Box announces Developer Edition, giving developers a new platform for enterprise applications

SAN FRANCISCO — Publicly traded cloud file sharing company Box today launched Developer Edition, a platform developers can use as the backbone of applications.

The service comes packed with everything that’s already part of Box, including encryption, a user authentication system, regulatory compliance, and an auditing system, Heidi Williams, head of Box’s platform engineering team, said at the second annual Box Dev developer conference.

While Developer Edition can be at the core of an application, users don’t need to log into both the app and Box — they only need to log into the app, Williams said.

A limited beta is available today, she added.

Box has been looking to lure developers as it grows, and Developer Edition is the biggest move in that direction yet.

Box made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in January. Last month the company released its first earnings statement as a public company, disclosing that it brought in $62.6 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of its 2015 fiscal year, which ended on January 31.

Box now has 35 million users and 45,000 customers, Box cofounder and chief executive Aaron Levie said at the beginning of today’s conference. That’s up from 32 million users and 44,000 customers in December.

Check out Box’s blog post on Developer Edition for more detail.