Dropbox launches business-class online storage service

Online storage provider Dropbox has announced a business-class service for workgroups, offering administrative controls, centralised billing and technical support.

Dropbox for Teams provides the same user experience as the free consumer Dropbox service, according to the firm, but costs $795 (£495) annually for five users, with additional seats available for $125 (£78) each.

Customers get 1TB of online storage to start with, plus an extra 200GB for each additional licensed user.

Business users also get administration controls which allow them to add or delete users, a single bill for all users, and phone support.

The consumer version of Dropbox works by adding a special folder to the hard drive for content the user wants to share across endpoint devices.

This is synchronised via the cloud across all systems on which the user has Dropbox installed, including iOS, Android and BlackBerry mobile devices, plus Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Files are stored and encrypted on Amazon's S3 storage cloud for security, Dropbox said.

The move follows Citrix's acquisition of online storage firm ShareFile earlier this year, which the company has just integrated into its GoToMeeting web service.

Awareness of online storage systems among businesses and consumers is growing as cloud computing becomes increasingly prevalent. Apple is one of the most notable firms to offer the service with iCloud.