Box Inc. announced a major update to its Box Shuttle content migration service today as it extends its push into cloud content management.

The new Box Shuttle is designed to help enterprises migrate large amounts of content, along with its permissions and metadata, from legacy systems to the Box Content Cloud much faster and more easily than before, and at a lower cost.

The Box Shuttle service has been around for some time. It was launched in 2016, giving enterprises easy access to various data migration tools used by Box’s consulting unit. The service covers migration planning and strategy, content analysis, lifecycle assessment, permission and attribute matching.

With today’s update, Box Shuttle can now migrate data from more sources, including Google Workspace, OneDrive and SharePoint, using both cloud and on-premises connectors, the company said.

Also new is the ability for companies to modify permissions during migration. Box said that allows for critical restructuring without any downtime. The service also provides more visibility into the migration status of each bit of content, plus the ability to monitor events, visualize data and create reports in real-time. Users also gain the ability to preserve context about each bit of content by migrating existing metadata and file version history into the Box Content Cloud.

Moreover, content migration itself should be faster thanks to some application programming interface and network optimizations Box has performed.

Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said the past year has demonstrated how important it is for businesses to modernize the way they move to, and work in, the cloud.

“We want it to be as simple, fast and cost-effective as possible to retire legacy systems and move information to the Box Content Cloud,” the CEO explained. “Box Shuttle can now migrate some of the most complex and large-scale content management environments, at a lower cost and faster than ever.”

The updates to Box Shuttle illustrate the company’s ongoing evolution from its origins as a simple cloud storage company to a full provider of enterprise content management. In September last year Box announced a swath of updates to its content cloud aimed at boosting enterprise productivity, adding new features such as annotation tools and improvements to Box Relay, which is the company’s workflow automation tool.

Just last week, Box announced plans to acquire the e-signature company SignRequest BV for $55 million to extend its capabilities in document and contract management. Box said it will use SignRequest’s technology to create a new feature in its platform called Box Sign that’s expected to launch this summer.

Image: Box