It's a trust thing for customers A lot of businesses trust cloud sync-and-store provider Box, but they trust a lot of other solutions, too, for things like identity, data loss protection and digital rights management. But you can’t always trust them to integrate very well without some help. With that in mind, Box is reaching out to its most trusted developer partners — including new partners Symantec, Splunk, Palo Alto Networks and OpenDNS — with the introduction of Box Trust, a program to certify that those outside solutions can be trusted to work seamlessly with Box. It’s kind of a trust thing. “[Because] Box is the platform that powers the information that touches every part of an enterprise’s business and beyond, our customers often look to us to tell them how what services will help them best secure and protect their data,” Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie wrote in a blog entry. To be clear, this is certainly not Box stepping back from the open API platform that made it big in the enterprise in the first place, said Box General Manager of Enterprise Whitney Bouck. “Our API will always be open for anybody to integrate with Box,” Bouck said. Instead, Box Trust is simply certifying that a very select breed of products have been vetted to work well with the core Box platform. The Box Trust shield is meant to deliver a little bit of extra confidence to large customers who need to make sure that they get more security, control and compliance than the off-the-digital-shelf Box product offers. In addition to the four new vendors in the fold mentioned above, Box Trust partners include 15 longer-term partners like Okta, Reccomind, Dell, Skyhigh Networks, Ping Identity and OneLogin. Getting invited to join the Box Trust program is “based on market leadership, the value and quality of its integration with Box and a demonstrated commitment towards joint customer success,” according to the company’s statement. Bouck promises more companies are coming. It’s probably not a coincidence that this move comes not long after perennial rival Dropbox announced the expansion of its platform efforts with a new API that lets third-party vendors hook into a business deployment. Dropbox’s goal is to similar ends: boosting security and supporting custom workflows. But when it comes to Box Trust, Bouck said the work is already done — and many customers are already using these apps in their business. It’s more a recognition of work already done than a new and risky initiative. Bouck also said that Box is committed to being a more secure, more transparent, more completely manageable solution out of the, uh, box. “Box by itself has to have enough inherent controls to be a secure solution,” Bouck said. Another part of this announcement is Box for EMM, a version of the Box app designed to be deployed via mobile management solutions from vendors like VMware’s AirWatch, Dell, MaaS360 by Fiberlink and MobileIron. This specialized version supports EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management) controls for sending data between apps and remote wiping of sensitive data. Before, Bouck said, Box had an individual app for each environment, meaning that any app updates and any new EMM players entering the market required a lot of work on the backend. Now, one codebase means rapid iteration and rapid adoption of new technologies. “It’s a bit of a re-architecture,” Bouck said. Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe