketing manager in the software industry before he co-founded a corporate finance boutique in 1999. Following 5 years of international financial consulting and fundraising he became an active investor and served in different leading functions for several companies from different industries. He gathered 20 years of experience in in entrepreneurship, company building and selling.

Tobias recently led a group to invest capital funds into ownCloud, and has, therefore, made them the majority stakeholders in ownCloud GmbH. This is really great news as it has allowed our US customer contracts to be taken over following the closing of our US offices, and will continue to foster global customer relationships.

This new shift in management will allow me, as COO, to completely focus on technology and product strategy; the future of ownCloud. This shift has also given our former CEO and co-founder, Markus Rex, the opportunity to retire from active management and to take a seat on the Advisory Board.

Welcome Tobias. On the behalf of all of ownCloud, I’d like to say we are happy to have you joining our team!

Today I am pleased to welcome Tobias Gerlinger as ownCloud’s new Managing Director and CEO. Tobias is a graduate in business administration and mechanical engineering. He started his career as a sales and marketing manager in the software industry before he co-founded a corporate finance boutique […]

News from ownCloud

23. June 2016

Collabora Online for ownCloud Enterprise immediately available

Back in December Collabora joined our Community efforts by offering LibreOffice, collaborative editing in our Community Edition. Now we are excited to announce that it is also now available in our Enterprise Edition. This has been a long time coming and we have spent that time making sure that this collaboration would be perfect for our users. Read Press Release https://owncloud.com/owncloud-collabora-make-libreoffice-online-available-owncloud-enterprise/.

Our users have long been requesting an open source cloud document suite that can support all major file formats, that would increase productivity yet allow them to stay in complete control of data. Now both, LibreOffice and MS Office formats, are supported and teams will be able to collaborate with “shared editing.” Users can edit the document while the other users are able to see changes in real-time. This new feature resolves any potential version conflicts that may have presented in the past when users would work independently on the same document. This collaboration now happens online, inside the ownCloud web frontend making it even easier for users to collaborate on the same document together, in real time.

There is also an online demo where you can try out Collabora Online for ownCloud Enterprise at: www.collaboraoffice.com/owncloud.

Collabora Online for ownCloud Enterprise immediately available Back in December Collabora joined our Community efforts by offering LibreOffice, collaborative editing in our Community Edition. Now we are excited to announce that it is also now available in our Enterprise Edition. This has been a […]

News from ownCloud

20. June 2016

ownCloud has been nominated in the Storage Insider’s Reader’s Choice Awards for Enterprise File Sharing! It is such an honor to be nominated with the likes of Novell, WeTransfer, SecureSafe, and Hitachi, just to name a few.

Show your love for ownCloud by voting now!

ownCloud has been nominated in the Storage Insider’s Reader’s Choice Awards for Enterprise File Sharing! It is such an honor to be nominated with the likes of Novell, WeTransfer, SecureSafe, and Hitachi, just to name a few. Show your love for ownCloud by voting now!

News from ownCloud

9. June 2016

Next week ownCloud will be attending TNC16 in the Czech Republic. According to their site, “The TNC16 Networking Conference is the largest and most prestigious European research networking conference, with more than 650 participants attending this annual event. TNC brings together decision makers, managers, networking and collaboration specialists, and identity and access management experts from all major European networking and research organizations, universities, worldwide sister institutions, as well as industry representatives.”

This is such a great event and we look forward to being there. If you happen to be attending, come by and visit us at the booth we will be sharing with IBM, booth 9. We would love to talk to you about how ownCloud could benefit your company. And be sure not to miss my discussion of  OpenCloudMesh, our joint initiative with the GÉANT Association, built on ownCloud’s Federated Cloud Sharing application. Join my talk, “OpenCloudMesh — interconnecting sync & share clouds,” on Monday, June 13th.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Next week ownCloud will be attending TNC16 in the Czech Republic. According to their site, “The TNC16 Networking Conference is the largest and most prestigious European research networking conference, with more than 650 participants attending this annual event. TNC brings together decision makers, […]

News from ownCloud

6. June 2016

What is Multi-tenancy?

Multi-tenancy is a term referring to systems that have multiple organizations accessing the same server, each organization (or company) is considered a tenant and to each tenant the system looks custom for them.

There are 2 approaches to multi-tenancy in the world: multi-tenancy through instance replication, and multi-tenancy through data segregation (this tends to be considered true multi-tenancy).

Instance replication means an admin spins up a separate virtual machine instance per organization. This is somewhat difficult to manage in large scale – imagine managing 100 organizations, meaning 100 or more virtual machines! – and also server resource intensive as each instance has a separate virtual machine consuming overhead.

ownCloud – as a Web Service allows you to make this even easier by using different data directories for each ownCloud instance. In that case you do not need to manage different virtual machines, operating systems, Apache or PHP versions but still different ownCloud instances. Management tools from 3rd parties (like RH Satellite Server or SUSE Manager) can make this even easier for you. This means that you have …/customer1, …/customer2, etc. instead of just /owncloud inside your Apache or ISS setup.
Setup with multiple data directories is the currently best setup for organizations with 20 users or more.

The even more modern, third approach is to use containers. Docker or other container technologies allow you to spin up ownCloud instances very easily and there are management utilities around that.

Multi-tenancy achieved through data segregation (true multi-tenancy), makes managing the environment even simpler as there is just one server farm, one admin interface and one instance of the software.  This is how SalesForce.com works, for example.  Tenants are segregated through software configurable options on the servers, and their data is physically separated on the storage backend, to meet isolation requirements.  Typically, multi-tenant systems also allow customer admins to customize features for the organization’s users, modify workflows, and polish the look and feel for their users, while not impacting any other tenants on the system. Such systems need to put high focus on security and secure programming. Often XSS (Cross-side-scripting) issues do exist. In separate instances security can be easily proven!

Customer Needs

ownCloud has seen customers asking for the following:

• Unique domain names and SSL certificates per tenant
• Unique branding per tenant
• Groups imported from Active Directory/LDAP per tenant
• Flexible storage usage per organisation per tenant
• Unique ownCloud Apps available per tenant

What ownCloud Does

ownCloud can provide multi-tenancy through instance replication very easily, and for small service providers or enterprises, this is typically a good start.  This is also often good enough for large organizations or service providers.

ownCloud also provides multi-tenancy through data segregation – partly.  There are 4 parts to providing multi-tenancy through data segregation in ownCloud: group isolation for sharing, physical data segregation, the tenant data construct, and customization by tenant.

ownCloud provides:

• Group isolation for sharing.  If you share a file with someone in ownCloud, the admin can enable a check box so that you can only see other users on the system that are members of the groups to you are a member.  For small (up to approx. 20 users per account) multi-tenant situations, this means you treat tenants as groups, and you can emulate multi-tenancy.
• Physical data segregation.  ownCloud can leverage a custom data path for each user of the system, and the admins can configure it to use a separate path for each tenant.  This requires a directory (LDAP/AD) to function, but it can isolate user files from each other.

In result this means that for any tenant which does not need groups, typically 10 users or less – you can use one ownCloud instance.

For any larger tenant we strongly recommend to spin up unique instances in one of the ways described above. Consultancy on management of such instances can be delivered by ownCloud partners!

How this compares to ownCloud competition:

We have not been able to find a single competitor who can deliver all 5 customer requests on a per tenant basis combined.

Typically it will be only possible to have a subdomain and/or your own SSL certificate. (IDGard, Sharefile). Flexible storage using is typically not possible, one storage system is needed for the full application (CTera with S3 or Scality).

What is Multi-tenancy? Multi-tenancy is a term referring to systems that have multiple organizations accessing the same server, each organization (or company) is considered a tenant and to each tenant the system looks custom for them. There are 2 approaches to multi-tenancy in the world: […]

News from ownCloud

2. June 2016

Today’s announcement by our former colleague Frank Karlitschek, that he intends to launch a competitive product to ownCloud into the market using recently poached developers, has both surprised us and – admittedly – disappointed us. In the past, Frank has made a wealth of contributions to the development of the ownCloud Community Edition. With today’s announcement, he is no longer related to the ownCloud project and has started a competing community.

ownCloud will continue to deliver software and maintenance to our future and existing customer base. Support, consulting and professional services continue to be available. Product improvements will continue to be our focus as we deliver on our vision of “Universal File Access”. We are prepared to face any form of legitimate competition, because we are convinced of the quality of ownCloud.

One of Frank’s criticisms concerned the need to strengthen the Community. In this regard, we have been working on the creation of the ownCloud Foundation, the formation of which we announced earlier this week. The Foundation’s board will consist of 7 members, among them developers elected from the GitHub community, community users and one ownCloud representative. This will strengthen the Community in the long term, and ensures the availability of a free, entirely open source version of ownCloud. The Community Edition is and remains the backbone of our company.

Just yesterday, ownCloud staged an event in Frankfurt, Germany hosted by ownCloud and sponsored by IBM and B1 Systems, where users demonstrated the full range of possibilities of ownCloud in a variety of interesting community and enterprise projects, including Stuttgarter Lebensversicherung a.G., Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung, DESY, Agfa ICS and Senacor. In return, ownCloud unveiled its roadmap for upcoming versions to a wealth of positive feedback. Future collaboration capabilities for documents, spreadsheets and presentations in partnership with Collabora was also very well received.

Unfortunately, the announcement has consequences for ownCloud, Inc. based in Lexington, MA. Our main lenders in the US have cancelled our credit. Following American law, we are forced to close the doors of ownCloud, Inc. with immediate effect and terminate the contracts of 8 employees. The ownCloud GmbH is not directly affected by this and the growth of the ownCloud Foundation will remain a key priority.

Today’s announcement by our former colleague Frank Karlitschek, that he intends to launch a competitive product to ownCloud into the market using recently poached developers, has both surprised us and – admittedly – disappointed us. In the past, Frank has made a wealth of […]

News from ownCloud

2. June 2016

Yesterday ownCloud hosted our yearly conference bringing together 73 ownCloud business users from both the community and enterprise, as well as those who are interested in becoming a user.

The event took place in a cinema in Frankfurt Germany. IBM and B1 Systems were event sponsors. The cloud and compliance expert, Arnd Böken, provided insight into cloud compliance and how organizations can use cloud solutions in compliance with data protection regulations. A whole gamut of users demonstrated the full range of possibilities of ownCloud in a variety of interesting community and enterprise projects, including Stuttgarter Lebensversicherung a.G., Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung, DESY, Agfa ICS and Senacor. In return, ownCloud unveiled its roadmap for up-and-coming versions, for which it received a wealth of positive feedback. Also insights of Collabora in future collaboration capabilities for documents, spreadsheets and presentations received a big applause.

Yesterday ownCloud hosted our yearly conference bringing together 73 ownCloud business users from both the community and enterprise, as well as those who are interested in becoming a user. The event took place in a cinema in Frankfurt Germany. IBM and B1 Systems were event sponsors. The cloud and […]

News from ownCloud

31. May 2016

Today we are excited to announce the formation of the ownCloud Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit entity created to oversee the entirety of the ownCloud ecosystem and to keep the future of ownCloud intact.

The Foundation is also a means of being more open with all of our users. By placing the project in the hands of the Foundation we are relying on the collective wisdom of the ownCloud community to provide the same, positive guiding hand to the governance of the project as they have to the creation, nurturing and development of the ownCloud project.  This important step ensures the continued growth and success of the ownCloud ecosystem.

With the inception of the ownCloud Foundation, there is a seven person governing board. The board members will span across the ownCloud ecosystem, from very active contributor to large scale deployment, all of whom will be announced in mid-July. Users are also encouraged to join the Foundation as members, and there are three levels of membership available:

• Individual Members, who can join for free but do not having voting rights,
• Contributor Members, who can join for free if they sign a Contributor Licensing Agreement, can vote, and can qualify as a board member should a pull request be accepted,
• And Organization Members, who have an annual fee and are business entities, academic institutions, government agencies, or legal organization.

To learn more about the brand new ownCloud Foundation, be sure to check out the webpage.

Today we are excited to announce the formation of the ownCloud Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit entity created to oversee the entirety of the ownCloud ecosystem and to keep the future of ownCloud intact. The Foundation is also a means of being more open with all of our users. By placing […]

News from ownCloud

25. May 2016

Did you hear the news? Yesterday Dropbox gave an overview of Project Infinite, which was officially released last month. According to the Dropbox blog, “Project Infinite is designed to enable you to access all of the content in your Dropbox—no matter how small the hard disk on your machine or how much stuff you have in your Dropbox.” Makes sense, every user should be able to access THEIR data. But there’s a catch, one which many people are not thrilled about.

Dropbox continues to state in their blog “Traditionally, Dropbox operated entirely in user space as a program just like any other on your machine. With Dropbox Infinite, we’re going deeper: into the kernel—the core of the operating system. With Project Infinite, Dropbox is evolving from a process that passively watches what happens on your local disk to one that actively plays a role in your filesystem.”

Uh, what? They’re “actively play[ing] a role in your filesystem?” Just looking at some of the reactions on Twitter to this announcement, many are less than happy, one might even say angry or “freaking out,” about this new development. And many are even suggesting a move to ownCloud, which of course is flattering.

We have been discussing the ownCloud virtual filesystem for quite some time. This is our version of project infinite, but completely under your own control. In the spirit of being open, we don’t have all of the answers here, but I do encourage folks to take a look and see if they have anything to add, because this could be an awesome feature for everyone! With ownCloud users always have access to their files and because it is installed on your own system rather than into a third party cloud, ownCloud will never be able to “play a role in your filesystem.” You retain 100% of control over your files, as well as 100% privacy from prying eyes.

We have been discussing the ownCloud virtual filesystem for quite some time. This is our version of project infinite, but completely under your own control. In the spirit of being open, we don’t have all of the answers here, but I do encourage folks to take a look and see if they have anything to […]

News from ownCloud

25. May 2016

Interested in using ownCloud Enterprise Edition, but don’t know a lot about Linux? Do you have a small IT staff, or are you the IT staff in your spare time? The ownCloud Enterprise Edition Appliance is the answer to your need! The Appliance provides a pre-packaged, easy to deploy ownCloud ready for you in most popular virtual machine formats, including VMware, KVM, Xen and Hyper-V. Why use the appliance? Because it is a single, simple, import and boot virtual machine that can get you up and running on ownCloud in minutes.

Now you can test the full ownCloud Enterprise Edition, in collaboration with Canonical on Ubuntu, as a 30 day appliance and if you’re happy, you can simply purchase the license key and continue where you left off; no further integration or migration. Here are some frequently asked questions from our customers about the appliances.

What is the ideal profile for an appliance user?

–          If you are not an ownCloud customer yet, this appliance is available to you as a PoC.

–     The appliance is ideal for SMBs in a virtualized environment looking to securely store and share data from multiple locations.

What is included in the appliance?

–          ownCloud Enterprise Edition with 30-day key which can be seamlessly converted to a full-time enterprise license key

–          Ubuntu LTS 14.04, with Apache, MySQL, PHP and configured for preview or production mode  for ownCloud to function.

Who will support the Enterprise Appliance? Where can I buy a subscription?

–          ownCloud will support the ownCloud software -> ownCloud Enterprise Subscription owncloud.com/contact

–          Canonical will support the LAMP stack -> Ubuntu …. Subscription – purchase here:

http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=658

What will I still have to do by myself?

–         Import and boot the ownCloud image into the virtualization solution of your choice.

–         You are responsible for maintaining the OS. If you have purchased support for the OS from Canonical, and if you have questions for how to do this, contact Canonical for assistance.

–          When you convert to production use, you will have to update the ownCloud code, and you can contact us for assistance with this update if you have questions, or read the documentation. It is very straightforward, but you might need a hand to get it done quickly.

Is there a maximum user for this Enterprise Appliance? What happens if we exceed this number of users?

–         The max limit is dependent on the resources applied to the VM – storage, memory and CPUs. The appliance scales to 250 users. Depending on the intensity and pattern of use, this could be from 150 up to 400 users. But, in general, this should work for 250 “normal” ownCloud users.

–          Note: Some configurations, such as SAML IDPs, or LDAP or AD instances, may still be needed in order to connect. However, what you largely need will already be installed and ready to operate out of the box.

Be sure to download your 30 day free trial now. All of the enterprise apps can be enabled or disabled as needed, so play around and see just how awesome ownCloud Enterprise Edition is and how well it can work for your organization.

Interested in using ownCloud Enterprise Edition, but don’t know a lot about Linux? Do you have a small IT staff, or are you the IT staff in your spare time? The ownCloud Enterprise Edition Appliance is the answer to your need! The Appliance provides a pre-packaged, easy to deploy ownCloud ready […]

News from ownCloud

17. May 2016

Wow, do we have a great community here at ownCloud. And I mean really great! In 2015, 5 years after the initial inception of ownCloud, we had a grand total of 550 contributors, which is awesome. However, in just over a year since that number was recognized, we are proud to announce that we our community has reached over 1000 contributors. That is an 80% growth in just one year!

It is because of our community that ownCloud Inc. is the company it is today. So we do not take this announcement lightly. This is a great achievement for our entire environment and we could not be prouder. So thank you to all of you who have contributed to make ownCloud the success it is today, with over 8 million known users.

To learn more about the history behind our community, check out our blog on the community website. And if you’re interested, be sure to find out how you can get involved.

Wow, do we have a great community here at ownCloud. And I mean really great! In 2015, 5 years after the initial inception of ownCloud, we had a grand total of 550 contributors, which is awesome. However, in just over a year since that number was recognized, we are proud to announce that we our […]

News from ownCloud

12. May 2016

Today we have released the latest version of the Desktop Client, 2.2.0. This release includes changes to the default chunk size (10MB) and refactored overlay icons for performance, improved error handling, improved UI, translation fixes and countless other bug fixes. It also includes the new push notification feature, which allows admins to push announcements out to desktop sync clients.  For more information of what is included with this release, be sure to check out the changelog.

Please note that releases are available to branded customers about a week following the general release.

Today we have released the latest version of the Desktop Client, 2.2.0. This release includes changes to the default chunk size (10MB) and refactored overlay icons for performance, improved error handling, improved UI, translation fixes and countless other bug fixes. It also includes the new push […]

News from ownCloud

4. May 2016

Companies open-sourcing their code often incur delays while they ‘clean up the code’ and the argument of ‘poor or not acceptable quality code’ is given as reason not to make it available to the public in the first place. Customers may want to ask themselves how they can trust products with hidden code given how frequently we hear about the low quality standards. Especially when it comes to security, code quality is a serious concern and a recent hack at Facebook shows why.

Last week, a security researcher disclosed how he hacked Facebook and found a running backdoor script from someone else. This event, and Facebook’s attempt to downplay its importance, illustrates some of the benefits of open-source and industry best practices around security as we employ them at ownCloud.

Motivation

Orange Tsai, an employee at the Taiwanese security firm Devcore, and previously known for a Remote Code Execution issue on uber.com, decided to spend some time trying to find a security issue at Facebook. He explained his motivation:

“With the growing popularity of Facebook around the world, I’ve always been interested in testing the security of Facebook. Luckily, in 2012, Facebook launched the Bug Bounty Program, which even motivated me to give it a shot.”

Besides showing the value of bug bounty programs again, it highlights what motivates many engineers: a challenge. The bigger and more impactful a technology, the more attention it gets. With more than 8 million users, ownCloud is a very significant project in the open-source community, and benefits from the attention that this generates.

Accellion’s Open Back Door into Facebook

Upon researching the networks related to Facebook, Orange found a mostly-hidden files.fb.com site running Accellion’s Secure File Transfer (FTA). After researching known exploits, he found this exploit disclosure from some months ago. While FTA Facebook used was no longer vulnerable to this particular issue, it gave Orange an important clue:

“from the fragments of source code mentioned in the Advisory, I felt that with such coding style there should still be security issues remained in FTA if I kept looking.”

His hunch turned out to be true. He quickly found 7 vulnerabilities which he then exploited to get into Facebook’s network. After getting in, he looked around – and found something strange: an error message in the Apache webserver logs.

Following the path, he discovered a script running on the server and gathering passwords, regularly retrieved from a third party server! Orange describes the actions of the other hacker quite well, and expressed some surprise that this was not discovered as he considered the setup he found pretty badly hidden.

Facebook’s Response

On Hackernews, Facebook responded publicly, thanking Orange for his work (he’ll be rewarded with a USD $10K bounty!) and claiming:

“After incident response, we determined that the activity Orange detected was in fact from another researcher who participates in our bounty program. Neither of them were able to compromise other parts of our infra-structure so, the way we see it, it’s a double win: two competent researchers assessed the system, one of them reported what he found to us and got a good bounty, none of them were able to escalate access.”

Now here, I have to be a bit cynical: if this ‘other researcher’ truly was looking to earn a bug bounty, he/she would not only have stepped forwards by now.  More importantly, automatically gathering log-in data as described would not only violate the rules of the bug bounty program, it certainly goes further than a ‘white hat hacker’ is supposed to go. I can only guess that Facebook would rather not admit this…

How to do Better

A few interesting lessons come out of this disclosure.

First of all, bounty programs work – without it, the potentially malicious hacker would still be gathering passwords and the bugs in Accellion’s not-so-Secure File Transfer would not have been found.

Second, there’s clearly a code quality problem in a proprietary product widely advertised for its security. Anybody with industry experience knows the state the code base of many internal projects is. Just note how often code quality is mentioned when companies want to open-source one of their products. You’d do well to ask yourself how is it acceptable to sell something that the engineers themselves describe as ‘unacceptable’ just because the customer can’t actually see the code. It also makes clear that open-sourced companies are widely recognized as having a much higher standard of quality.

Why is this?  Both for the pride of the company and its engineers, as well as more simple and practical considerations. Open communities like ownCloud have a large number of contributors joining and contributing code.  Over 1000 people have contributed code to ownCloud, with between 80 and 90 doing so every month, about a quarter of whom are new! That’s right; we get to introduce two dozen new programmers to the ownCloud code base every month. You can imagine how your code base has to be clean, well laid out, well documented and well supplied with automated and manual tests for that to work out. This allows ownCloud’s new contributors to be able to get his or her code in within hours.  Compare this to a typical proprietary project, where a new hire is expected to spend a few weeks getting up to speed.  Our process and code base enables us to get 20+ volunteers to learn how to contribute to ownCloud each month!

Obviously, the many more eyes on ownCloud code, combined with the quality of the code base and the clear and transparent processes has its effect on security as well.

Does that mean our code is perfect? Not by any measure. We’re more than willing to admit that the code as written might not be much better than what gets produced at a proprietary company like Facebook or Accellion, despite our clear review process and pressure to document and test the code. But, unlike at a closed competitor, our code is under constant public scrutiny. Both software engineering, and especially security, is incredibly hard to do right. Thanks to our open process, we benefit from the collective insight of the smartest minds, and this input, review and oversight is how we continuously improve our code.

The fact that ownCloud is a big, open–source project, following security industry best practices and running a security bug bounty project quoted as “the benchmark for a well-executed, successful HackerOne launch,” gives our users and customers the confidence that, yes, they are running a secure product.

Companies open-sourcing their code often incur delays while they ‘clean up the code’ and the argument of ‘poor or not acceptable quality code’ is given as reason not to make it available to the public in the first place. Customers may want to ask themselves how they can trust products with […]

News from ownCloud

4. May 2016

On June 1st in Frankfurt, Germany, ownCloud will be hosting an event for ownCloud Community Edition business users, Enterprise Edition customers and anyone else who is interested in using ownCloud for their business. The goal of this event is to connect businesses that have medium to large ownCloud installations (over 50 users) and to present them with an opportunity to learn more about ownCloud and to share thoughts, feedback and ideas.

During the day, cloud and compliance expert, Arnd Böken, will be onsite to provide insight into cloud compliance and how organizations can use cloud solutions in compliance with data protection regulations. Attendees will also get an overview of ownCloud’s functionality and of real life ownCloud use cases (covering both Enterprise and Community Editions).

Join to hear more about the use cases at Stuttgarter Lebensversicherung a.G., Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH, DESY und Agfa ICS. You will have the opportunity to exchange experience and best practices with other ownCloud community users and customers as well as with ownCloud employees and management team. You will also learn more about upcoming ownCloud functionalities. Collabra will talk about upcoming collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets and presentations in ownCloud.

For the agenda overview and the event registration please visit: https://oc.owncloud.com/register_1Juni16.html

Date: June 1st, 2016
Location: Frankfurt, Germany
Costs: Free of charge
Please note that this event will be in German.

Event Sponsor:

Premium Sponsor:

Register today https://oc.owncloud.com/register_1Juni16.html

On June 1st in Frankfurt, Germany, ownCloud will be hosting an event for ownCloud Community Edition business users, Enterprise Edition customers and anyone else who is interested in using ownCloud for their business. The goal of this event is to connect businesses that have medium to large ownCloud […]

News from ownCloud

2. May 2016

Today our partner, Datto, has announced the launch of Datto Drive, a FSS service that targets SMBs. Datto Drive is a cheaper FSS alternative to the likes of Dropbox, Box, and Google for smaller companies. And according to Mark Calzone, president of Ash Creek Enterprises, “Datto Drive blows Dropbox, Box and Anchor out of the water in every way that matters to small businesses – price, features and ease-of-use.”

We are so happy for our partners, but we are even more excited about this news because Datto Drive is built on ownCloud! Because Datto chose to build on ownCloud they have the benefited support from the ownCloud community. That means that based on community feedback, Datto will be able to adjust the features roapmap to make an even stronger product. Also, because ownCloud is already being used by so many larger organizations, there is room for Datto to expand the initial SMB target into larger enterprise companies.

Great job Datto! We are honored that you chose ownCloud as your platform to create such an awesome new service!

Today our partner, Datto, has announced the launch of Datto Drive, a FSS service that targets SMBs. Datto Drive is a cheaper FSS alternative to the likes of Dropbox, Box, and Google for smaller companies. And according to Mark Calzone, president of Ash Creek Enterprises, “Datto Drive blows Dropbox […]

News from ownCloud

28. April 2016

It’s been two weeks since the release of ownCloud 9 Enterprise Edition and we have introduced you to a number of new updates and features including: retention, Federated Cloud Sharing, and collaboration features. In addition to these awesome new features, the way to access storage has also been updated making it even more frictionless.

Only ownCloud can provide access to storage within the enterprise, all through the frictionless mobile, desktop and web apps that users find simple to use. By connecting ownCloud to existing storage in the enterprise, such as Windows network drives and SharePoint servers, ownCloud can operate as a single point of access to files across the enterprise. Admins configure each storage connection manually or with a script, to make it easy to support a few up to thousands of storage servers, document libraries, FTP servers and more. This ensures admins get the full logging of the existing storage solution, while the user simply sees a file tree with access to all of their files, regardless of where they are stored on the backend, and with their existing ACLs preserved.

Here is one way how accessing your storage works with ownCloud:

An Admin has 20 Windows network drives already existing in the company and wants to enable mobile access to these files. The admin can use the GUI in ownCloud to configure the authentication methods, addresses and mount names for these services, and can decide which users will see this mount point. Alternatively, the admin can upload a file outlining all of these options and ownCloud will process and mount the Windows network drives automatically. Once configured, the user simply sees a folder in their root like any other, except it has their Windows network drive files accessible. Depending on the access method chosen by the admin, and the options selected when the storage was mounted, sharing may be enabled, as well as the specific caching behavior for that mount point.

New Storage API

To be compatible with as many backend storage systems as possible, ownCloud is designed to store all file metadata in the ownCloud database. This includes information like sharing information, file IDs and more. As the database can become a bottleneck in extremely large systems, offloading these file handling activities and metadata to an alternative location can improve performance, allowing the same hardware to scale to support even more users. This is particularly useful for very large instances. It also enables the integration of existing storage capabilities like version support.

In addition to improved scalability and integration, the new storage API also enables ownCloud to leverage storage that is unheard of in file access solutions – such as tape. ownCloud allows access to files on any kind of storage with the same frictionless user experience.

It’s been two weeks since the release of ownCloud 9 Enterprise Edition and we have introduced you to a number of new updates and features including: retention, Federated Cloud Sharing, and collaboration features. In addition to these awesome new features, the way to access storage has also been […]

News from ownCloud

27. April 2016

Today we say good bye to ownCloud founder, Frank Karlitschek, as he leaves ownCloud to pursue new opportunities. I hold a deep amount of gratitude towards Frank for coming up with the initial idea and for everything he has done over the last 6 years to turn ownCloud into the ecosystem it is today. I and the ownCloud team wish him the best in his future endeavors.

While we will most certainly feel the loss of a dear friend and a prominent voice in the company, we will continue on just the same; our commitment to our community, our ecosystem and our customers remains unchanged. You all placed your trust in ownCloud and we will continue to deliver a product and an ecosystem that will make you proud.

So, best of luck Frank, and you will be missed.

Today we say good bye to ownCloud founder, Frank Karlitschek, as he leaves ownCloud to pursue new opportunities. I hold a deep amount of gratitude towards Frank for coming up with the initial idea and for everything he has done over the last 6 years to turn ownCloud into the ecosystem it is today. I […]

News from ownCloud

22. April 2016

Last week we announced the availability of ownCloud 9 Enterprise Edition. The latest version of ownCloud includes a ton of new features and updates like the new retention feature and updated Federated Cloud Sharing. Also included on the list are the new tags and comments features that make team collaboration even easier than before.

With ownCloud, users can seamlessly collaborate on files and folders with other team members, providing comments while working on files, organizing files via tags, and watching file history through the activity sidebar. They can now create a folder, tag it with a meaningful identifier, share it and start working on a project with a team all in just a few clicks. Better still, with the newly enhanced activity stream, file comments appear in the timeline – either in the sidebar, an email digest or an RSS reader – allowing users to consume collaboration activity in the best way for themselves.

Here’s an example of how the new collaboration features can help a cross continental team to complete a project:

A group of four teams, working across four different continents, is starting a new project and they need to work on a number of documents. They meet and divide up the work, then they create a new folder in ownCloud, tag it with the title “awesome project,” and then they share it with the group. The first user in Asia starts creating files using Microsoft Office: PowerPoint, Excel Spreadsheets, Word Documents, etc. As the Europeans begin working, comments that were left by the Asian team members identify which files need to be worked on and how. Finally, the North and South Americans come online and read the history for these files in the comments, and they are able continue the work from where it was left off. With a few dozen files in the folder, each version is tracked, comments explain what has been done, and the files are all available quickly through the ownCloud tag filter in the files view.

This is collaboration made easy.

Last week we announced the availability of ownCloud 9 Enterprise Edition. The latest version of ownCloud includes a ton of new features and updates like the new retention feature and updated Federated Cloud Sharing. Also included on the list are the new tags and comments features that make team […]

News from ownCloud

15. April 2016

With the release of ownCloud 9 there are a number of new updates and features, including the retention feature. This new feature adds an extra level of organization and security to your files.

Only ownCloud enables admins to set document classification rules and then, based on the defined classification, take action to enforce those rules. By leveraging a combination of new system and user tags, admins and users can decide how to classify a document. Further, admins can set policies that determine how long to retain a file based on the classification, and then automatically delete the file at the end of a defined retention period.

Here are two examples on how retention can be helpful in certain situations:

1. Need to enable retention for documents related to an insurance claim? For this case, the admin creates a tag called “insurance claim,” and then sets a retention period of 7 years for documents classified as part of such a claim. A user can then tag a file that becomes part of an insurance claim. The file will be retained by the system for 7 years, and automatically deleted at the end of this period.

2. Need to reduce risk by removing content once it has been used? For this case, the admin creates a hidden system tag and has ownCloud automatically assign it to all files uploaded to the system. A second rule evaluates the files, and if they have not been updated in more than 60 days, they are removed.

Want to learn more? Check out this video on how to use the retention feature, and be sure to sign up for the webinar, “What’s New in ownCloud 9,” on April 21^st.

With the release of ownCloud 9 there are a number of new updates and features, including the retention feature. This new feature adds an extra level of organization and security to your files. Only ownCloud enables admins to set document classification rules and then, based on the defined […]

News from ownCloud

14. April 2016

Today we are excited to announce the long awaited ownCloud 9 Enterprise Edition. And as promised, this release is a great step forward.

With the release of ownCloud 9, we have become the first federated universal file access solution with extensive file controls! What does this mean? This means that with new policies and rules, ownCloud gives admins the ability to set document classification rules based on system or user-applied tags and to automatically take action to enforce those rules.

ownCloud provides Universal File Access through a single front-end to all of IT’s disparate file storage systems. Users can access company files on any device, anytime, from anywhere while IT can manage, control and audit file sharing activity to ensure security and compliance measures are met.  Files are delivered through a common file access layer regardless of where the data lives – in applications, object stores, on-premises storage or in the cloud – all completely managed, secured and controlled by IT.

Here are some of the other new features and updates that you can expect in ownCloud 9:

• Tagging, Comments and Activity Stream enhancements – We have added tagging and commenting capabilities as well as updated the activity stream to offer even more seamless, real-time file based collaboration. Users can seamlessly collaborate on files and folders with others, providing comments while working on files, organizing files via tags, and watching file history through the activity sidebar. Users in ownCloud can now create a folder, tag it with a meaningful identifier, share it and start working on a project with a team all in just a few clicks. Better, with the newly enhanced activity stream, file comments appear in the timeline – either in the sidebar, an email digest or an RSS reader – allowing users to consume collaboration activity in the best way for themselves.

• File Retention and Risk Management – Tags can be assigned by a basic rules engine with the new auto-tagging feature. This creates basic rules that can set tags and automatically delete files based on tags. There is an admin page where the rules are created and managed in a GUI, the specific tag types and tag names are defined, and the rules to apply tags are defined. This same admin page allows an admin to determine based on tags when to permanently delete a file. Besides use for retention, tags can also be used to assign security policies to files using the File Firewall. This can ensure files will never be available in specific geographic regions, through public links, certain user groups and so on.

• Federated Cloud Sharing– Only ownCloud can connect federated servers in multiple geographic locations into a single user experience for seamless collaboration – without relying on cloud servers outside of your control. Leveraging newly enhanced server to server APIs, users of any ownCloud server can now search for users of any other federated ownCloud from any client – mobile, desktop or web. Sharing is as simple as two clicks and entering the recipient’s name. Share recipients receive virtual links that hook into their ownCloud server, with the file owner retaining the copy of record and complete control over the links. Access is completely logged on all servers, and can be revoked by the file owner at any time. Further, since each ownCloud is a standalone system, access policies and rules are still respected among Federated servers, enabling each server to be managed to the policies of the host company.

To learn more about what’s new in ownCloud 9 Enterprise Edition, sign up for our upcoming webinar on April 21^st. Our ownCloud experts will walk you through what is new and how to make the most out these new features and updates.

Until then be sure to check out this customizable demo of ownCloud 9.

Today we are excited to announce the long awaited ownCloud 9 Enterprise Edition. And as promised, this release is a great step forward. With the release of ownCloud 9, we have become the first federated universal file access solution with extensive file controls! What does this mean? This means that […]

News from ownCloud

8. April 2016

This week Syncplicty announced that it “has deployed its flagship product to more than 330,000 Siemens employees in 192 countries — arguably the largest EFSS deployment ever, besting Box’s 300,000 seats at GE.”

This is impressive Syncplicty! But the largest EFSS deployment ever? Not quite.

Back in June 2014, ownCloud announced a deal with Sync & Share NRW, Germany’s largest university system, which uses ownCloud to connect half a million users across 22 institutions with up to 5PB of data.

And if 500,000 users aren’t enough to be excited about, we also have a deployment at DigiLocker in India that accounts for 1.14 million users! This just goes to show the scalability and leadership ownCloud possesses worldwide.

So, while it is a great feat to best Box with the number of users in this deployment, all we can say is, welcome to the party!

And if 500,000 users aren’t enough to be excited about, we also have a deployment at DigiLocker in India that accounts for 1.14 million users! This just goes to show the scalability and leadership ownCloud possesses worldwide. So, while it is a great feat to best Box with the number of users in […]

News from ownCloud

6. April 2016

As an open source company we value our strong commitment to transparency and the importance of community. Only transparent and open processes allow customers and users to verify the security of their ownCloud.

A Proven Track Record of Open Source Security

ownCloud has a proven track record of open source security. We, for example, publish detailed security advisories and regularly find security vulnerabilities within widely deployed third-party components.

While nearly all critical issues are discovered internally, we realize that no software can be completely secure and that more eyes can help to make our software even more secure.

Because of this, we’re running a public and transparent bug bounty program, making it possible to reward security researchers that find security issues within ownCloud server. In fact, our bounty program is even featured in a recent Case Study of HackerOne and has been quoted as “the benchmark for a well-executed, successful HackerOne launch.”

Besides relying on internal and external security expertise, we’re also augmenting our security processes using several automated and semi-automated sources. One of them being the Veracode Static Source Code Analyzer. Considering our strong open source history, we are publishing the latest scan result for ownCloud Server today.

What is a Static Source Code Analyzer?

A static source code analyzer takes the source code of a program and tries to find bugs in it. The one from Veracode is focused on finding security vulnerabilities.

It does this by looking at possible known vulnerable functions (so called “sinks”) and compares whether they have been tainted with user controllable input. Consider the following very simple example:

1. <?php
3. $var = $_GET[‘id’];
4. echo sprintf(“You ordered %s”, $var);

In this case the analyzer would realize that $var is reading the value from $_GET[‘id’] which is user-controlled input and then would print the data directly to the user. Leading to a typical Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability (CWE-79).

Side remark: ownCloud uses a strict Content-Security-Policy to mitigate Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities. So if you’re using ownCloud as well as a modern browser you’re likely protected against any potential XSS vulnerability.

While static source code analyzers do not provide 100% security, we consider them a good addition to our other existing security processes. Only with the combined help of automated tools and strong internal and external security knowledge can a secure solution can be guaranteed.

Please visit our dedicated Security page to download the scan results and gain greater detail about ownCloud’s commitment to security.

As an open source company we value our strong commitment to transparency and the importance of community. Only transparent and open processes allow customers and users to verify the security of their ownCloud. A Proven Track Record of Open Source Security ownCloud has a proven track record of open […]

News from ownCloud

5. April 2016

In the last blog I talked about the ownCloud vision, what it is and what we want to achieve. In this blog I want to cover the focus areas for this year to bring us there.

This is not a roadmap discussion or a guaranteed feature list for the next release, but more long term focus areas. We see these as key for the ongoing success of ownCloud and plan to invest significant time and efforts in these areas.

Ease of Use

One of the main design goals of ownCloud is to provide the best possible user experience for everyone. This might sound like a trivial and obvious thing, but I think it is very important that we always keep this in mind when we make architectural or technical decisions. We have to constantly check to ensure they are still in line with the bigger idea. This is about the user experience, the admin experience and also the developer experience of third-party apps. We hear that ownCloud provides a better experience than most other products out there, but there is always room for improvement and we will keep on focusing on the experience for everyone in the future.

Scalability

Great scalability has been an architectural goal of ownCloud since the very beginning. ownCloud is intentionally designed as a standard HTTP-based web service so it can benefit from the best practices and experience of admins in this area–and off-the-shelf products like load balancers. This allows ownCloud to be scaled from very small installations to very big installations. We realize, of course, that there are still a few central components in a typical ownCloud architecture that can be bottlenecks. One is the database. Another is the file system. In ownCloud 9.x we focused on building an enhanced storage API that makes it easier to scale an ownCloud server up to multiple petabytes of data. The database tables that face the most load, the sharing table and the file cache table, are also abstracted into a pluggable API, which makes it possible to use alternative implementations. This works closely together with the storage layer. These changes make ownCloud even more stable and scalable for the biggest deployments out there.

Upgrade

We know that keeping an ownCloud server up-to-date wasn’t always an easy task in the past. Sometimes an upgrade required long maintenance windows and manual work. In 9.x,  a completely new upgrade routine makes upgrading an ownCloud server easier, faster, more predictable and more robust. We will talk a bit more about this once ownCloud 9.0 is released, but rest assured that your next upgrade should be noticeably smoother.

Syncing

Syncing is interesting. I have to confess that I thought that we solved syncing 4 years ago. And it is true that we solved it for 99% of all cases. Fixing the 1% corner-cases can’t be that hard, right? Sadly, we underestimated the complexity here, but are happy to announce that today our sync is really fast, scalable and stable. While we expect to discover interesting cases where our reliability is challenged to be rare, we keep working until we reach 100% sync reliability. On the performance side, we have bench marked a 4x performance gain, but recognize room for improvement, especially when it comes to small files. Sync reliably and performance will remain a focus for 2016.

Extended Focus on Automatic QA

Over the past few years we have put a lot of energy and resources into test automation. Today we have fully automatic test coverage of the core functionality in ownCloud. This is paying off. The latest ownCloud releases are clearly more stable than ever. While testing has offered significant improvements, we recognize the role of manual QA as well.  For example, to QA our Windows Network Drive feature, we test against standard Windows file servers. However, some of our users deploy customized scenarios or with non-standard CIFS servers. We are expanding our QA to include even more thorough testing to ensure greater code coverage and, ultimately, smoother deployments for our users.

Federation

All the focus areas that I have mentioned so far are about stability, scalability and ease of use. But we also want to innovate and develop features that are new and unique and enable our users to use ownCloud in powerful new ways. One of the main focus areas of 2016 is Federation. This is the possibility to connect different ownCloud servers in a way that they behave and react as one big instance from the user’s perspective. This feature premiered in ownCloud 7 and was hugely improved for ownCloud 8. ownCloud 9 includes the next milestone–we will share more information when ownCloud 9.0 is released.

I hope that this gives you a good overview over the main strategic and architectural focus areas for the next few releases. Please let me know if you have any questions or are interested in more details in the comments below.

In the last blog I talked about the ownCloud vision, what it is and what we want to achieve. In this blog I want to cover the focus areas for this year to bring us there. This is not a roadmap discussion or a guaranteed feature list for the next release, but more long term focus areas. We see these […]

News from ownCloud

24. March 2016

This week Elizabeth Snell, of Healthcare IT Security, published an article addressing security concerns healthcare organizations should have when it comes to the cloud. Snell states that “One of the top healthcare cloud security concerns is sensitive information, such as PHI [Personal Health Information], being compromised.” She then goes on to site the Cloudlock’s Q4 2015 Cybersecurity report which “found that excessive PHI sharing was a top worry for healthcare organizations when it came to cloud security. Diagnosis, financial information, medical condition, and Social Security number were also areas of high concern for organizations.”

Also, according to Bitglass’ second annual Cloud Adoption Report, another cause for concern is HIPAA compliance and is a major reason as to why healthcare is behind “other industries when it comes to using cloud options.” This is a big deal! Luckily, ownCloud fits the bill when it comes to HIPAA compliance.

ownCloud is designed from the ground up to integrate with existing directory, security and rights management systems, ensuring that data governance policies are enforced end-to-end. In addition, ownCloud’s flexible logging features provide auditors with detailed visibility into all data access activities.  And keep an eye out for the upcoming ownCloud 9 capabilities to tag content and as well as other new features that give you even more control.

And when it comes to PHI security concerns, ownCloud addresses this as well. Unlike consumer-grade file sharing services, which store sensitive data on public cloud servers, ownCloud is deployed within an organization’s IT infrastructure. ownCloud integrates seamlessly with every part of the IT fabric – from user directories to security systems to monitoring and back-up services – ensuring that sensitive data remains under your control at all times. Yet it also provides the ease-of-use and mobility needed to streamline healthcare and life science information processes.

We are often asked if ownCloud is HIPAA compliant, and the answer is a simple one.  ownCloud lives on your server; if your existing infrastructure is HIPAA compliant, ownCloud does not alter this.

Visit our features page to learn more about how ownCloud can help keep your patients’ Personal Health Information safe and in your own control.

This week Elizabeth Snell, of Healthcare IT Security, published an article addressing security concerns healthcare organizations should have when it comes to the cloud. Snell states that “One of the top healthcare cloud security concerns is sensitive information, such as PHI [Personal Health […]

News from ownCloud

22. March 2016

Last week Dropbox announced that they have created their own cloud system and were no longer using Amazon AWS. It is great news that they are taking responsibility for their users’ data, but there is still one glaring fact—it’s still kept in the cloud and out of your own control.

I have said it before and I will say it again; keeping your data in your own control is important. Whether you are a small or large company, there are benefits for all with ownCloud. You can run ownCloud on your own server, in your own datacenter or ideally in your own private cloud. Or, if you are a smaller business, you can contract with a trusted service provider whom you can treat as your own IT department and generate proper economies of scale – who will run a server or a private cloud for you! Why would Dropbox go for their own private Cloud if it would not make sense?

Consider these points as even further proof that ownCloud is the best option for your business:

• Control- IT controls and manages ownCloud. Administrators define security policies down to the file level, provision users and groups, monitor activity logs and overall system health, and manage usage and quotas – all from ownCloud’s admin interface. ownCloud integrates easily with enterprise file sharing and storage technologies, governance workflows, security systems and monitoring tools.

• Secure- ownCloud provides two levels of Encryption capabilities, both encrypting server data at rest, and supporting encryption for data in motion.

• Data Protection Regulations- ownCloud can be set up and run by you, in any country, under any jurisdiction and in your own data center(s). Following the dismantlement of the Safe Harbor Agreement this past October, this has become a necessity to global companies. It greatly simplifies tracking. With the logging functionality you can demonstrate compliance by proving who has had access to which file at which time from which IP. With the File Firewall you can even block access based on policy.

• HIPAA- Cloud-based file sharing services raise many questions about compliance with HIPAA and other regulations. ownCloud overcomes these limitations with a file sharing solution that runs on-premises. ownCloud is designed from the ground up to integrate with existing directory, security and rights management systems, ensuring that data governance policies are enforced end-to-end. In addition, ownCloud’s flexible logging features provide auditors with detailed visibility into all data access activities.

• Ready for Federation- ownCloud’s Federated File Sharing provides frictionless file sharing across multiple ownCloud servers, while maintaining the security, control and attributes of the original server as set up by IT – and leaving the master file copy on the originating ownCloud server.

• Branding – ownCloud provides the deep branding capabilities that enable IT to easily make their desktop, and mobile clients match their web UI for a consistent look and feel.

So while Dropbox is now offering their ownCloud, you should have your ownCloud.

Last week Dropbox announced that they have created their own cloud system and were no longer using Amazon AWS. It is great news that they are taking responsibility for their users’ data, but there is still one glaring fact—it’s still kept in the cloud and out of your own control. I have […]

News from ownCloud

16. March 2016

Yesterday Google announced that Google Drive will soon set expiration dates for document access. They even give a scenario:

“For instance, imagine your business hires an outside contractor for a project lasting three months. To complete the job, that contractor needs to view a spreadsheet containing the contact information of your employees. Following this launch, you’ll be able to share your employee list in Sheets with the contractor, give them view access only, and set that access to expire when their contract does (in three months). If the contractor attempts to open the spreadsheet after the expiration date has passed, they’ll be denied access.”

Luckily our users have been able to enjoy this feature for the past few years for this exact reason. It feels great when ownCloud is ahead of the curve.

Yesterday Google announced that Google Drive will soon set expiration dates for document access. They even give a scenario: “For instance, imagine your business hires an outside contractor for a project lasting three months. To complete the job, that contractor needs to view a spreadsheet […]

News from ownCloud

11. March 2016

This week Danielle Correa, of SC Magazine, published “IT pros in EMEA urged to be cautious about cloud” based on a report from Spiceworks, “Diving into Cloud Services.”  The results of the report show that while cloud adoption is on the rise, the concern of IT professionals remains the same. With the new the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect, organizations based out of Europe have to be especially concerned about where their data is stored.

John Webb, the director of EMEA marketing at Spiceworks reportedly says that “Although cloud adoption is clearly on the rise, the results show IT professionals continue to face several challenges, which vary greatly based on where they’re located. IT professionals in Europe have to be more cautious of where their data is located and more aware of new regulations taking shape in order to avoid financial penalties or reputational damage.”

The best solution in our opinion? Keep your data in your own control on your own servers. With ownCloud, IT professionals don’t have to worry about where their data is stored and can continue to share cross continentally using Federated Cloud Sharing.

ownCloud is a safe home for all your data.

This week Danielle Correa, of SC Magazine, published “IT pros in EMEA urged to be cautious about cloud” based on a report from Spiceworks, “Diving into Cloud Services.”  The results of the report show that while cloud adoption is on the rise, the concern of IT professionals remains the same […]