Dive Brief:

• Box announced its expanding its collaboration with Microsoft to offer Box cloud content management using Azure services, according to a blog by Box CEO Aaron Levie.
• The two companies already work together to provide integrations with many Microsoft products, including Office, Windows, Outlook and the Office 365 suite. Levie said the two companies will also investigate ways to integrate Microsoft AI capabilities and add Azure regions outside the U.S. to Box Zones. 
• "The days of closed IT architectures and data lock-in are over, and we couldn't be happier that we're moving to a new era of enterprise software," said Levie. 

Dive Insight:

As data privacy laws like the European Unions’s General Data Protection Regulation expand, companies like Box that house data globally need to ensure they are following the rules or potentially face big fines. Last year, Box began rolling out "Box Zones" to assist clients outside the United States concerned about privacy crackdowns. The Box Zones allow customers to choose where they store their data.

But Box needs a lot of data center space in a lot of countries to accomplish this, and Microsoft has just that. Microsoft has been building new cloud data centers at a rapid pace, and now boasts a significant global presence.

Microsoft isn’t Box’s only partner in its cloud expansion effort. A year ago, Box announced it would offer overseas clients the option to locally store information in cloud data centers owned by either Amazon or IBM.

Microsoft and Box appear serious about working together, however. The two companies also recently announced Microsoft Teams integrations with Box. For Box, working with Microsoft is all about enabling it to scale to a bigger customer base. For Microsoft, the partnership could provide deeper penetration in the enterprise. Box said it currently works with 74,000 organizations globally and the majority of the Fortune 500.