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We can’t stop storing ourselves

2009-07-08T14:05:00Z

If you have ever felt your fluxiom account get tight around the waist, or were reluctant to sign up for fear of bumping over our maximum quota, we have huge news for you. Effective to-day…

All paying users get more storage for the same price

Private users double their quota, going from 1 GB to 2 GB, Basic users more than triple it, raising from 3 GB to 15 GB and Pro users go from 8 GB to a very roomy 40 GB. The change is automatic, and no action is required from account administrators to claim the extra capacity. (Clear your browser cache, and reload the account page to get the new numbers if need be.)

Basic and Pro users also get lots more stages — ten and twenty respectively. Hey, more storage means more files to share, right?

We are retiring the Deluxe plan

It served you well, but you wanted more. All Deluxe users have been upgraded to Infinite One, a brand new plan featuring all the great features they know, sitting on top of a whopping 100 GB of storage — instead of the original 20 GB.

We have a new plan, and it’s called Infinity

Actually, it’s a family of plans, allowing enterprise or storage-intensive users to get a custom quote for any amount of storage they want. The sky is truly the limit: simply let us know what you want and our sysops will make it happen for you. We will also throw in unlimited everything, including unlimited stages.

Why we are doing this

Has fluxiom gone mad? Not quite… We’re not going bankrupt either, and this isn’t a blowout sale. It just so happens the fluxiom platform has grown to the point where economies of scale are really kicking in, allowing us to offer lots more capacity for a much more competitive price.

Speaking of storage…

We are not offloading anything to shady third parties or using diskette arrays in the coat closet. With fluxiom, quality comes standard: every plan, from Free to Infinity is hooked to our highly redundant, secure architecture, the very one we have spent years tweaking and polishing, the same large corporations entrust with business-critical assets. You can get all the nitty-gritty on our Q&A page.

Catch’ em while ya’ can

What are you waiting for? The signup page awaits, and so does our support team should you have any questions, comments or concerns about this update.

Welcome, Safari 4.0 users

2009-06-10T16:32:00Z

Updated on June 15, 2009 — As planned, and as promised, the latest fluxiom update has now been successfully rolled out, and Safari 4.0 users should no longer see the message discussed below. Thanks for your trust, and keep on fluxin’!

Whether on Mac OS X or Windows, Safari truly is a great browser. In fact, a significant percentage of fluxiom customers use it to access their accounts and manage their assets, whether from work or home. With improved JavaScript performance, Safari 4 truly flies on fluxiom, and makes for an even more enjoyable experience.

We are happy to announce that fluxiom is fully compatible with Safari 4.0 already, and that users can upgrade without worry. In fact, since Safari 4.0 contains a significant number of security enhancements, we recommend that all users upgrade as promptly as possible, personal computing situation permitting.

On Monday, June 15, we will roll out a fluxiom upgrade that will further tailor the Safari browsing experience. Actually, we never stop turning the dials and buttons, tweaking and fine-tuning settings as browsers evolve.

The most visible consequence of this upgrade will be the removal of the “unsupported browser” warning on the login screen, which you can safely disregard for the time being. (This warning does not prevent you from logging in, it merely checks your browser against a list of known-good user agents to facilitate large-scale deployments, but fluxiom’s standards-based infrastructure means it is compatible with any modern application.)

As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments! Users who experience any strange behaviour with Safari are kindly invited to contact our support engineers, who will investigate the matter promptly.

Bastian Allgeier is fluxin'

2009-06-04T09:25:00Z

Since the introduction of the fluxiom free plan, we have had the pleasure of welcoming many students to our creative community. Making big dreams possible on a tight budget, and giving tools today to the talents of tomorrow, such is our goal.

To those of you sitting on the fence, allow us to introduce Bastian Allgeier, who started investigating fluxiom on the day we launched, all the way back in 2006, and jumped on board the day free plans were introduced.

Bastian is a student of web and graphic design in Mannheim, Germany. Today, he uses fluxiom to organise and back-up data on our advanced storage platform. He says: “One of the hardest things when you are not employed by a single company with a united work-flow, is to get organised. When it comes to files, at least, fluxiom has me covered.”

Synchronising files between home computers and university workstations can quickly become a hassle. That’s why he uploads all his course work and source material on fluxiom which constitutes “a great platform to exchange files with fellow students — just like an virtual USB drive on steroids!”

As he gets into design business on his own, he’s also test-driving fluxiom stages as a way to distribute files and invite comments on long-term projects that come with uncertain deadlines and looser feedback loops.

Like most dedicated graphic designers, Bastian likes his tools to look good and feel good: fluxiom’s breakthrough use of AJAX and desktop-quality interface seemed like a natural fit. He says fluxiom “highly inspired [him] to concentrate more on the development of web applications during [his] studies.” In fact, Bastian has already launched his first web application: colour us honoured!

If you’re a student or a newcomer to the world of design, a fluxiom free plan may be just what you need to get started. If you’re a professor, give us a ping, and we will gladly walk you through the process of setting up your class on fluxiom for free.

Finally, whoever you are, we encourage you to look at Bastian’s portfolio. It’s sure to entertain and inspire!

Are you using fluxiom too?

Then send us an email to support@fluxiom.com or tweet @fluxiom to let us know. We’re always on the look-out for fresh ideas and suggestions.

Do the (user) shuffle

2009-05-14T14:55:00Z

Managing information and access rights within a company is always tricky. On the one hand, it is necessary to grant everyone enough access for them to perform the work they have been assigned and feel comfortable in the process. On the other, being too generous with permissions could lead to the unwanted disclosure of sensitive data or, mundanely, to unnecessary confusion.

That’s why some of our users have been asking for a new feature in fluxiom: the ability to create read-only users, who could be allowed into a fluxiom account and given access to the full fluxiom catalogue, but without being able to alter the account or download the assets it contains.

For example, this would allow an intern to prepare a list of product shots for a presentation or an employee in marketing to reference packaging photos, but it would prevent these users from ever disorganising your collection — whether wilfully or by accident. (It also prevents them from vacuuming data out of an account and running away with it.)

To create these users, simply log in to fluxiom, and click on the “Users” tab, as you usually do to manage access rights. Upon creating a new user, you can now restrict its rights by un-checking the “Administer assets and stages” box, but leaving the account itself enabled. Since it makes sense for most users to administer the assets stored into an account, this privilege is still granted by default, as in the past.

Of course, you can edit your current users in a similar fashion to apply finer-grained restrictions to your existing base — no need to re-create accounts: simply click on the “Edit” link in their profile card. The “Users” tab has been slightly redesigned to reflect these finer-grained access controls.

If you’ve been using stages to grant limited access to users within your company, you can now merge them cleanly with the remainder of your employees, and grant them the many benefits of direct access to fluxiom, including a smooth upgrade path towards additional access to the system.

Do note that this new feature does not in any way signal the disappearance of stages, that are the preferred way to share information with clients and partners outside your company: not only do stages feature a simplified interface that is better suited to sharing, they can also be fully branded with your own logo and corporate colours.

You can read a full summary of the feature in our updated help documents.

As always, we hope you enjoy this new feature, and will be welcoming your thoughts, comments and ideas on both form and function. All feedback is always welcome!

related topics:

Scheduled maintenance

2009-04-14T15:59:00Z

Fluxiom will be unavailable for around 30 minutes on Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 7am GMT for system maintenance.

Thanks for your patience while we continue to improve fluxiom for you.

Be the first to read about updates, announcements and system status over at our twitter stream or visit our status page http://status.fluxiom.com.

Update, April 15, 2009: fluxiom is up and running again. Thanks for your patience!

Introducing the fluxiom dropbox

2009-03-02T11:42:00Z

One of the best things about fluxiom is that it completely replaces FTP servers for deliveries: upload, share, done. If your job also requires you to accept files, however, chances are you still operate an anonymous FTP server, rely on your iDisk or simply wrestle with email attachments and their rheumatic-snail speed. Thanks to fluxiom’s new dropbox feature, this too is now a pain of the past.

The fluxiom dropbox allows you to activate and customize a convenient, upload-only page through which people can send you files and documents directly to your fluxiom account, ready for you and your team to work on. The dropbox requires no configuration on the public side, and is compatible with all modern browsers. It’s also secure because it gives no access to your data: only uploads are allowed. What’s more, you can embed your fluxiom drobox on your blog or web site for faster access.

Use your fluxiom dropbox to receive photos to process, resumes from applicants, term papers from students, mock-ups from marketing, whatever makes your business tick. As always, fluxiom will immediately process the information you receive and make it searchable in a matter of seconds.

activating your fluxiom dropbox

Activate your fluxiom dropbox today, and say good-bye to FTP for good: simply log in to your account, click on the “Account” tab and click on “Dropbox”. From there, you can activate your dropbox, fine-tune its behavior and download buttons to promote it.

Read our step-by-step tutorial….

Finally, we would like to grasp this occasion to thank our dedicated users for their continued support. The fluxiom dropbox was inspired by your feedback: as always, we hope you like it and will welcome any comments or thoughts you may have, on this or any other fluxiom feature.

fluxiom and the enterprise

2009-02-10T15:00:00Z

While smaller agencies and individuals have jumped freely on the Web 2.0 bandwagon, adoption rates are markedly slower in the enterprise. Compliance issues, concerns about data ownership, confidentiality and security all contribute to impairing the transition from in-house work-group servers to cloud-based collaboration. Yet, once unleashed, the power of the Web can give a serious boost to the efficiency and morale of an office.

That’s why we at fluxiom are thrilled to work with Casinos Austria International (CAI), a leading player in the international gaming industry. The company decided to migrate part of its infrastructure to fluxiom back in 2006, and has been expanding its reliance on the system ever since, thereby proving the value and pertinence of “software as a service,” even in a traditional corporate setting. Dubbed the “Global Knowledge Network” within the company (thanks to fluxiom’s white label feature), it is now an essential cog in a well-oiled work-flow.

Project leads at Casinos Austria International have kindly allowed us to publish a case study featuring their process in greater detail. We hope this interview provides you with fresh ideas to push the fluxiom envelope in your own business, and contributes to convincing your reluctant boss or co-workers to give fluxiom — and other Web-based tools — a serious try. Remember, our free plan is a good way to get started without tapping into your department’s budget.

Are you using fluxiom in an enterprise setting, too?

Then send us an email to support@fluxiom.com or tweet @fluxiom to let us know. We’re always on the look-out for fresh ideas and suggestions.

In the meantime, you can read the case study.

Scheduled maintenance

2008-12-06T17:40:00Z

Fluxiom will be unavailable for around 30 minutes on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 6am GMT for system maintenance.

Thanks for your patience while we continue to improve fluxiom for you.

Be the first to read about updates, announcements and system status over at our twitter stream or visit our status page http://status.fluxiom.com.

Update, December 10, 2008: fluxiom is up and running again. Thanks for your patience!

Tag like you have never tagged before

2008-12-05T06:32:00Z

Tags are one of the pillars of the fluxiom experience. With tags, you get a layer of near-infinite flexibility in how you combine, traverse and group your assets. As part of our recent back-end upgrades, we have introduced a new, more reactive, mechanism that now updates tags on-the-fly across the entire interface.

Whenever you add, rename or remove tags from your fluxiom account, changes will now immediately be reflected across the board, in all parts of the interface. That means you will have even fewer reasons to reload the page over the course of your day and will, therefore, enjoy an overall smoother, more efficient workflow.

As always, we’ll keep on sweating the little details for you! In the meantime, we very much welcome your comments, questions and feedback, on this feature and on any other aspect of fluxiom.

related topics:

introducing fluxiom's Free plan

2008-12-01T10:32:00Z

We at fluxiom like to do things well. When it comes to storing your data, that means investing in heavy-duty server equipment, ensuring our back-up system is comprehensive, and putting our gear into secure data centres. Only then do we start thinking about features and design.

When safeguarding data, one also needs to be sure the machines do not fill up with junk or malicious content. Ensuring our hard drives serve our patrons and serious prospects only helps keep the system stable, nimble and affordable for everyone.

For this very reason, we traditionally asked for a credit card number at sign-up and restricted an account’s storage quota until the first billing cycle. That way, users could get started with fluxiom for free and evaluate the service, but the day they wanted to go steady and to entrust their most valuable assets to our drives, we asked them for a financial commitment. As announced a few days ago, that limitation is no more.

We heard you loud and clear, some of you were uncomfortable providing us with a credit card number before having seen the goods. Others had more modest needs that did not justify a monthly pecuniary commitment, but still wanted to know fluxiom was there for them.

Today, we are delighted to introduce fluxiom’s first Free plan. No credit card is required to sign up and you can keep it for as long as you please. By signing up for a free plan, you can take fluxiom for a ride, push the buttons, upload your assets and see how the service works for you.

The free plan has all the same features as our Private plan, apart from the storage. You can upgrade to any one of our paid-for plans at any time, up to 20 GB of storage, sharing and versioning, at the push of a single button.

We hope you enjoy our freshly liberated fluxiom, and will, as always, look forwards to hearing your comments and suggestions.

fluxiom introduction video

2008-12-01T07:03:00Z

A high resolution version can be viewed over at fluxiom.com.

Update: Office 2007/2008 support

2008-11-27T05:44:00Z

We are proud to announce that fluxiom now generates thumbnails and previews for Office 2007 (PC) and Office 2008 (MAC) file formats like PPTX, DOCX and XLSX.

Before, fluxiom showed your Office 2007/08 files like this:

Now, fluxiom supports previews for Office 2007/08 formats:

Even better news: you don’t have to do anything. fluxiom already looked up all your assets in your fluxiom account and generated previews for all existing Office 2007/2008 files in your account. If you upload new files the previews and thumbnails are generated on the fly.

trial period: no more storage limits

2008-11-26T09:51:00Z

We are proud to announce that today we dropped the storage limitation within the 30-days-free-trial period. This means that after signing up for a new fluxiom account you instantly gain the full storage capacity.

We hope this update helps our new customers explore all of fluxiom’s features seamlessly during their trial period.

Scheduled Maintenance (part 2)

2008-10-16T10:23:00Z

We will be performing maintenance on fluxiom’s infrastructure, which will require us to take down the servers for up to one hour. The scheduled outage is to happen on:

Monday, October 27, 2008 at 8am GMT (view all timezones)

This the second step of our two-step fluxiom backend improvement. We will set the additional hardware we added the other week into operation.

UPDATE: fluxiom is up and running again, thanks for your patience. If you want to keep track about the current status please follow us on http://twitter.com/fluxiom or check our status page: http://status.fluxiom.com

Thanks for your patience.
The Fluxiom Team

fluxiom status stream

2008-10-08T13:07:00Z

We just setup a Twitter stream for fluxiom at twitter.com/fluxiom were we will post status updates and occasional links to interesting posts.

You can also look up the status on our status page: status.fluxiom.com