Contemporary Data Management Technologies Are Keys for Efficient Digital Transformation

The availability of faster and cheaper broadband plans has led to an exponential increase in data consumption. Data storage is an essential part of our daily digital lives now, and while physical storage offers higher capacity, Cloud storage offers flexibility, ease of access, and the ability to share and collaborate while on the move.

DigiBoxx was founded during the COVID-induced lockdown in 2020, coinciding with the Indian Government’s clarion call to ‘Make in India’. It is India’s answer to a SaaS-based, intelligent Indian digital file storage and digital asset management platform that allows citizens to create and save data on Indian servers. Arnab Mitra, CEO of DigiBoxx, shares his thoughts and insights on what sets them apart from the competition and the way forward for the brand.

Please tell us more about DigiBoxx, its areas of expertise, and the services it offers.

Ans: DigiBoxx was founded during the COVID-induced lockdown in 2020, coinciding with the Indian Government’s clarion call to ‘Make in India’. It is India’s answer to a SaaS-based, intelligent Indian digital file storage and digital asset management platform that allows citizens to create and save data on Indian servers.

Besides addressing the data sovereignty aspect, DigiBoxx also provides secure, fast, intuitive, and affordable service plans for individuals and businesses. It allows users to easily share, store, track, and deploy their assets—all on an Indian server. File storage and sharing on DigiBoxx is intuitive, secure, collaborative in nature, affordable, and tailored for anybody—individuals, gig workers, and businesses—who wants data to be accessible from anywhere.

Backed by robust technology and back-end support, DigiBoxx is the most cost-effective way to share photos, videos, and other files with family and friends. Within six months of its launch, DigiBoxx had a million people registering on its platform. The numbers have doubled now when it comes to registration, and a million customers are currently using Digiboxx on a daily basis. The team is constantly fine-tuning our existing service and adding new features like regional language support, Android and iOS apps for anywhere access, and backup. Considering the popularity that DigiBoxx enjoys, the next 12 to 18 months will be extremely exciting as we launch and add more products and features.

Please elaborate on what distinguishes DigiBoxx from its competitors.

Ans: DigiBoxx’s USP is that it has been developed in India and that users digital assets are stored in data centers located in India. We identified the unmet need of the citizens, who wanted a service that made sure that their data stayed in the country. It is also highly scalable, meaning it can cater to the needs of individuals, freelancers or gig workers, small businesses, and enterprises.

Most cloud service providers offer paid plans that are not as affordable as DigiBoxx. To put this in perspective, one month’s 100GB subscription to Google Drive is equivalent to a 2TB three-month plan on DigiBoxx. It is very economical for the average user and business. It also includes the recently launched DigiFotos feature, which lets users sync their photos automatically from their smartphone to their DigiBoxx cloud drive.

We have also simplified our user interface, so when our customers use DigiBoxx, they don't feel that they are dealing with a complex technical product. We have invested a significant amount of time and effort to ensure that the look and feel of the user interface is very simple, and we also maintain absolute transparency in how we store and protect data, including passwords. We also provide customer support in local languages to ensure that customers who are not well conversant in English or are not particularly tech-savvy can also use our services at ease.

In today's landscape, ensuring data privacy and protection against breaches is paramount, particularly when utilizing cloud-based services. How do you ensure the same for your customers?

Ans: Most of the cloud storage services like Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, etc. have their data centers located in multiple locations—in India and around the world. However, users are not given the choice as to where they would like their data to reside. With growing concerns over data ownership and digital IP, it is necessary to be more conscious of where your data is being stored. The service is encrypted, and the plans, including the free one, are ad-free and do not track usage.

DigiBoxx follows data regulatory compliance and Indian laws like the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill.

As a new entrant, the GDPR Act worked to our advantage. It allowed us to create products that are GDPR-compliant. We are currently undergoing ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certification. We are already certified by multiple other inner checks worldwide, and we operate out of data centers that are MeitY certified. MeitY has only certified 16 data centers in this country, and we are one of them. As a MeitY-certified data center, we work under the aegis of the

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ensures that we are aligned with the most updated data security and safety policies in the country.

Apart from being "Made in India," are there any other offerings or features that could entice people to switch to DigiBoxx?

Ans: DigiBoxx is proud of being an indigenous service, which is why we are so vocal about it. But that is not our only USP. The storage as a service we offer is very affordable and can cater to the individual user as well as an SMB, scaling from basic cloud sharing features to multi-user, asset tracking, and collaboration capabilities.

The plans offered are extremely competitive. Individual users can invest Rs 30 a month for 100 GB of storage space. Small businesses can avail of 500GB for Rs 999, and this includes access for 50 users, which is not offered by any international cloud storage service. This makes it more cost-effective for companies to collaborate over digital campaigns and creatives via DigiBoxx, get web traffic insights, and create custom workflows.

Another reason why people should trust us is the fact that we are here for the long term. The team is constantly fine-tuning our existing service and adding new features like regional language support, Android and iOS apps for anywhere access and backup, the DigiFotos feature that lets people carry their photos wherever they go, and more. DigiBoxx is also available as a storage option in the Jio Photos app on all Jio set-top boxes (STBs). In addition, we are now working on releasing a Windows desktop app soon.

What is the present market scenario for digital storage and asset management, and how is Digiboxx planning to revolutionize this sector?

Ans: The public cloud space is still nascent, and it's only filled with global megabusinesses. The world, however, is opening up. Gen Z is seeking customized, democratic solutions, not companies with policies to use PII for marketing. Digiboxx is unique in these aspects. Our ad-free, clean, simple, secure, and localized experience has a long way to go.

DigiBoxx is revolutionizing this sector by providing an indigenous and highly scalable SaaS product that caters to casual users, gig workers (freelancers), SMBs, and enterprises as well.

I think the fact that we are continuously listening to people and bringing services to them based on what they want is an amazing place to be. We see it only growing from here.

Finally, could you elaborate on your future plans and share your perspective on where you envision your firm heading in the next five years?

Ans: We are growing our footprint in India with more data centers. We are already present in Noida, Mumbai, and Indore. Very recently, we opened our first full-blown development center, Micro-DC, in Kolkata and also hired local talent there. We have identified six hubs in all and also want to have a presence in Bhubaneshwar. Some of our engineers are based in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, too. This is because all these cities I have mentioned are also strong engineering hubs from which we can tap quality talent.

For our data and delivery center in Kolkata, we have conducted campus recruitments, partnering with large engineering groups like Techno India and standalone private institutes. Our target was to recruit 100 new talents by this fiscal year, and we have already met 50% of our target.