NextCloud protects your data while you stay in control

Data security is a relentless, stressful problem for every person and business.

When the average consumer or company considers online security, it’s usually taking care not to click a dubious link in an email, or praying that whatever cloud-based services being used are secure. Even if a company maintains its own secure servers, that company’s employees are likely uploading files via one service, instant messaging using something else, video conferencing over yet another service, working with a third-party email platform, and so on and so on and so on… with hundreds of thousands – or even millions – of interactions every day. The risk of being compromised or losing control is very real.

That’s where NextCloud jumps in. Founded in Germany in 2016 by some of the key people from security pioneer ownCloud, including its Managing Director, Frank Karlitschek, NextCloud offers businesses the data and communications tools needed to run a modern, efficient enterprise. Rather than hosting its tools in the cloud, however, NextCloud takes the old-school approach of hosting all these tools on your in-house servers and systems, providing significantly more control and security.

“Rather than offering a File Sync and Share service that, perhaps, requires you to use an additional tool to provide extra encryption on top,” says NextCloud’s Joos Poortvliet, “you run your own file sync and share with NextCloud, using your existing storage system, your existing user directory, and so on. You keep the data where it is, under the policies and processes you already have, and get the benefits of easy sharing and collaboration with a modern web User Interface and mobile apps people are used to.”

In other words, NextCloud lets you keep your data and communications in-house, on a heavily secured system, but with the app-based and collaborative tools every business has become unable to live without.

You may wonder how a company that started less than two years ago can offer so many services: file sync and sharing, online editing and communications, video and text chat, email, calendaring, text search, contacts, notifications, granular data monitoring….

First, NextCloud started with a dozen engineers with a shared vision and deep industry experience. But just as importantly, NextCloud is proudly Open Source.

“Our initial release took us only two weeks,” said Joos. “The massive enthusiasm and help we get from the community speeds our business up to an unbelievable rate of renewal and innovation.” Because it is open, NextCloud users can review NextCloud’s software and services, using it however they want, and help them make it better. This is a major source of NextCloud’s rapid innovation.

And like most Open Source companies, NextCloud isn’t a big fan of patent trolls (or software patents in general, but that’s a story for another day). Like dozens of like-minded companies before them, NextCloud discovered LOT Network and joined up for all the innovative protections that membership brings.