Box Announces Deeper Integrations With Microsoft 365 to Power Secure Collaboration in the Cloud

Box, Inc , the leading Content Cloud, today announced new and upcoming integrations with Microsoft 365 to make it easier for customers to securely work in the cloud. Building on Box’s seamless experience within Microsoft environments, these include new security integrations, enhanced functionality in Teams and Office Online, and a new Box connector for Microsoft Graph.

“Tens of thousands of enterprises globally are using Box and Microsoft together to securely power the way they work from anywhere,” said Varun Parmar, Chief Product Officer at Box. “Today’s new and deepened integrations will make the Box experience in Microsoft 365 even more frictionless, enabling joint customers to easily access, create, manage, and secure their content wherever they are, in real-time.”

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“Box announces deeper integrations with Microsoft 365 to power secure collaboration in the cloud.”

Box already works seamlessly with Microsoft 365, enabling users to securely access Box content as they collaborate across the Microsoft portfolio of applications and services. Workers can streamline collaboration by accessing and sharing Box content directly in Teams channels or chats and can open, edit, and save Box files directly within the Office app. Outlook users can eliminate the risk and hassle of email attachments by converting outbound attachments to Box shared links and maintain version control by saving incoming attachments to Box from any device. Additionally, Box Shield helps classify and enforce security policies across both the Box and Microsoft environments, and Box is a member of Microsoft’s Intelligent Security Association.

Microsoft Teams

Last year, Box rebuilt its integration with Teams to make it easy to find, share, access, and secure Box content from within the Teams application, improving user productivity while giving admins the ability to manage all of their company’s content in one secure platform. Deepening its integration with Microsoft Teams, today Box announced new functionality and launched enhancements including:

• The ability to create, share, open, and edit Box files from within Teams. This new functionality enables Box users to bring in content from productivity suites like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Apple iWork so that users can work in their apps of choice to get work done. This more robust, embedded Box experience within Teams is expected to be available later this spring.
• The general availability of Box notifications within Microsoft Teams, which enables seamless productivity as teams around the world continue to work remotely. Announced last fall, users will now be notified of important updates to their Box files and can now better manage content permissions from directly within Teams.

Security Products:

Box Shield already restricts printing and downloads of files in Box from Office 365 and can read and enforce Azure Information Protection classification labels, protecting the flow of information and ensuring that only authorized users can access confidential data. To make it easier for joint customers to secure their content across the two platforms, Box announced:

• A new integration to import Microsoft Information Protection classification labels and to enforce classification-based, inline security controls within Box. This will enable customers to ensure that only authorized users get access to confidential data and that sensitive information is not shared unintentionally. The integration is expected to be available in May 2021.
• The general availability of the expanded capability for Intune App Protection Policies. This new functionality allows customers to open and save copies of managed documents to Box only, giving enterprises more control over the flow of content for an additional layer of security.

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Box for Microsoft Office Online

Additionally, Box rolled out several new enhancements to its Box for Microsoft Office Online integration to better support customers’ collaboration and critical business processes. Generally available today:

• To help government agencies and their partners meet their compliance obligations in the cloud, Box for Microsoft Office Online will allow customers with FedRAMP Moderate or DOD IL4 requirements to be routed to the corresponding Microsoft Office 365 U.S. Government Community (GCC) environment. This new enhancement will support a fully compliant experience when using Box for Microsoft Office Online by ensuring data is processed and stored only on certified platforms.
• Box increased support for Excel and PowerPoint Online file sizes to 50MB and 1GB respectively so users can now collaboratively edit in real-time on large file sizes online. With this enhancement, work is no longer disrupted by large files.

Microsoft Graph

With the Box Connector for Microsoft Graph, content in Box can be surfaced across the Microsoft ecosystem, including Office 365, Office Online search, and SharePoint. This will make it easier for Box users to discover, explore, and access content as they are working in various Microsoft apps, reducing friction for users that need to manage Box content across multiple platforms for a truly integrated experience.

Previewed at Microsoft Ignite last September, this is expected to be generally available in the summer of 2021.