Profiled By Bill Klump | Daily Disruption | December 14th, 2011
Historically IT has been all about control. Control of the devices used, regulation of who has access to what, the programs that are permitted etc. In recent years IT has struggled as that control has slipped away. It started out by employees using their own instant messaging tools like Blackberry’s and PDA’s, then arrived with their own social network/collaboration options, their own smartphones, their own computer and netbooks and now the iPad. While there are risks involved, there is little chance that this consumerization of IT will slow down anytime soon, and smart companies realize this and will look for ways to stay ahead of the curve and not fight it.
This is where our “Disruptor of the Day” comes in! Introducing ionGrid – ionGrid was founded in 2010 by Nick Triantos, Ben de Waal, and Michael Rothrock with a simple mission: to transform tablets into great computing devices for the enterprise. Ben and Nick have known each other since mid-1997, when they both started at NVIDIA, which was, then, a young startup trying to change the world, one pixel at a time. They came in to help create the 3D graphics drivers for the RIVA 128, and over time, ended up managing all the graphics software team, and worked a lot with the biggest and most amazing customers. Nick left in 2005, and Ben stayed on for a few years more.
Most recently, they got back together to help grow the team and technology for amazingly cool large-scale touch-driven computing at Perceptive Pixel.
Some fantastic technology and people, but we both wanted to take some of the concepts from those systems and bring them to the masses. In the Spring of 2010, Apple showed off the iPad and we knew we needed to get on it. ionGrid was born.
We believe software should be easy to use, and customers should love the experience of working with our products and our company. We love our employees. Some of them are old friends, and some of them are new ones. We hope they will enjoy the journey as we collectively grow ionGrid into a great place to work, with great products.
The company’s first product has been described as “magic” by some of their prospective customers and prospective investors. That product is called Nexus™
Nexus™ was created to allow you to be productive on your iPad, without having to compromise on security or compatibility. Using Nexus™, you can work with your Office documents and PDFs, with an easy-to-use, native tablet interface, while your files remain safe behind your company’s firewall, in Windows file shares and SharePoint file repositories.
Nexus is comprised of two parts: the Nexus app for iPad, and the Nexus Server. The combination of the client and server software gives you access to your work files, even when you’re out on the road, and the best quality rendering of documents that you can find.
ionGrid enables users to browse extensive content libraries from across their enterprise network with effortless navigation and precision document renderings that make it easy to find, view, and present files from their iPad device. Designed from the ground up specifically for tablet devices, Nexus leverages the high-definition graphics and intuitive touch capabilities of this exciting new category of mobile devices and delivers a unique user experience that is:
Visual
Instead of offering generic icons, ionGrid presents thumbnail images of every document that is accessible to you in your document library, making it easy identify the file you want. The Nexus app’s intrinsic zoom feature offers a seamless navigation experience that allows you to effortlessly move between detailed navigation and a sweeping high-level survey. Graphical viewing capabilities extend beyond the thumbnail format with Detail View, which enables users to peruse filmstrip views of subsequent pages at a glance.
Responsive
Visual navigation is implemented without downloading the full document to the iPad, freeing users from waiting for large files to move through slow networks. Instead, the server streams content in an efficient and encrypted format page by page, only sending what is in view at the time. Nexus employs sophisticated caching to further speed the viewing experience, even when faced with a challenging network environment.
Current
The Nexus app interacts with enterprise content libraries in real-time, so there is never a sync delay–documents viewed on the device are always current. When connected, Nexus interacts directly with the file library, ensuring updates made in the central repository are instantly visible, so you’re always working with the latest version.
Compliant
The ease of interaction with Nexus goes beyond the visual. When integrated on the back-end with existing content repositories, such as Microsoft SharePoint or shared network drives, users log in to the system using the same credentials assigned to them by their IT department, fully honoring corporate IT policies and protocols.
If you’re in sales, or you’re an executive on the go, now you can get to your content from anywhere, at any time. Present it to your customers, or mark up the documents with your notes and your changes. And get your work done knowing that your content is secure at all times, using technology that your IT department will love, because of the manageability and security we’ve built into Nexus.
To learn more about our “Disruptor of the Day”, please watch this short video and be sure to visit their website at www.iongrid.com
