Box Users Can Now Store Cloud Data In IBM UK Data Centres

Box customers can store their data in the UK with the launch of a new ‘Box Zone’ powered by IBM Cloud’s data centres in London.

The company first announced Box Zones last year and now has locations in the UK, US, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and Canada. Box makes use of a mixture of IBM and AWS infrastructure.

Previously, all content was stored in the US. The idea is that by having data closer to home, businesses will experience a boost in performance and will be able to take advantage of local data protection laws.

Box Zones UK

Box Zones is therefore essential to the company’s ongoing international expansion and push into regulated industries like healthcare and finance.

“We’re seeing significant demand for Box Zones from customers in Europe who want greater flexibility over where their data is stored,” said Box CEO Aaron Levie.

“As international regulations and demands continue to become more complex, our ability to help enterprises move to the cloud and simplify their content management strategy is incredibly valuable.

“With Box Zones we’re able to serve a much larger international customer base, including reaching organizations in the most security-conscious industries.”

Levie confirmed in 2015 the company was looking at data centres outside the US as it expands, but said it was more focussed on offering a seamless experience for customers, something which various storage zones might complicate. This was solved by splitting application from storage.

In recent years Box has introduced encryption key management and other governance features, while it has also adopted Binding Corporate Rules to ensure the safe transfer of data between the EU and US.

IBM is building four more data centres in the UK to meet growing demand for its cloud services, including its Watson APIs, alongside IBM’s Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and analytics platforms.

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