ARCHIVED: How does Box compare to other enterprise and commercial storage solutions?

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The following is a brief comparison of enterprise Box and other commonly used online storage services.

Important:
Box at Indiana University is not appropriate for storing or sharing most types of institutional data classified as Critical. However, with ARCHIVED: certain additional security measures you may be able to use IU Box with some data that contain protected health information (PHI) regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). For more, see ARCHIVED: Types of data appropriate for IU Box accounts.

On this page:

Comparing Box to other online storage services

Service Granular permissions Native mobile app integration Cross-platform Default allotment Maximum file size Inline preview Permanent storage Offline sync
ARCHIVED: Box Yes Yes Yes Unlimited 15 GB (1) Yes Yes Yes
SharePoint Yes (with IU accounts)
Yes (third-party on some platforms)
Yes  (2) 20 GB 1 GB Office files Yes
Windows only (SharePoint Workspace)
ARCHIVED: Oncourse Yes Web only Yes 1 GB 200 MB No Yes No
ARCHIVED: Slashtmp Yes Web only Yes 4 GB 2 GB No 30 days No
Dropbox No Yes Yes 2 GB 2 GB  (3) Yes Yes Yes
Google Drive Yes Yes Yes 15 GB 5 TB Yes  (4) Yes Yes

Endnotes: The following notes are referenced above:

1  You should only upload one file larger than 5 GB at a time. To upload files larger than 5 GB, you will need a business-class Internet connection with connection speeds of at least 50 mbps. Currently, IE 10 has a file size limit of 4 GB per file, and IE 9, 8, and 7 have a limitation of 2 GB if the Flash plug-in is installed. These limitations do not apply if the Java uploader is used instead.

On January 12, 2016, Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer versions prior to version 11. UITS strongly recommends that you upgrade to a new operating system if your current system does not support Internet Explorer 11.

2  Mac users may have performance and compatibility issues; see ARCHIVED: Known issues and changes for the implementation of SharePoint 2010 at IU.

3  Files you upload using the desktop application or mobile apps have no maximum size limit. The maximum size limit when uploading from the website is 10 GB. No upload may exceed the size of your account's storage quota.

4  You can view any file you upload or sync to Google Drive as long as it's no larger than 25 MB.

Further comparison of Box and Dropbox

In response to questions from the IU community, additional comparisons between the Box and Dropbox services are provided below:

Attribute Box Dropbox
256-bit encrypted storage and transfer
x x
Approved for university-internal data
x  
Single sign-on with IU credentials
x  
Role-based access levels for sharing
x  
User chooses folders to sync x x
Custom URLs for shared folders
x  
Threaded commenting and task assignment
x  
Quota impact of shared folders
Folder owner All collaborators
Full-text search x  
Download stats tracking and real-time update notifications
x  
Microsoft Office and Outlook plug-ins (Windows)
x  
Email-to-folder functionality x  

Additional considerations:

  • IU has contractual protections for the Box service, including a prohibition on mining of IU data.
  • Although Box and Dropbox both have multiple integrated third-party apps, Box provides some apps that are approved for use with university-internal data.

For help considering departmental needs, contact IT Community Partnerships.

Related documents

Your legal responsibilities for protecting data containing protected health information (PHI) when using UITS Research Technologies systems and services

This is document bbrs in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2021-09-21 17:15:20.