Huddle, the online collaboration service aimed at businesses, has today announced Huddle Sync, a service that solves the same problem as Dropbox at its ilk – syncing files across multiple devices – but at enterprise scale and with some intelligent recommendation technology thrown into the mix, too.
On a basic level, UK-based Huddle’s new offering allows users to synchronise files between their home drive in the office, their laptop, and any mobile or portable devices they may have, ensuring that they are handled with the kind of security that allows CIOs and network administrators to sleep comfortably at night.
Huddle CEO, Alastair Mitchell tells us that the ‘Bring Your Own Device’ trend in the business world makes a solution like this all the more important. Employees want to get work done on their own iPads, for example, but this needs to be done in a way that doesn’t put valuable company information at risk. As such, all Huddle Sync files can be remotely wiped from a device if it is stolen or goes missing, or if the employee leaves the company.
The service provides access to all the files across the corporate network, with permission levels and access controls respected, and files can be downloaded to be stored locally on devices as required. Huddle is also rolling out an updated iPhone app to support Sync. This secures all transmissions to and from Huddle over 256-bit SSL with local storage with the app itself encrypted too.
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While Mitchell admits that solving file sync at enterprise scale is “20x harder” than at a personal level, as it can potentially involve petabytes of data and multiple people may be editing the same file simultaneously, he seems more proud of the additional technology Huddle has added on top of that.
File recommendation
Huddle has spent a year developing an intelligent recommendation algorithm for Sync. With so many people across organisations working on files at the same time, it could be easy to miss out on useful information that you’d otherwise miss.
Huddle Sync learns about the kinds of files individual users will find useful and synchronises them to all their devices automatically. For example, the minutes to the meeting you just attended, or that important health and safety memo you haven’t read – Huddle has developed a way of making sure you get the information you’re likely to need before you know you need it.
Business seems to be going well for Huddle. Mitchell says that the company’s customer base has tripled in the past year and looks set to triple again in 2012. In addition to its London and San Francisco offices, a Boston office is planned to give the company an east coast US presence.
Major customers include the UK government. Huddles says that it’s used by 75% of central UK government along with numerous local council and NHS organisations. This week, Huddle has joined the G-Cloud Services Framework, which will make it easier for further UK public sector organisations to adopt its services.
If you’re responsible for such things at your company, you can find out more about Huddle Sync and sign up for the beta using the link below.
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