Kiteworks acquires ownCloud & Dracoon

Today, US-based file sync & share vendor Kiteworks announced their acquisition of ownCloud and Dracoon. Kiteworks points out that their customers now have access to their file-sharing application. It is to be expected they will not maintain 3 similar products, but customers will have to migrate to the US firms’ platform or look for another solution.

Nextcloud offers a free hands-on migration service and takes over the remaining runtime of the contracts. Migration is a very quick and easy process, as shown by the many hundreds that have done this already over the last years.

UPDATE Dec 21: It seems that the decision is made to move ownCloud customers over to Kiteworks:

A well-tested migration

Kiteworks seems likely to consolidate its product portfolio over the coming months, reducing the duplication of 3 similar products. ownCloud and Dracoon customers will have to consider the costs and consequences of moving their file sync and share to the platform of the proprietary US vendor.

Some customers need an on-premises collaboration platform from an established European vendor. Others prioritize a forward-looking platform that integrates a wider range of collaboration capabilities or requires an open source solution.

Hundreds of other customers have taken the well-established, easy, and fast migration path to Nextcloud, benefiting from increased functionality, usability, performance, and security. We are certain that Nextcloud will continue to be an appropriate platform for these needs, just like it is for the Archdiocese of Cologne or the Sorbonne University, to name two recent customers.

Reliable partner for the future

Most customers looking for an on-premises document sync and share platform need a reliable, open source, or fully European solution that complies with EU privacy regulations. The US tech firms that fall under the US CLOUD Act seriously hinder compliance efforts. Nextcloud, as the market leader in this space, as well as smaller competitors like ownCloud and Dracoon, delivers this US-independent, compliant, and fully open platform to tens of thousands of customers across the globe.

As of today, Nextcloud is the main remaining independent vendor in this space. Widely deployed in the public sector in most European nations, the German firm has a proven track record in the secure file exchange market. Its customer base is quickly expanding into the Middle East and Asia, with major customers also in Australia, South America, and the United States. It follows an organic growth strategy without external investors which has resulted in a stable 50-60% year-over-year growth since its inception. This makes it a reliable, long-term partner for organizations seeking a secure document exchange solution.

Expanded functionality

In 2017, Gartner renamed the enterprise file synchronization and sharing market to the content collaboration platform (CCP) market in response to the evolution of the market. Just in 2016, Nextcloud was launched with the vision of bringing exactly this expanded view of collaboration to customers.

The market evolution from enterprise file sync and sharing (EFSS) to services-led platform intensifies the content collaboration platform (CCP) role in digital workplace transformation, making a CCP choice more strategic and less tactical.

— Gartner

Collaboration tools proliferate in modern enterprises, creating a challenge for organizations. Employees don’t know where the latest version of a document is or where to share it. Worse, IT has to track all the tools being used, pay even if they go unused, and manage the fall-out when one of the dozens of systems gets hacked and data or login details leak. This has been the reason behind the rise of all-in-one platforms for collaboration like Nextcloud. Nextcloud offers a wide range of capabilities, from secure document exchange and real-time editing to video chat, calendaring, task handling, secure online web forms, and many more abilities. The tight integration not only saves administrators and users time but also enables faster, easier workflows and improves productivity.

It is perhaps no surprise that at Gartner, users rate Nextcloud significantly higher than Kiteworks. Nextcloud has continued to push in the collaboration space, leading the market with new capabilities in the on-premises Artificial Intelligence and digital assistant space, working on this closely with the European public sector.

Conclusion

Over the coming months, while Kiteworks absorbs its new acquisitions, we expect some customers to look for a different home.