IBM and Box partner

IBM and Box have formed a strategic alliance that combines their technologies and resources to transform work in the cloud. They say the partnership will bring together Box’s cloud content collaboration platform with IBM Analytics and Social solutions, IBM Security technologies and the global footprint of the IBM Cloud. The companies will integrate their existing products and services and develop new solutions targeted across industries and professions ranging from medical teams working on complex cases to individuals negotiating consumer loans by mobile phone to engineers and researchers identifying patterns in patents, reports and academic journals.

The two companies will jointly deliver these solutions to market internationally, and IBM will also enable builders and developers to integrate Box APIs into enterprise apps and Web services. IBM and Box will partner in three primary areas.

Enterprise work transformation

• content management—Box will integrate IBM enterprise content management including content capture, extraction, analytics, case management and governance;
• Watson analytics—the companies will collaborate to bring deep enterprise insights using IBM Watson Analytics to content stored in Box; and
• social collaboration—IBM and Box will integrate Box capabilities into IBM Verse and IBM Connections, the company’s business e-mail solution and social collaboration platform.

International reach and security

• enterprise cloud—Box will enable joint customers to store their content on the IBM Cloud, which IBM says provides data resiliency, data privacy and data localization, an important consideration for international customers who want the option to keep their data in country;
• enterprise consulting—the partnership will draw upon the specialized enterprise content management skills of IBM Global Business Services professionals to help clients connect or integrate Box capabilities with existing data and systems; and
• enterprise security—Box will expand on its enterprise security offerings with IBM security technologies for threat detection, anomaly identification, mobile device management and identity protection.

New content apps and solutions

• mobile apps for industries—Box and IBM will jointly develop content management solutions and incorporate Box technology into select IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps, and
• custom app development—IBM will enable enterprise developers to integrate Box APIs on the IBM Bluemix developer cloud to help build content rich Web and mobile apps.