Box has developed a way to make downloads and uploads a lot faster. The file synchronization and collaboration provider has announced its several changes it is calling Box Accelerator. The changes should significantly improve Box’s performance for US users, which currently account for over half of the file transfer on the service.

This could be a big win for Box if they can significantly reduce lengthy download times that frustrate uber connected users. Customers are less likely to use a file synch solution that consistently performs slowly. Given the increased competition in the space, its unlike Box wants to risk loosing any of its 125,000 businesses and 11 million users that use the service.

Box is making two major changes to improve its speed. It is increasing the number of local upload sites by adding six new locations in Asia, Australia, and Europe. The company has also installed new software, which it is also attempting to patent, that analyzes and chooses the fastest path for data to travel. According to CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie, the company is also allowing customers using  Amazon Web Services (AWS) to upload large data at a faster rate. Box is using a mix of Amazon’s EC2 and their own built on-premises infrastructure so that users are able to upload the data much faster.

With the changes, Box uploads have become much faster according to information and analysis firm Neustar, which Box commissioned to watch their progress. The firm monitored upload times over three days in September and found Box was faster than Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft’s SkyDrive. The service had an average upload time of 15.7 seconds for 25 MB of data.

Box’s performance isn’t the only thing that has accelerated recently. The competition in the file synchronization market is also heating up. Salesforce has entered the market. So have several content management providers like SpringCM and networking vendors like VMware. Providers will be forced to continue innovating and improving speed if they expect to compete in the continually widening market.

Contributor: Amber Harris