ShareFile Review

Introduction

Sharefile is a subsidiary of Citrix Cloud Solution provider, one of the largest, most progressive, reliable companies in cloud platform and virtualization software services in the industry. Acquired by Citrix in 2011, Sharefile got its start in 2005 and is currently home to 20,000 businesses worldwide and 3 million users. It offers customized services on a simple platform, and its security is one of the key features of the company. In fact, ShareFile is so well trusted that governments use it.

ShareFile has a lot going for it, such as useful features, cost-effectiveness, highly customizable plans that allow business customers to alter even existing plans, world class customer support, dedicated account managers, VDR, industry grade security, and simplicity of use.

Plans & Pricing

Pricing schemes of ShareFile are pricy, but you get what you pay for. The service is pretty much the same across the board, the difference lying in how many employees are allowed on the account. They offer customized plans for large businesses, which are negotiable for those who don’t see a specific plan they like.

Sharefile Company offers four standard plans:  Basic, Professional, Corporate and Enterprise, which are respictively associated with size of operation.

ShareFile also offers a unique service for Enterprise-level customers called the virtual data room, or VDR,  which is a secure, useful, professional, and flexible service for management of files and data. The VDR starts at $295 per month.

ShareFile also offers a 30-day trial for all services, including the VDR.

Basic @ $29.95/Month: 5GB Storage/Bandwidth, 2 Employee Accounts, Unlimited Client Users and Custom Branding

Professional @ $59.95/Month: 10GB Storage/Bandwidth, 10 Employee Accounts, Unlimited Client Users, and Custom Branding

Corporate @ $ 99.95/Month: 20GB Storage/Bandwidth, 20+ Employee Accounts, Unlimited Client Users, and Custom Branding

Enterprise @ Negotiable Rates: 100GB Storage/Bandwidth, Thousands of Employee Accounts, Unlimited Client Users, and Custom Branding

Features

ShareFile has two services for managing data of different sized teams. It also offers the exciting VDR service for secure sharing, professional collaboration and management of valuable business data.

ShareFile also offers top-shelf customer support, system performance, data security, network availability, and customizable commercial plans. A summarized list of these features is mentioned below:

• Simple interface procedures for sharing and uploading files
• Simple registration
• 30 day free trial for all services
• Multiple standard plans for different size companies and corporations
• Customized services for more than 30 different industries
• Open to customized solutions for every new requirement or business that requires specific applications and solutions
• Individual file uploads up to 10GB of data; thus no need of FTP or other lazy modes of uploading
• Easy to send a link for any kind of data file
• Simple tracking of changes and activities done on shared files
• Multiple operating system support
• Supports most any device capable of an internet connection
• Easy and professional  folder creation
• Track documents and configure alerts
• Free custom-branding of company logos
• Granular level of folder permission capabilities
• High level of physical security i.e. SAS70 Type-II data centers of Amazon AWS and SSAE 16 data audited and certified infrastructure security
• 256-AES encryption level
• SSL encrypted connections for data transportation
• Customized security settings according to business sector
• Multiple desktop based tool that allow downloading and updating for power users
• MS Outlook plug-ins supported for simple, high-security file sharing
• Detailed file activity reports
• Capability of File Versioning to ensure simple monitoring
• Option for sending and receiving hard copies and hard drive data at an office location
• High speed fiber-optic internet connectivity through seven worldwide state of the art points of presence (POP)
• Word-class customer support through telephone, email and chat
• Wide range of documents, videos and technical articles for customer support available on the website
• Dedicated account managers for enterprises and corporations
• Light-weight Sync application
• Command line interface (CLI) for large uploads and for managing high-security data
• Support for major smart phone operating systems

In addition, ShareFile offers widgets, customized services and tuned applications for helping companies become more efficient and productive.

Security

ShareFile’s data centers are provided by SAS70 Type II and SSAE 16 certified Amazon AWS. They’re constructed in accordance with the latest recommended industry and critical building standards.

Physical security, monitoring and surveillance systems exist on premises as well as complete logical network security of the servers. Measures include cutting-edge firewalls, access control lists, access policies, authentication and authority mechanisms, latest intrusion detection systems and antivirus software. Data is stored encrypted through 256-AES protocol, which is normally reserved for top-level security info such as financial transactions or sensitive military information. Data is transported through highly-secure encrypted SSL connections.

Customer Service

ShareFile has been around for over 7 years, and a well-defined customer support group is in place to meet the demands of situations gone wrong. They are available by phone, chat, and trouble-ticket emails. Turnaround time is normally less than an hour. There is also a wealth of informative articles and software manuals, training videos, how-to procedures, and tech support forums where common problems are addressed. The following illustration shows the support interface from their website.

The Process (Sign-up & Install)

Registration to ShareFile is simple, and free for the first month. Here’s how to sign up and get started.

• Click the TRY IT FREE link located at the top right of ShareFile’s home page and sign up

• Choose a plan

• Fill in the name of the website you would like to create for use of ShareFile’s service

• Login to ShareFile

• You’ll receive a confirmation and account details email from ShareFile with your username and password

• When you first login, you’ll be required to confirm your information and provide an answer to a security question

• Click Continue to the home page

• Your account home page of your account will look like this

Add Folder

• You can create a new folder by clicking Add Folder
• Provide a folder name and short folder description
• The Add User option will allow you to add manually or deal with it in a minute

• The interface will then ask you to add folder users and to set usage parameters for each person granted access to the folder
• Add all the users that you want to use this folder; you can also modify them later

• The final step in adding a folder is to write a message to the users, who will be notified by an email message
• Click Send and you’re done!

• You’ll be taken to a folder summary of users and their priveledges, like below

• You can also add subfolders in similar fashion by clicking Add Subfolder as shown in the following figure

• Create a new user or manage existing ones by clicking the Manage Users tab from the toolbar at the top of your home page as shown in the following figure
• You can also add a complete list of users and employees into a group by clicking Download Excel Spreadsheet with full user list

• Sending a file to users and employees is simple
• Click Send a File from your home page and you will see the following interface

• Choose the file you wish to send; you can also drag and drop it in the upload area to attach the file from your computer as shown in the following figure
• Click Upload file at the bottom of the interface and you’re done!
• You’ll receive an alert when intended users download the file

• To request a file, click that tab and you’ll get the following page

• Account administration is accomplished through the Admin tab at the top right of the page. You’ll be presented with a detailed account management page

• To change or view settings, go to My Settings

• To access the many tech support options, click Help

Downloading and Installing ShareFile Sync

• Click TRY IT FREE located at the top right of the home page of ShareFile’s website
• Choose the Sync software for your operating system

• Double click the downloaded file and click Run; the software starts installing on your computer as shown in the following figure

• Choose the location for ShareFile sync software to install and select installation options as shown in the following figure
• Hit Continue-

• ShareFile sync software will install on your computer and present you with the following login interface

 

• Click Add Folder and pick a name for the folder

• Select synchronize now and choose the suitable mode of synchronization as shown in the following figure

• You can add, remove and modify folders from the Folders tab of the ShareFile Sync software

• Set different options for synchronization by clicking Options

• Support will present the support options available

 

Conclusion

ShareFile is the perfect file sharing solution for businesses. It has a wide range of customized solutions for most any kind of company, as well as a strong technical team to support its valuable customers. Its file-use system is highly customizable for individual user security access, and the interface is simple and functional. It is recommended for all businesses, but especially for small and medium sized businesses.