Zone.ee connects tens of thousands of businesses to the cloud

Estonia’s largest web-hosting provider Zone.ee launched the cloud storage service ZoneCloud after a 7-month long beta period. The service enables Zone.ee’s web hosting clients to store and share their documents and other data on the service provider’s infrastructure.

ZoneCloud clients can manage their data via online web interface, as well as native clients, which are available for all popular operating systems. The new cloud service is also compatible with devices running Apple iOS and Google Android.

„We hope that a local alternative to services provided by global corporations encourages Estonian entrepreneurs to use cloud services more,“ commented Riho Kurg, the CEO of Zone.ee. “In 2014, Eurostat has conducted a survey among companies with staff of more than ten people. In Estonia, only 15% of them used cloud services. This figure is far behind the leader – Finland, whose figure was 50%, while the average for the EU was 19%.”

“Based on Eurostat research it becomes clear that the biggest concerns for entrepreneurs are the safety and protection of data in the cloud, its location and the current laws in the country of the service provider. Our company’s place of origin, 15 years of experience in providing similar services and unique infrastructure in Estonia, help to reduce all these fears significantly,” added Kurg.

A free version of ZoneCloud, which currently allows each user to store up to 5 GB of files on the service, has been automatically assigned to all e-mail users at Zone.ee. The number of such users at Zone.ee is above 120,000.

Zone began a cooperation with the German software developers ownCloud GmBH on 2013, to design and develop the ZoneCloud service. ZoneCloud applications for Windows and Mac, as well as for mobile devices based on Android and iOS, were developed in the process.

7-month long beta period preceded the launch of the service, during which feedback from clients was gathered and based on it, the platform was improved and adapted to Estonian conditions.