Nextcloud 11 Cloud Server Bolsters Security
The very popular ownCloud open source file-sharing and storage platform for building private clouds was much in the news in recent months. CTO and founder of ownCloud Frank Karlitschek resigned from the company last year. His open letter announcing the move pointed to possible friction created as ownCloud moved forward as a commercial entity as opposed to a solely community focused, open source project. Karlitschek had a plan, though. He came out with a fork of ownCloud called Nextcloud, and a new company organized around it. Nextcloud is based on core components of ownCloud, so it is basically proven technology.
The company has steadily made deals and announcements, including working with Canonical and Western Digital to launch an Ubuntu Core Linux-based cloud storage and Internet of Things device called Nextcloud Box. Now, Nextcloud is out with the latest iteration of its cloud server platform, Nextcloud 11.
Nextcloud 11 is especially focused on ratcheting up security. It also features Apache Solr powered full-text search.
According to Nextcloud:
"We’re proud to release a huge milestone: Nextcloud 11, delivering a wide range of security and scalability improvements with a number of important features on top. This release provides you the most secure solution for keeping your data under control we’ve delivered yet.
New security capabilities include:
Support for cutting edge browser security features CSP 3.0 and Same-site Cookies
Support for Kerberos authentication and Two-factor Authentication providers based on Universal 2nd Factor and Time-based One-Time Password
Expanded brute force protection to all API access points
More secure Federation through use of SSL/TLS
Our new app store automatically checks apps and enforces signatures
Scalability is a prime concern among our large enterprise customers. This release decreases database load by up to 80% and improves response time by up to 60% for common server operations. Combined with multi-bucket Object Store support, improved handling of previews and Collabora Online speed improvements Nextcloud 11 enables scaling to greater numbers of users and files, decreases the server load and improves the user experience.
Nextcloud 11 introduces Apache Solr powered Full Text Search, enabling users to find words or phrases in text, pdf and common office documents on internal, external, shared and encrypted storage. The next generation Federation technology introduces a central lookup server, enabling Nextcloud users to find each other irrespective of the server their account resides on. The experimental Spreed app integrates secure, peer to peer audio and video chat in Nextcloud."
NCC Group, a global expert in cyber security and risk mitigation, reviewed the addition of Nextcloud's new features and noted they “enrich the security layers with minimum impact on the user” and are developed using industry standard security processes (assessed against ISO27001 clause 14 controls). You can read more and download their independent security assurance online and learn more details about the new features in Nextcloud's blog on security in Nextcloud 11.