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Declaring the “end of the storage wars,” cloud storage company Box this morning announced that it will start offering unlimited storage to customers on its $15/user/month business plan — expanding a feature that was previously available to those on its higher-priced enterprise plan.

Box CEO Aaron Levie
Box CEO Aaron Levie

Box’s moves come amid heightened competition in online storage and collaboration, as evidenced by Amazon’s announcement of a new enterprise collaboration and storage solution called Zocalo — joining existing rivals including Microsoft and Dropbox.

“Storage only matters when it’s a roadblock, and we’re excited to make these limits a thing of the past for our Business customers as well,” said Box CEO Aaron Levie in a blog post announcing the move. “Competition for enterprise customers will no longer be about how much information a solution enables them to store, but rather, what it helps them do with that information.”

Box also says it will be rolling out new integrations with Microsoft Office 365, starting with Box for Office 2013 and Outlook 2013 on the desktop. The company says the features will let users easily open, edit and share files from Box within Word, PowerPoint and Excel, while also allowing Outlook 2013 users to quickly share files via Box and convert large document attachments to Box links.

The company is using public APIs for the features but is also working with Microsoft program managers to ensure a smooth integration, said Heidi Williams, Box senior director of platform engineering, in an interview.

“Especially with Microsoft becoming more open, we’re very excited to help people see how Box and Microsoft can work together,” Williams said.

The Office integrations will be rolled out in beta form this fall. The unlimited storage for Business customers will be effective immediately, applying to both new and existing users, the company said.

Box, started by Mercer Island High School graduates Levie and Dylan Smith, is gearing up for an IPO amid heightened scrutiny of its finances.

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