How does it work?
Why would you consider a product like CloudFiler, what does it do, how does it do it and what are the options?
Why do businesses use CloudFiler?
CloudFiler reduces business risk and enables you to quickly find project or client related email via whatever devices your staff prefer to use.
Need to find all emails relating to a project? No problem.
Want to know what communications the team has had with a given client? Easy.
The two animated videos on our main page provide an easy-to-digest understanding of the benefits to both businesses and their staff.
All devices?
CloudFiler enables you to file & search from any device that can run Microsoft Outlook which includes: PC's, Macs, phones, tablets and browsers
Where can we file to?
With CloudFiler's Standard licensing tier you can only file to the cloud.
The Professional and Enterprise tiers add the ability to file into: Windows folders, cloud storage, SharePoint, OneDrive, etc.
Each filing location is typically linked to a single sync location but you can have more, so users can just select the project or customer location and the email is synced to multiple places.
NOTE: CloudFiler never deletes emails from a user's inbox but can optionally move them to the 'Deleted items' or 'Filed' folders
Where are the emails stored and how secure is it?
CloudFiler uses Amazon Web Services.
Regardless of which licensing tier you select: Standard, Professional or Enterprise, three copies are kept on three separate servers in the Amazon cloud. We also take a back-up to a completely separate service.
The system is PCI compliant, encrypts emails in transit using TLS 1.2 protocol and at rest using AES-256.
Connections to the service use task-specific one-time and time limited security tokens.
If you are a licensee of the Professional and Enterprise tiers, CloudFiler will additionally place MSG copies of the files into your chosen storage (see below for more details)
How does it do it?
CloudFiler learns where both you and your colleagues file emails, so as you read or write emails it is anticipating where you will file them and will offer a sorted list of locations from which you can choose.
This makes filing easy and accurate.
With emails filed logically, finding them becomes fast and easy.
How reliable is it?
No software is bug-free and this is very true of locally installed software which is exposed to differences in: hardware, operating systems, application versions, changes to libraries like .Net, individual configuration, other applications on the same device and just plain user error.
Cloud based systems have far fewer issues and you might be surprised to learn that you can use CloudFiler without installing any software on any of your client devices or indeed any of your servers; this is all part of Microsoft’s new way to deliver Add-in tools.
So most of CloudFiler lives on Amazon Web Services (AWS) which is highly fault tolerant; if a server dies another is spun up automatically without anyone noticing, if more horse-power is needed additional servers are automatically deployed and of course, users can’t mess it up.
Why is there a charge for storage?
To provide access to emails via all devices reliably and quickly, CloudFiler relies on the copies it maintains in the cloud.
For security reasons, you wouldn’t allow an external system to reach in and copy files off your network, plus we couldn’t rely on your copies because users may: rename or delete files and folders or simply suffer a bad drag & drop. So for CloudFiler, the master copies are the ones in the cloud; we maintain 3 copies on 3 separate servers plus a backup on completely separate system thus ensuring a fast and reliable service.
There is a small charge for this storage.
Note: licensees of the Professional and Enterprise tiers can deploy our sync connector which will automatically place copies of messages in the places where you need them.
Does it work with new Outlook?
CloudFiler works with Outlook 2013 through to Microsoft 365 and the 'New Outlook' which is a 'Windows Progressive App' based on 'Outlook Web Access (OWA)'.
How many licences will we need?
CloudFiler is licensed per user, allowing staff to have as many devices as they need on the one license.
Licenses are managed automatically and return to the pool if they are not used for 24 hours.
Large businesses often need more licences for a short period, so CloudFiler allows you to use more than you own in any one month at no additional cost
Can it integrate with our systems?
CloudFiler offers a rich API with support for multiple languages including: C#, VB, HTML, Python, PHP, Swift, Dart, Go, etc.,
A common requirement is to automatically create new locations when new clients or projects are adding in your CRM or financial systems.
What about our legacy data?
CloudFiler's 'Bulk Uploader' takes the pain out of data migration and has specific import methods for content stored in: legacy email management systems, PSTs, Windows Folders and user Inboxes.
If you have emails in shared inboxes or public folders our 'Folder Exporter' enables you to easily export them to Windows folders so that you can then organise the content prior to importing with the Bulk Uploader.
The Bulk Uploader doesn't just dump the data into CloudFiler, it files them like a user and hence teaches CloudFiler where your staff like to file, so that it doesn't require further training.
The Bulk Uploader also includes methods to create and delete locations via XLSX files, enabling you to bulk create them.
It's multi-threaded for performance and in our tests with customer emails that were of all sizes, it uploaded at a rate of 120,000 emails per hour.
What is the underlying architecture?
CloudFiler enjoys the advantages of cloud based systems thus avoiding the problems with desktop software.
It delivers filing and indexing services in the cloud that connect directly to your Microsoft Exchange on-line service.
- Single search index in the cloud - no local duplication or network thrashing
- Web Add-in - never blocked by Outlook
- Supports all devices
- Nothing to install (there are optional Apps)
- No software versioning to deal with
- No compatibility issues
- Central and automatic license management
- Central management of settings
Is there really nothing to install?
Strictly speaking, you can use CloudFiler without installing any software on either your client devices or your servers, but most customers choose to install one or more of our optional Apps, which make certain processes more fluid and pleasant to use. These are all provided as MSI's to ease deployment.
Why isn't CloudFiler more expensive?
Here are some of the ways that we have been able to design the software and the structure of our business to keep our costs low.
- Our systems automatically spin-up and tear-down servers to ensure we only pay Amazon for the service that is required, whilst ensuring optimal performance for our customers; we can spin up a new server in 0.5 of a second
- Our systems automatically move emails to cheaper storage tiers based on a number of factors
- We don’t employ an army of salespeople, relying more on reputation and word of mouth; so please be sure to mention CloudFiler to others if you like what you see – thanks
- We don’t receive many technical support enquiries because the system is highly fault tolerant and is not exposed to all the issues that face desktop applications such as different operating system versions, development library changes, local configurations, user errors such as: bad drag & drop, renaming folders, etc.
- We have automated many of our internal business processes
- We want our software to remain affordable to the largest and smallest businesses alike
- The business is owned by the two founders and has no debts, so there are no other shareholders or lenders to appease
Which product option to choose?
We provide three licensing tiers to suit a range of needs: Standard, Professional and Enterprise
Standard
The Standard licensing tier provides file & search via any device and is ideal for businesses that are keen to move their operations to the cloud and don't require copies of the messages to be saved as files to their own storage.
Professional
The Professional tier includes the same capabilities as the Standard tier and adds the ability to sync emails into a range of storage types including Windows folders, SharePoint, OneDrive, etc.
Enterprise
The Enterprise tier offers the same capabilities as the Professional tier and adds two further capabilities:
- API (Application Programming Interface) access, which is typically used to automate the creation of locations when new clients or projects are added to your financial system
- Automatically maintains a copy of your messages in another geography to meet the safe harbour requirements of your business or clients
Are there any other costs?
All businesses must purchase a block of Core storage for a small annual charge. New customers must also purchase the Set-up service which is required to: build your unique tenant, assist with data migration and provide training.
Please note that whilst the pricing of the tiers is shown per month to enable easy comparison with similar products, the licenses are billed annually.