--a leading provider of --recognized the limitations encountered by users when it comes to getting data into the cloud efficiently, and it set out to do something about it. The result is a global data transfer network that Box claims delivers a performance boost of up to ten times faster upload speeds for Box business and enterprise customers.

One of the primary objectives of Box Accelerator is to put Box as close to customer endpoints as possible. If data has to travel all the way around the world to get to a Box data center, it creates unnecessary lag. Box explains that Box Accelerator uses a combination of innovative network intelligence software and new infrastructure in nine locations around the world to deliver significantly better performance.

Customers outside of the United States are likely to see the biggest jump in upload speeds thanks to new data centers. Box set up physical data centers and virtualized nodes to make sure customer data can get into the Box infrastructure as quickly as possible. Once it's there, Box can handle replication to other data centers on the backend.

Upload speeds are an issue--particularly for small and medium businesses that tend to rely on consumer-grade Internet services. Internet providers have optimized their networks to get data from the Internet to your PC faster, but not much attention has been paid to how fast you can get data from your PC to the Internet. The maximum upload speed is generally a fraction of the download speed.

The growth of cloud data services, and the explosion of posting videos to YouTube, or sharing photos on Facebook or Flickr has created a massive spike in the amount of data users are transferring to the Internet, rather than downloading from the Internet. Hopefully, the Internet providers will eventually recognize the shift in Internet usage and provide upload speeds more on par with the downloads.