Dropbox has introduced a new package for colleges and universities. The company aims to help students and faculty members to collaborate on files effectively and conveniently.
Tech Times reported that the Silicon Valley startup has announced Dropbox for Education. This provides similar services as the Business packages but will only cost $49 a year per user with a minimum of 300 users. Customers will get 15 GB of cloud storage space.
The new package will provide better control and visibility to a school's IT team. Dropbox will give them access to tools for monitoring, managing and permission sharing features.
Users will also get advanced security. The program works on any device, both online and offline.
"Dropbox Education is designed to meet the needs of educational institutions and schools," the company wrote. "With the option to purchase the right amount of storage for your team, and preserve one year of version history on all files, Dropbox Education allows you to tailor your deployment to your budget."
Dropbox Business is priced at $12.50 a month per user, with a minimum of five users. These users have access to unlimited storage capacity. It is said to have over 150,000 paying customers which includes well-known universities and colleges.
Dropbox Education, on the other hand, costs less but also offers limited storage capacity. The company hopes to attract more educational establishments to use their services.
According to Engadget, interested schools and universities can avail of Dropbox Education now. It is believed that the package may be extended to K-12 institutions as well.
Computer World noted that this is an important move for Dropbox. Although Microsoft and Google already have packages that focus on the education sector, the company's move proves that it has been contemplating on opportunities that are not too consumer-focused.
Dropbox has recently cut back on employee perks to focus on profitability. It was said that the cost-cutting measures were also placed to adapt to the shift in Silicon Valley's financial environment.
