PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AeroFS, a leader in secure file sync and share and collaboration solutions for the enterprise, today announced a new email optimization feature that lets enterprise IT administrators better manage mailbox usage in light of the explosion in the number and size of file attachments. With email attachments accounting for more than 75 percent of all email data stored on email servers, the AeroFS Attachment Manager for Microsoft Exchange leverages the effortless internal and external sharing capabilities of AeroFS to significantly reduce this IT burden while also eliminating attachment size limits and enhancing enterprise security.
“Users and IT admins love AeroFS because it makes enterprise file syncing and sharing so easy and secure, but almost every enterprise IT administrator we’ve talked to is also concerned that employee mailbox sizes are out of control. Yet, they have no appropriate tools at their disposal for dealing with this issue and are limited mostly to voluntarily or forcibly archiving and deleting older email,” said John Gabaix, director of products for AeroFS. “But this does not get to the root of the problem, which is the explosion in the number and size of email attachments, and that’s the problem we solve.”
Unlike other solutions, the AeroFS Attachment Manager for Microsoft Exchange works transparently without any user intervention. It deploys easily without any client-side plug-ins or other software. It automatically replaces all incoming and outgoing email attachments with secure URL links, giving IT greater control over enterprise data and user email storage by storing the actual attachments in the enterprise’s AeroFS system.
In addition to completely removing storage-consuming attachments from the mail server, the AeroFS Attachment Manager further reduces storage requirements by eliminating attachment redundancy. When an attachment is sent to multiple recipients, only one copy of the file is stored. Users can easily send attachments of any size, regardless of the recipient’s email system attachment size restrictions.
Attachments can be restricted or revoked at any time—even after the email has been sent—because the file itself resides within the enterprise in the AeroFS system and only links to the files are sent. The system logs all attachment file accesses, including date and time, IP address and other information that allows real-time control over who accesses the files and from where.
“With the AeroFS Attachment Manager, sending an email with a multi-gigabyte attachment to 20 internal or external recipients becomes possible because the attachment is replaced with a secure URL and only one file is stored, outside of the email server, where IT can review it, restrict access to it, or do anything else they need to,” said Jeff Harrell, vice president of marketing at AeroFS. “Sharing CAD drawings, videos, photographs, graphics and other media has become commonplace, but enterprise email systems have not kept pace. The AeroFS Attachment Manager attacks this issue at the root with an easy solution that allows IT to better manage mailbox storage while maintaining control over email attachments.”
“Enterprise IT has been struggling to cope with the mushrooming storage requirements brought on by larger and more numerous file attachments and the potential data leaks that may result,” said Alan Pelz-Sharpe, research director for social business at 451 Research. “Moving attachments off the mail server and using de-duplication technology has the effect of reducing storage requirements, eliminating attachment size limits and boosting mail server performance, while a purely server side solution reduces the burdens on IT by not having to deploy and manage client software or browser extensions and allows IT to revoke attachments for security reasons even after they are sent.”
Availability and Pricing
The AeroFS Attachment Manager for Microsoft Exchange will be included at no additional charge as an integral part of AeroFS for Business by the end of this year. Versions for other email servers may be developed as required by customer demand.
About AeroFS
AeroFS delivers highly secure, enterprise-class file sharing and synchronization solutions that enable enterprises to better control and secure their data and increase collaboration among users. Like Dropbox and other online file-sharing offerings, AeroFS allows users to simply drag and drop files into a folder to sync and share them with colleagues and external partners. Unlike those offerings, however, AeroFS is deployed on the enterprise’s own infrastructure, and so enterprise data always stays under company and IT control. Files are shared directly between users’ devices, and enterprise data never resides on AeroFS servers. The company is funded by blue-chip investors, including Avalon Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator and others. Learn more at www.aerofs.com.
