I just got my hands on a Gartner report by Jay Heiser and Lawrence Pingree that recognizes the “huge potential for data leakage” by consumer-grade personal file synch services (in other words – DropBox and their copycats).
Gartner is singing from own very own hymnal, recommending – not cutting employees off from synching, sharing and accessing – but instead giving users an approved and supported service.
Easier said than done?
It’s tricky – employees (consumers right?), many using their own smartphone, or tablet or in many cases laptop, will gravitate to what is easiest for them. So IT needs to find a tool incredibly easy to use so that employees will actually use it instead of something easier (and less secure). So that’s the first step; ease of use.
But convenience is not just for the user, it’s also for the IT admin who can use skills he already has and storage the company already owns or the already selected service provider the company is already using for storage as a service.
But this easy to use tool must also be secure enough to guard the company data. To be secure, the tool must like encrypt the data in transit and in storage, be actively monitored and managed by a team that understands business requirements, policies, and the company’s needs (best handled by someone you employ).
This tool should integrate easily with the tools you already use to manage and monitor your existing systems, so you know when something fishy is going on and can leverage your existing processes and resources to fix it. And it must allow you to select the storage location, and provide visibility into precisely where the data is stored, how it is backed up, and who has access. And do all that in a cost effective manner.
Lastly, and perhaps the greatest testament to our approach here at ownCloud, Gartner suggests companies consider housing the data on premises. Not possible with DropBox, or Box or any of the other wanna-be’s. Why? Because they make money selling the STORAGE.
So we say, listen to Gartner. Give your employees the safest, easiest to use tools and increase you control and security AND save money by housing the data yourself.
As we like to say: Your Data, Your Cloud, Your Way!
