14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, Microsoft and Dropbox announced a collaboration that would basically bring together two of the most powerful and popular cloud-based solutions on the market, so it's no surprise that some see this alliance as an effort to compete against the other Internet giants also focusing on this business.
Case in point, Google. Microsoft and Dropbox have joined forces specifically to compete against Google, a Gartner analyst says, and it might really have a point here.
Both Microsoft and Dropbox are powerful rivals in the cloud industry, but while they are fighting for the same user category, they aren't really challenging each other right now.
As a result, working together for the same purpose seems a much better idea, especially because each would greatly benefit from an outcome that would see Google losing market share in the cloud industry.
“Both of them decided that they’re not really a threat. If they can work with each other, against the common enemy Google, primarily, or to some extent Box or the other competitors that are in this market. Because Dropbox is not going to be challenging Microsoft in any other areas, and Microsoft is unavoidable,” Jeff Mann, Gartner analyst, is quoted as saying by The Guardian.
Dropbox is also a Google partner
What's more surprising than the deal itself is the fact that Dropbox is also a partner with Google, as the two companies signed a collaboration agreement in September to improve security features of cloud solutions after the revelations made by Edward Snowden regarding spying programs in the United States and other countries.
As a result, Dropbox might actually pursue its own interest and work together with two of its biggest rivals in the cloud industry, thus making sure that it keeps close to competition.
Dropbox representatives, however, claim that signing a deal with Microsoft was the only way to go because its 300 million users have already uploaded 36 billion Office documents in the cloud, so it's pretty obvious that they need better ways to work with their files.
Office integration and new apps
As part of the deal, Dropbox will be directly integrated into Office, so whenever you want to upload a file in your cloud account, you can do that without closing Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Dropbox options will appear next to OneDrive thanks to an update that will be released soon, Microsoft says.
At the same time, Dropbox users who have Office documents in their cloud accounts will be prompted to open these files with Office apps and will even be directed to download links for official apps depending on the device they are using.
Starting 2015, those accessing Dropbox from their browsers will be redirected to Office Online in order to work and edit documents on the go.