ownCloud

ownCloud is an open-source file sync, share and collaboration platform that organisations run on their own infrastructure instead of in a public cloud. The current generation, Infinite Scale, was rewritten in Go around microservices and containers with a decoupled Vue.js front end and a three-tier design that separates storage, backend and front end behind documented APIs. Files are organised in Spaces rather than a single tree, and sharing covers public links with passwords and expiry dates, secret file drop folders, custom roles and a file firewall.

Documents can be edited in the browser through Web Office integrations with OnlyOffice, Collabora Online, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Office Online, and the platform adds full-text search, tags, multi-factor authentication, encryption, file lifecycle management and GDPR export. It can be deployed on-premises, in a data centre of your choice or in a hybrid setup, with ownCloud.online offered as a fully hosted SaaS for smaller organisations and private users. The vendor reports more than 200 million users and over 500 enterprise customers, and the product is built for compliance regimes including GDPR, LGPD, HIPAA, CCPA and WCAG/BITV.

ownCloud started as an open-source project in 2010 and became a company in 2011 to support institutional customers, and the code has since been forked into other projects. The vendor is ownCloud GmbH, registered at Galgenbergstraße 2a in Regensburg, Germany, with roughly 75 staff and more than 1,000 project contributors over its history. It was acquired by Kiteworks, whose Open Source Program Office now runs open-source strategy and community work under the ownCloud brand, and it was the only open-source product in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for content collaboration platforms.