Versionate's Wiki End Run Around Google Docs

Y Combinator’s second company of the summer season, Versionate, launches today. It is a document-driven wiki product – upload just about any kind of file (office docs, images, whatever) and Versionate will create an editable, wiki-like page with version and access controls.

Versionate is a distant cousin to another Y Combinator company, Scribd, which allows users to upload and display documents in Flash. Versionate, though, is a competitor to the wiki startups as well as Google Docs. It also has more flexibility than its competitors when it comes to editing documents online, since just about any type of file can be uploaded (and files can also be exported in a choice of file formats).

The company is clearly targeting a more enterprise crowd v. Google Docs and the wikis, however. And one of the most interesting parts of the service is something they say they are only considering for the future – installing Versionate on a private server:


Can we install Versionate on our internal server?

Currently, we are a hosted solution only. This has the benefit of allowing us to manage all the security details and lets us roll out updates on a consistent basis. If you still wish to license our software to use on your own internal server, please contact us directly via e-mail at support@versionate.com.

Data security is the biggest hurdle for companies considering using these services. Allowing them to host the data on their own servers would give them significantly more comfort in using this, and could be, over time, a real threat to Microsoft Exchange Server/Sharepoint.