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The military and civilian students who attend the U.S. Army

War College are used to having their hands full at the beginning

of each academic year – literally.

“Over the course of our 10-month program where people

get Master’s of strategic studies, we issue a stack of printed

books — printed PDFs and other types of reading materials,”

explains Col. Steve Sobotta, director of educational technology

at the U.S. Army War College. “That stack might be two-to

two-and-a-half feet tall when placed on top of each other. Not

only is that a heavy load to carry for the student, but it’s also

a heavy financial burden for the College to print those books

for each of the 400 students

who attend our school.”

The other issue the

College faced: It was

difficult to provide access

to materials online since

students had to be located

within the physical institution

to log on to the classified

network. About a year ago

the War College piloted a

program using Box that gives

all of its students the ability to access those printed materials

from any mobile device or Web browser. Today students

are able to go online to read their coursework, including

copyrighted texts. But even more important, they can discuss

those texts, highlight them electronically, and merge them with

other types of media including audio and text files.

Thinking Outside the BoxWith its efforts, the U.S. Army War College, like many federal

organizations, is fulfilling the Cloud First policy mandate, which

directs organizations to prioritize the use of of cloud computing

offerings to reduce costs, among other things. It’s also

moving to facilitate collaboration, something that is becoming

increasingly important within enterprises as well as public

organizations and agencies.

There is research to back this up. For instance, McKinsey

Global Institute’s July 2012 report, The Social Economy:

Unlocking Value and Productivity through Social Technologies,

found that there is significant impact for those businesses

that allow employees to interact with each other as well as

customers, partners, and prospects. According to the report,

the average worker spends about 28 percent of his or her

workweek dealing with emails, and another 20 percent of their

time looking for information or colleagues who can help them

do their jobs.

Indeed, until now, most collaboration has been done via

email, but that model is no longer sustainable or smart, says

Laurence Hart, CTO at AIIM, a non-profit industry association

providing education, research, and best practices to help

organizations find, control, and optimize their information.

“E-mail is inherently

insecure,” says Hart. “If you

are sending an email you

don’t know who receives

it, if it has been forwarded,

or what happens to your

information once it leaves

your organization. There’s

also no version control.”

Improving communication

and collaboration could

raise the productivity

of “interaction workers” by between 20 and 25 percent,

according to the McKinsey Global Institute report. Box’s

vision – simple, open, and secure content collaboration – is a

panacea for those looking for ways to do this. It certainly helps

people like Col. Sobotta and countless other agency heads

who are experiencing the need for constant communication

and information sharing first hand but can’t find the technology

to make it happen.

“Across the board, there’s a need to be able to collaborate

and share much more effectively, and right now the technology

out there impedes our ability to make that happen,” agrees

Aaron Levie, the CEO and co-founder of Box. “When you have

technology that doesn’t support collaboration, and when you

have information systems that are really meant to lock down

data and knowledge, it’s very, very hard to be able to have

people share information as quickly and easily as possible.”

A Perfect Storm? Cloud, Mobility and Information Sharing for the Federal Government

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Addressing the Government’s requirement to better share and collaborate – securely from any device, anywhere.

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Cost is also an issue since the federal

budget crisis is affecting every agency

out there, according to Alex Rossino,

principal research analyst at Deltek’s

Federal Industry Analysis arm. “Agencies

are looking for any way that they can cut

budget, and cloud is just a logical way to

do that,” he says.

Content in the Cloud

Box allows people to more easily share

content because everything — including

multiple types of documents, images,

Flash, presentations, video and audio

files, PDFs, HTML pages, Javascript

files — is stored within the cloud.

The service’s underlying design provides enterprise-class

collaboration, security, and compliance with the ease-of-use

and simple integration of a software-as-a-service offering.

The simplicity is key because, up until now, one of the

main things that have thwarted collaboration within the federal

government and other public agencies has been complexity,

says Rossino. Files must be stored and archived in a specific

manner and with high levels of security and replication, as

spelled out by a variety of reporting and compliance mandates.

In addition, even those agencies that

can handle security and compliance have

infrastructure that is stove-piped. It’s

nearly impossible for them to even fathom

re-architecting their existing content

infrastructure to allow content sharing

across departments much less agencies.

“Most people today are just emailing

[files] or using a SharePoint repository –

whatever they have on hand. The idea is

to cut through the knot, and the only way

to really do that is to go whole hog into

the cloud,” Says Rossino.

When this happens, decision-making

becomes less fragmented and better

since information can be assembled into

a single repository and everyone with the correct permissions

can access it, comment on it, and use it to guide innovation,

discussion, and strategy.

This is certainly true in the case of the U.S. Army War

College. Box richly enhances the educational process within

the school, says Col. Sobotta. “Deep discussions have started.

Instead of going a mile wide and an inch deep we can go a

mile deep and an inch wide,” he says. “Plus, students and

faculty can do so 24/7 wherever they happen to be.” •

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Box services address three main

trends that are driving the way IT

and business gets done today.

1) Sync and share: Consumers

and business users are already

used to Microsoft’s SkyDrive™,

Apple’s iCloud, and Dropbox™’s

service. Box takes this paradigm

farther by making access device-

and OS-agnostic and coupling it

with the security and compliance

that the public sector and some

enterprises require.

2) Enterprise-level content indexing

and access: Data is only as good

as how quickly it can be found.

With Box, all files are indexed,

tagged with metadata, and stored.

Data and files can be searched by

keyword and attribute, and there

is high-level annotation, structure,

and taxonomy available. In addition,

version control becomes easier as

documents and files are checked

in and out. The best part: Access

remains in the hands of IT, which

sets and grants access based on

user, department, and any number

of other parameters.

3) Mobile access and tracking: Data

can be shared in its native form

on any device or platform, but

controls are still in place. IT can see

who opened, shared, downloaded,

uploaded, or deleted a file. In

addition, since the Box platform is

built on open APIs, users can create

apps to help manage their data and

use it to its fullest extent.

The result is a platform that’s ready

to alter the way business gets done.

“We’re still figuring out what it means

in terms of the way it’s going to

change how government, healthcare,

and other security-sensitive verticals

do business, but the ability to pull up

data that you want and instantly get

it in front of you and others who are

working with you is incredibly game

changing,” says Aaron Levie, the

CEO and co-founder of Box.

The Three Faces of Box

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Two of the main cloud concerns that most public and private sector users have voiced are related to security and compliance — can you have both when you’re dealing with the public cloud? Box employees live and breathe security, constantly striving to

create a better cloud ecosystem for Box’s customers and the

industry as a whole, says Justin Somaini, the company’s chief

trust officer. There’s good reason

behind this focus.

Cloud-based services are

exploding in the public and private

sectors, but there’s a struggle

going on in IT, according to a

December Gartner special report,

Gartner Predicts 2013. The U.S.

federal government is in the thick

of it, according to Gartner, thanks

to Cloud First and The Federal Risk

and Authorization Management

Program (FedRAMP). CIOs and

their organizations are looking

to encourage and support the

expansion of cloud computing, but

at the same time make sure that

the appropriate security is in place.

Only companies that understand this

struggle – and the reasons behind it

– can be part of the solution. Somaini

says Box is one of them.

Better Than Your Data Center

This requires a very basic yet significant focus on back-end

security features well as what happens during information

transport and delivery. It also includes not only a willingness to

have an exchange of ideas but a desire to work with partners

and customers to advance cloud security as a whole, says

Somaini.

Indeed, security is often the first thing that many CIOs and

CISOs bring up when they sit down with a cloud provider.

“There’s a natural fear from leveraging past services,”

explains Somaini. “The impression is that cloud services

are not secure or, more importantly, less secure than their

enterprise is today.”

This couldn’t be further from the truth, he says. Most cloud

providers are able to offer security levels that are on par if not

more stringent than what can be found in the enterprise.

Corporate America recognizes this. A May 2013 cloud

security study commissioned through IDG Connect found that

companies have become increasingly comfortable with the

security of third-party cloud service providers.

According to the study, 51 percent of IT executives surveyed

believe that the cloud increases

data security overall, while 59

percent of respondents were very

confident in their ability to control

and manage access from mobile

devices to cloud services. Several

federal CIOs agreed during an April

18 panel discussion. “Trust on the

government side is increasing as

we see it work,” explained Chuck

Riddle, CIO of the Government

Printing Office during the event.

The Secret Security SauceAt Box, customers such as the

Government Services Administration

(GSA) are seeing it work because

it gives end users instant access

to critical information in a secure

fashion. GSA files — like all files that

are stored on Box — are encrypted

while they sit on Box servers, and

only those GSA users who have the

right authentication credentials can access and decrypt files.

From a rights management perspective, control lies solely

in the hands of the administrator, who controls all the account

settings and access for GSA users.

Everything from password strength and resets to the number

of failed logins allowed to session duration is customizable. In

addition, the administrator can set permission as to what users

can do once they access files. They can allow – or disallow – a

user to download, edit, or share a document, and can require

file-level password protection for confidential or high security

documents or assets. Those rights can be set to expire, too,

so contractors or employees have time-limited access to files

or instant access when they need it.

Cloud Security: It’s Not Ethereal

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“Box gives us the perfect combination of being able to

transport information really easily, but then restricting selected

information very tightly,” explains Bob Armstrong, program

analyst at GSA.

Many of Box’s security controls are behind the scenes,

starting with the development of new code and features, says

Somaini. Everyone who works at Box — from the software

developers to the quality assurance staff — is taught to bring a

security mind-set into everything they do.

“There’s no better tool

that you can have than an

educated developer who

goes through a process from

the very beginning, who

learns how to code safely

and securely while providing

those rich features that

customers are looking for,”

Somaini says.

Box’s management

supports this security

mindset with weekly

meetings where they discuss

at length numerous security

issues, such as the current

industry situation with

advanced persistent threats

and attacks, as well as customer and partner concerns. In

addition, developers and other key staffers go through rigorous

training and certifications. They are also given access to the

many industry groups, partners, and security experts who have

been recruited to assist and collaborate with Box on cloud

security issues. The Box teams are also doing outreach on a

daily basis with partners

“All of the processes incorporate security at such a deep

level, such an expeditious level, that we’re able not only meet

the feature functionalities we need to, but we do it with an

extreme scrutiny to identify faults, issues and security concerns

so our customers don’t have to worry,” says Somaini.

Compliance and the Cloud: A Pair Made in Heaven

Security is only half of the equation, though. Compliance

with government mandated regulations is crucial for most

government and public organizations.

To that end, there are Box features that help IT more easily

meet compliance requirements. For instance, Box gives IT

the ability to access deep forensic information about who

has accessed data, where they accessed it from, and what

changes were made to the data once it was touched.

“You’re going to get a lot of information right there on the

admin console,” explains Crispen Maung, the company’s

senior director of compliance. “You’ll see a report that lists all

the users who logged in, the IP addresses they originate from,

and the date and time of their access.”

Another unique benefit that Box brings to its customers is a

willingness to sit down and

discuss business-specific

security and compliance

requirements and provide

advice about both, explains

Maung. “We want to talk

through all the different

requirements and their

interpretation of requirements

so we can help guide them

through to help them make

their systems and their use

of our systems compliant,”

he explains.

For instance, Box is

focused on making sure the

service is compliant with

the ISO 27001 standard

under Annex A, which means that it has taken a wide variety

of security and compliance issues into account, including

asset management, human resources security, access control,

information systems acquisition, security incident management,

business continuity, and regulatory compliance. “Internally,

security and compliance are huge components of our

company’s DNA,” agrees Somaini.

Finally, since one company cannot do it all, Box has created

partnerships with best-in-breed companies such as cloud

identity management company Ping Identity, mobile security

and management firm MobileIron, analytics provider Good

Data, and security control and analytics provider docTrackr.

“Whenever we are unable to execute or are possibly not

the best ones to be creating a security feature that customers

want we can turn to our partners, who are laser-focused on

these areas so that our customers get the peace of mind they

need,” says Somaini.

And when that happens, when customers have the peace of

mind and confidence in cloud security and access, everything

falls into place. •

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In the age of bring-your-own-device, users want to do more than just see their content. They want to collaborate, too. Mobile devices and customized apps are making that happen for Box users. The days of the one employee/one computer paradigm

are over. Today, employees work using a variety of devices

and applications – and many are designed and released by

companies that people have never heard of. This creates

a conundrum for IT: CIOs and CISOs must decide which

applications and providers meet their users’ needs, while still

meeting the security and compliance levels that are required by

their organizations.

“The entire mobile app ecosystem

is completely fragmented,” agrees

Chris Yeh, senior vice president

of platforms at Box. “And IT often

chooses to ignore it completely due

to the fact that even when there are

mobile apps out there, there’s a lack

of confidence in them.”

The result: There are still many

agencies out there stuck using

on-premises applications, which only

work when users are in their offices

or tethered to secure networks. The

Box OneCloud ecosystem is designed to solve all of these

problems, giving agencies and organizations a way to improve

productivity and accelerate their missions.

The Box Mobile ConnectionBox OneCloud is an ecosystem of mobile apps that integrate

with Box’s core features. Using OneCloud, IT can provide users

more than 500 apps that can be used to interact with the

various file types and content that can be stored, accessed,

downloaded, and shared using Box.

In many cases, says Yeh, this also provides a way for users

to interact with workflows in their organizations even when they

are on the road or in the field. “This is something that most Box

users need to get a handle on. Box isn’t just www.box.com and

a set of mobile applications, but a platform that can start to tie

into the mission systems and provide true collaboration between

people who are on the road and in the office.”

Box’s staff is constantly working with app developers,

selecting and evaluating the most popular productivity apps in

the market and helping to integrate them securely with the Box

platform. In addition, Box works with application developers

and their clients to create custom apps that are designed

around specific missions and needs.

These apps, which are branded around the customer, make

workflow easier and more seamless, says Aaron Levie, Box’s

CEO. “What’s exciting about these apps, especially the custom

ones, is that a specific workflow or a specific set of documents

could be put out there and the employee in the field only gets

to see those documents that apply

directly to him or her.”

These apps often end up in an

agency’s or organization’s own

private app store, says Yeh, providing

another layer of security. “You’ve got

CIOs or CISO’s saying, ‘Yeah, I’m

going to build this app and it’s going

to have special requirements that are

unique to me, and I’m going to host

it privately, and I’m still going to take

advantage of all of the power of the

Box platform to enable it.’”

These users can create specific

paths within those apps that streamline use on-premises, too.

So, for instance, someone who was visiting an agency for a

day can be given a mobile device that – when Box and the

app is launched – takes them directly to the view and content

that they are supposed to see. The process is simplified even

further by Box customer success managers, who are available

to answer questions, handle issues, and advise organizations

on the best ways to roll out Box to the entire organization. And

this is only the beginning, says Levie.

“We have about five hundred partners on OneCloud today.

We hope that we can eventually get into the thousands of

developers using this platform. This is a huge part of our

strategy and what we offer to agencies and the enterprise:

Being open and being able to serve all of these different use

cases quickly, securely, and instantly.” •

Customized Content and Collaboration in the Cloud

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Cloud adoption has shifted into the mainstream, according to the

third annual Future of Cloud Computing Survey, released June

2013 by North Bridge Venture Partners and GigaOM Research.

Cloud adoption was up from 67 percent to 75 percent. More

important: 52 percent of organizations say they are using cloud-

based applications to advance business priorities. Gaining business

agility, cited by 54.5 percent of respondents, was the main reason

behind the push to the cloud. Box is one of those companies

making it easier for organizations to improve business outcomes

and boost productivity for employees, partners, and, in some

cases, customers. FCW spoke to Chris Manouse, senior director,

Box U.S. Federal Government, to learn more about what the

company brings to the public sector.

FCW: What are the basic business problems that

government and other public sector organizations are

looking to solve using Box ?

Manouse: There is a range – but for many it is as simple as what

agencies call their Dropbox problem. They have employees who

want access to their content anywhere at any time on any device,

which is a good thing. However, what happens is they start to

bring in these unsanctioned tools that create a problem because

there’s no way to find out what they are doing with the content or

who they are sharing it with. This is a problem for Federal CISOs.

With Box, sync and share is table-stakes. However, we provide it

with the enterprise security controls and governance required by

the CISOs. Yet, most agencies want to do more – they want to

collaborate; they want to securely exchange content and advice

with colleagues who are not with them or perhaps external to their

agency. Furthermore, over the past several decades, agencies

have deployed very complex – and quite expensive – enterprise

applications to manage the business processes that require these

interactions, but the minute an employee leaves the building they

are instantly disconnected. In addition, if they have to interact with

individuals outside of those organizations that don’t or can’t access

those systems that presents an even bigger problem.

FCW: What are the biggest misconceptions about Box?

Manouse: Many folks don’t have visibility to the platform side of

Box, nor the enterprise security and administrative controls that

are availed to our enterprise customers. As a result, it may not be

obvious the power that Box provides as compared to consumer

tools or other point sync-and-share solutions.

FCW: Where have your government customers and users

seen the biggest benefit and return on investment (ROI)?

Manouse: In some cases it is easy – it is as easy as using Box to

replace a lot of investment for things like file shares and “S” drives,

or leveraging Box to eliminate infrastructure for things like managed

file transfer. They are spending money on storage, infrastructure,

disaster recovery, and backup and the personnel to manage these

outdated systems. The millions of dollars they spend on legacy

systems could be put to better use or be dramatically reduced.

That represents immediate ROI.

I spoke to one agency with a mission that involves recruiting –

mostly younger people. And they very much compete for the best

and brightest. In order to review the applications, which arrive in

one part of the country, they FedEx them, spending to the tune of

seven figures a year, as their means of collaboration. The simple

mechanism of creating application folders inside of Box and having

reviewers access them online would eliminate more than one

million dollars a year. Plus, they’d be more competitive because

the candidates could fill out their applications on Box and have an

electronic interface with them. Or consider an organization like the

U.S. Air Force with their initiative to bring iPads into the cockpit.

They don’t want to haul heavy, 30- to 40-pound briefcases that

contain flight manuals and instructions, plus they may be in parts

of the world where they aren’t able to connect back to the official

systems. They need to be able to get to these documents and

collaborate on the mission with field-level collaboration – and the

reduction of weight in the cockpit has the potential to save millions

in fuel cost. And there are hundreds of other use cases I could give

you, too.

FCW: How does someone find out if Box is right for their

agency or organization?

Manouse: In every single instance we sit down and discuss the use

case of what they are looking to do. Then we can stand up a test

environment that’s unique and specific to their content so they can

see that they can control everything and create content processes

that are meaningful to their missions. They can also vet the security

and compliance perspective of Box. These free pilots are typically

30 days and allow customers to see firsthand how Box can meet

their requirements from both an IT and end-user perspective.

Because the application is so intuitive, users are up and running in

no time with a full admin console on the backend for IT. •

Solving the Data Leak Issue

To learn more about Box, Inc’s products and services, please go to https://cloud.box.com/business/industry/government/.

To reach a Box representative, e-mail sales@box.com or call 1-877-729-4269.