ownCloud Inc., the company behind the world's most popular secure open source file sync and share software, announced today the forming of a board of directors, and named several leading industry executives to the board.
Led by ownCloud CEO Markus Rex, the new board also includes General Catalyst managing director Larry Bohn, Red Hat general manager and vice president Craig Muzilla and Power Strategy president David Power.
Unlike Dropbox, which stores data in the cloud in remote, third-party data centers, ownCloud is deployed on a company's on-premise servers or trusted service provider's servers, seamlessly integrating with existing security, storage, monitoring and reporting tools giving enterprise IT the control and management required over sensitive data. With more than 700,000 users worldwide, ownCloud offers ease-of-use and the flexibility, sophistication and security that can only be provided by software installed within a company's own infrastructure.
"The widespread employee use of file sync and share solutions, like Dropbox, to exchange sensitive data has created an unprecedented opportunity for data leakage and security breaches which enterprise IT is scrambling to address," said Rex. "Larry, Craig and Dave bring unique perspectives to help ownCloud help enterprise IT regain control."
Board of Directors
As a managing director of General Catalyst Partners, Bohn invests in both new and existing technology businesses. His areas of special interest include open source, cloud-based computing, advanced software/hardware systems and SaaS business models. Before joining General Catalyst, he was the chairman, president and CEO of NetGenesis, a market leading software and analytic solutions provider.
"We've been excited about ownCloud since its infancy, and after watching everything they've accomplished in a very short time it validated our belief that they developed an exceptional team with an exceptional product," said Bohn. "There's no one in this increasingly crowded market that can do the things ownCloud does - integrate closely with existing IT, innovate at lightning speed and offer choice of storage locations. With those capabilities already in place and differentiating it from the competition, we're confident that ownCloud will succeed."
Muzilla is responsible for the overall middleware and JBoss product business at Red Hat. Prior to joining Red Hat, Muzilla was senior vice president at MetaMatrix, a leader in data services middleware that was acquired by Red Hat.
"ownCloud is already an open source leader and a great upcoming enterprise company," said Muzilla, "Enterprise file sharing is another area where the flexibility and openness of open source will prove a great asset to customers and partners alike."
Power has guided growth companies as an operating executive, board member and adviser for over 25 years. He was CEO of Novera Software, a pioneer in web application integration that was acquired by Mercator Software.
"As companies come to grips with their "Dropbox problem," they will discover that ownCloud is the only comprehensive solution," said Power. "Integrating cloud technology with existing data monitoring solutions and security protocols is the Holy Grail, and I look forward to helping propel this solution into enterprises worldwide."
About ownCloud Inc.
Based on the popular ownCloud open source community project, ownCloud Inc. was founded in 2011 to bring greater flexibility, access and security to unstructured data in enterprises. Company headquarters are in Boston, with European headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany.
