Egnyte secures Oxford University's ideas

Egnyte, the enterprise file sharing provider, has announced Isis Innovation, Oxford University's technology transfer office, as its latest customer. Isis Innovation is using Egnyte as the file sharing infrastructure for managing the commercialisation of intellectual property on behalf of Oxford University.

Currently, Isis manages 700 intellectual property licence agreements and has helped form 79 spin-off companies, including Oxonica, the company behind Optisol UV absorber which protects holidaymakers in the sun and NaturalMotion, whose animation software is behind mega hits Grand Theft Auto IV and Troy.  Since the value of intellectual property is so closely related to its security, Isis was particularly concerned with insuring its file sharing wasn't compromised. One breach could give access to years of research, which might result in millions of pounds in funding going to waste.

Isis also struggled with managing a workforce many of whom consulted off-site, and while mobile devices allowed consultants to theoretically access data quickly and securely, their Oxford-based VPN gateway was slow and cumbersome. That prompted them to look at a host of solutions and Egnyte stood out as one tailored to their needs. After a quick trial, Isis deployed Egnyte in conjunction with local storage in its Oxford and Hong Kong offices, running in hybrid mode for fast behind the firewall access utilising Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices synced with Egnyte's European public Cloud. The new solution was set up and running in a few days.

Nelson Sa, Business Consultant, Isis Innovation said: "We needed a solution we could trust to store our ideas. Isis employees spend a significant proportion of their time working at our clients' sites so we needed a secure, real-time file sharing service between our offices in Hong Kong and Oxford. Egnyte's approach to cloud security ensures users only have access to the correct folders and its compliance with the EU Safe Harbor framework means staff can collaborate with colleagues across the world effectively, on a secure solution which is built for the enterprise."

Egnyte was built from the ground up to give companies control of where their data lives, and how it is accessed.  Whether files are on local storage behind the firewall or in the cloud, employees in any location can access their files from any device, and always feel like they're working from the main office.

"Innovation is the lifeblood of any business and there are great ideas coming out of Isis, so keeping them secure is a priority," said Vineet Jain, CEO, Egnyte.  "We pride ourselves on giving customers a choice when it comes to where their data is stored, on local storage or in the cloud, and how it's accessed. We are very excited to see our technology driving UK innovation globally from this most prestigious academic institution."