EMC’s Syncplicity Adds Outlook Email Add-in

In advance of EMC World next week, EMC announced today that its enterprise file sync product, Syncplicity, is gaining in an add-in for Microsoft Outlook. The new add-in will allow users to easily send files and folders same as they always have, only now the files and folders will be sent as links inside of Syncplicity instead of file attachments. Syncplicity is also announcing the integration MS Office apps for iOS.

In advance of EMC World next week, EMC announced today that its enterprise file sync product, Syncplicity, is gaining in an add-in for Microsoft Outlook. The new add-in will allow users to easily send files and folders same as they always have, only now the files and folders will be sent as links inside of Syncplicity instead of file attachments. Syncplicity is also announcing the integration MS Office apps for iOS.

We had previously reviewed Syncplicity and found it to live up to the expectations set forth by EMC. From the review:
Data flowed rapidly between synced folders and devices and actually facilitated workflow more than once by providing access to files that otherwise would have taken more time to access. The experience pretty much aligns with the use cases EMC outlines for Syncplicity and definitely created value for the StorageReview organization.

The new Outlook add-in will give Syncplicity additional benefits such as cost savings. Email attachments make up a large chunk of the storage equation. Storage systems are generally inefficient at storing attachments, compressing them, or deduplicating them. The Outlook add-in replaces all the attachments with a link to the file within Syncplicity. For example if there were a team of 12 members, administrators wouldn’t have to send out and deal with 12 different attachments and the different modification to those attachments. Instead there would only be one file that the entire team could collaborate on. This also allows large files to be collaborated on through email, which wasn’t previously possible due to file size limits.

The new add-in gives IT more control and flexibility over which users are sharing what link. The add-in can be applied to all Syncplicity users or rolled out in a group-by-group basis. Each group can be set up with a rule-based policy based on the file sizes and types. These policies can also add more security options through abilities such as adding passwords, links expiration dates, and restricting users ability to copy and paste or take screenshots. The groups can also be setup in a way to help companies that have to deal with geographical compliance through storage vaults or by restricting certain groups ensuring they comply.

Key benefits and features:

• Includes granular group-based policies based on sensitivity of content (e.g.: marketing, M&A, legal, etc.)
• Eliminates need for storage overhead and multiple copies of same file
• Increases control over files with document-specific passwords, and file based expirations for viewing and sharing
• Bolsters productivity and flexibility, as files can be sent from both the desktop and the cloud
• Includes no file or folder size or bandwidth restrictions – unlike most competing solutions

EMC is also announcing integration with the apps Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel apps for iOS. This will allow users to modify the files on their iOS devices and save them through Syncplicity. The group policies still apply to the mobile users. This is the first step that Syncplicity will most likely take with app integration to further embed Syncplicity for enterprise use and give IT more control of files being shifted around.

Availability

The new Outlook add-in for Syncplicity is expected to be generally available in May 2015.

Syncplicity site

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