Aeion Files vs Google Drive & Dropbox
Discover why compliance-focused enterprises are abandoning massive SaaS storage markups and siloed file apps for native, sovereign data management.
Calculate Your Storage Savings
Decisive Architectural Advantages
Hybrid Supremacy & Connectivity
In Google Drive, a PDF contract sits in a folder — inert, disconnected from the deal it belongs to. In Aeion OS, that PDF is natively linked to the CRM customer record, the Workspace project, the Helpdesk ticket, and the Finance invoice. Open the customer and every related file is right there; the file's audit trail shows activity across all of those modules in one place. Dropbox's answer is fragile per-app API integrations you build and maintain yourself.
Absolute Data Sovereignty
Dropbox and Google force you to upload your sensitive IP to their proprietary servers under their keys. Aeion Files points at storage *you* control — AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, or a local on-premise MinIO cluster — with AES-256-GCM encryption at rest. Aeion holds only the metadata (filename, version, tags, ACL) in your tenant database; your file blobs never live on our infrastructure. That's the difference between "trust us" and "you hold the keys."
Zero SaaS Markup
Per-user cloud-storage pricing bundles a fat markup into every seat. Because you Bring Your Own Storage, you pay the provider's raw wholesale rate directly — roughly $0.015/GB on R2 hot storage or $0.004/GB on S3 Glacier for archives — and route files between hot and cold tiers with age-based rules, instead of paying a flat per-user premium regardless of usage.
Native WebDAV Mount
Dropbox gives you its own sync client; Aeion Files speaks WebDAV, so you mount your bucket as a network drive on macOS, Windows, or Linux and work against it with native OS tooling — Final Cut, Photoshop, VS Code — no upload/download cycle. Requests are CDN-cached with paginated directory listings and Redis-backed lock state, so it stays responsive on folders with thousands of files.
Browser Office Editing (WOPI)
Set a Collabora or ONLYOFFICE endpoint and users edit `.docx`, `.xlsx`, and `.pptx` directly in the browser, saving straight back to your bucket — no download, convert, re-upload dance. Same in-browser Office experience as SharePoint, without the Microsoft licensing dependency.
Built-In Compliance (DLP)
Accidental data leaks are disastrous. Aeion Files natively processes uploads through ClamAV and regex pipelines to quarantine documents containing exposed Social Security Numbers, credit-card numbers, or API secrets before they can be shared externally — a capability Dropbox and Google gate behind premium enterprise tiers.
Where Dropbox and Google Drive Still Win
Honest comparison means naming where the incumbents are the right call. If these describe you, they earn their keep:
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Aeion Singularity's Google Drive connector authenticates via OAuth, then pulls your files and folder structure (including shared drives) into Aeion Files, landing them on your chosen storage backend (S3, R2, MinIO, etc.) with directory structure and basic ownership metadata preserved.
Your storage, your keys. Point Aeion Files at AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, or a self-hosted MinIO cluster; blobs are encrypted AES-256-GCM at rest. Aeion stores only metadata (filename, version, tags, ACL) in your tenant database and never holds your file contents — the sovereignty difference from Dropbox and Google.
Yes. By pointing at a WOPI provider (Collabora or ONLYOFFICE), users open `.docx`, `.xlsx`, and `.pptx` files natively in the browser and co-author them, saving directly back to your bucket — no download/convert/re-upload cycle.
Yes, over native WebDAV — mount on macOS, Windows, or Linux and work with native tools (Final Cut, Photoshop, VS Code) directly against your bucket. Responses are CDN-cached with paginated listings and Redis-backed locking so it holds up on large folders.
Every upload runs through ClamAV plus regex pipelines that flag exposed Social Security numbers, credit-card numbers, and API secrets, quarantining the document before it can be shared externally — built in, not a premium add-on.