Native cloud functionality provides an easier user experience customers are demanding in nGenx’s core sub-100 seat market, and helps it with larger customers as well.

 

Hosted workspaces provider nGenx has released nFinity Drive 2.0, the latest version of its corporate Sync and Share solution, which works alongside the company’s flagship nFinity nWorkspace Workspace as a Service solution.

While the solution offers a strong feature set, the big advance with this version is not in added functionality, but in the native cloud integration it now offers.

“The big difference with this version is the native integration into the cloud desktop, that corporate network in the cloud,” said JD Helms, nGenx’s president. “The original version was like OneDrive or Dropbox, in that you logged into it through your browser. For personal use, that’s fine, but we found that for work use, people want that native experience.”

Helms said that improving the user experience to provide this became the top priority of this release.

“When the product was originally introduced, we had a fast early adoption, but then it tapered off, and the reason was that users considered the workflow process to be difficult,” he said. “Unless the workflow experience is seamless, you will have the persistence of a shadow IT issue, so focusing on the user experience was a big deal.”

nFinity Drive 2.0 synchronizes corporate data, allowing users to access and share business files and folders easily and securely, while protected by AES-256 military grade encryption. Individual users have multiple options in how they share files and folders with internal and external contacts, retain full control over the data they share, and can set policies that determine how files and folders can be accessed. The solution gives administrators have full oversight over corporate data through fine-grained controls while providing unlimited data retention, remote wiping, continuous data backup, and rapid file recovery.

“Outside of Amazon Workspaces, we are the only one offering this type of solution now,” Helms said. “And compared to Amazon, we have better user control, a better user experience and a better cost. We haven’t lost deals to them and we just took one away from them. I doubt Amazon notices, but we have a little party internally when that happens.”

Helms said that while they are now seeing larger opportunities coming their way because of the ease of use factor, their core audience has been the sub-100 user market, where this kind of simplicity is critical.

“Amazon is good if you have IT professionals running your network, even though you will overpay from a TCO, but that sub-100 market demands a solution that is seamless, easy and makes sense, where you don’t have to have professional experts just to spin up an environment,” Helms said.

Helms also stressed that nFinity Drive 2.0 is a pure cloud solution.

“We have partners who have asked to be able to sell nFinity Drive as a sync solution to non-cloud customers, but they can’t,” he said. “The prospect has to be a cloud desktop customer. We aren’t trying to complete with Box and the other file sync and shares.”

Historically, nGenx has gone to market through telcos and their agents, and through ISVs, but has been developing a managed service provider channel, and earlier this year announced an enhanced partner program for MSPs that includes a new white label program for Desktop-as-a-Service delivery.

‘We absolutely see strong interest in this from both our telco and MSP channels,” Helms said. “We have great interest from people wanting to sell it in both groups.”

nFinity Drive 2.0 is available now through all channels at an MSRP of $9.99 per user per month.