Likelihood to Recommend I think Box is great for research teams or anyone that has a large number of files that need to be securely stored. Particularly in the case of social science research, where it is important to protect identifying data, Box is a great option. In cases where teams need a more reliable means for real-time collaboration, I would probably consider a different alternative
Read full review It is best suited to products and companies which extensively use IBM cloud and other cloud hosted services by IBM. This is because since the existing interface is a little challenging to use, IBM's own products and platform is well integrated with IBM Aspera on Cloud and there's relatively little work for the integration team
Read full review Pros The main feature that I like the most in Box is that it makes collaboration seamless, workers can easily check the documents any time and make changes according to the needs. Box manages and backs up all of your files on its cloud servers, and provides a very nice interface for creating, viewing, editing, and collaborating on the most commonly used file types (PDF, XLS, DOC, etc.). Over the past few years, Box has built on top of its basic cloud storage management with a host of other tools, such as workflows, AI, monitoring, and analytics. It is helping us to make good connections with clients and our workers themselves as to its syncing and viewing feature to all is very much helpful and easy to go. Read full review Ease of use: the Graphical User Interface doesn't require technical know-how to operate Delivery Receipts: this allows us the confidence to know our files have reached our customers Activity Monitor: lets you know how much data you have used, which is important for budgeting reasons. Read full review Cons The graphic design of the dashboard should be simpler and more tangible that can be changed to the liking of the Admin. Sometimes there are some syncing issues in the background. The product has very limited functionality in some areas which could be a bit frustrating at times. Read full review Track upload/download usage OVERALL to know how much space is left Track cloud storage overall to know how much space is left More easily send single links to users for download, rather than full access (I know it is possible, but it is not intuitive) Read full review Likelihood to Renew I like the security features and I like the website. It's easy to use and create and move things around as needed. The main reason for a lower rating is because the Box Sync app is just not a good program. It's a memory hog, it's slow, transfer speeds are slow, and it's not the most efficient route. If you have a large Box account and you need to get a computer up to speed on a large amount of data within Box, you are in for the long haul. Last time I had to do this, it took 3 days to sync all of the files and we are talking around 100 GB worth of data
Read full review Usability Everything with Box is seamless. It can be integrated into virtually any other software or application. You can even get the app for your phone or tablet to work on the go. File syncing is so quick. The only reason I gave it a 9 is the issue I discussed earlier about the local file application rebooting and not continuing to sync files. Other than that, it's great!
Read full review Reliability and Availability Yeah, it's always worked, I've never had any kind of connection issues, the only issues I've had it I've been on our end when the Internet hasn't worked.
Read full review Performance The general operation and management of Box is very efficient, both when accessing the account, and when adding files, downloading or modifying any document directly. The web platform, mobile and desktop versions work really well and quickly, making all the work and process flow smoothly and without setbacks. So far I have not been able to observe any inconvenience
Read full review Support Rating I found their support community lacking in clarity when I experienced a login issue. The error messaging was poor on my Box Sync application. I did not reach out to support staff for help, instead, I reasoned that I should try downloading the Box Sync application again and reinstall it. That fixed my issue, thankfully. I think a less computer-savvy user would've been much more frustrated.
Read full review The support from IBM is fast and reliable. Very knowledgeable engineers provide you with the support on Aspera. We had a very good experience when opened tickets and we were able to get our issues resolved quickly. Most solutions are provided within a day so you can expect a quick turnaround time. Overall, the support has been very good.
Read full review In-Person Training The in person training was done in house and I helped with the training, people seem to respond well.
Read full review Online Training The documentation is good. Since Box is a popular service, there were also a number of YouTube videos and other sources that were helpful as we were considering the product and planning for deployment. Also, the ability to try the free version helped to prepare us.
Read full review Implementation Rating Be careful with settings. It is easy to get overwhelmed with updates. For example, you don’t want to be updated when doing historical data uploads. I recommend taking off notifications initially and then turn on post you have done your historical data upload.
Read full review The service provided by the authorized vendor was excellent. It was a good collaboration between the vendor IT team and internal IT team. They provided us with a timeline and we verified and approved that timeline. Daily stand ups and weekly meetups were conducted to update the internal team on progress. They were able to deliver all deliverables on time also, they conducted both alpha testing and beta version testing in time. Overall, they were able to complete the implementation in the given timeline.
Read full review Alternatives Considered They are kind of the same. And both of them do their job as promised. But for company and project wise I think that Box slightly wins for some points. Which [makes him] win over
Google Drive (don't forget that
Google Drive is very easy to use and has a lot [of] nice features too).
Read full review Aspera comes with IBM cloud so there isn’t really a choice. Since it’s built-in, it integrates well and there was no need to buy another solution. Therefore, I did not consider other options. It worked fine, gave access files, push data securely, and did it faster than standard HTTPS.
Read full review Scalability It's great, as we put more files on there it's done very well.
Read full review Return on Investment Box has been an only positive experience. It provides a seamless way for me and my team to collaborate on documents in such a way where we're not sending the document back/forth via email. It's a huge timesaver. Box reduces the risk of sharing a sensitive document to the wrong person via email. Box has provided a platform where my team can share notes in meetings - this has helped streamline and organize our meetings. Our meetings are more productive and actionable. Read full review Aspera has changed the way we do business. We are now able to share huge file sets electronically, saving on external drives, shipping costs, time, and effort. Our industry is very slow to commit to electronic alternatives to physical media. In less than three years, the positive results of using this service have caused over 70% of our user base to fully commit to electronic delivery, with the number of physical fulfillments quickly being driven toward zero. Transfers within our own company, which formerly relied solely on FTP/HTTP transfer drives that would take days now take minutes with Aspera. Our software team relies on the speed and accuracy of the transfers. Read full review ScreenShots IBM Aspera on Cloud Screenshots