Cloud file sync and share companies have been making a lot of news lately; filing for IPOs, product announcements, and even Board member changes.
I would like to talk — in general – about business strategy, because, frankly, I’m just not sure that the cloud vendors get it.
“It” is Enterprise file sync and share.
I know, who are we to say that these companies, who are collecting HUGE sums of money (mostly, if you take even a cursory look, to subsidize their “free” users) and are hurtling headlong into the biggest tech trend — cloud computing — are wrong?
Well:
- We think it’s wrong that businesses subsidize free users
- We think it’s wrong to send sensitive corporate data into a public cloud
- We think it’s wrong to create whole new, redundant, silos of data
- We think it’s wrong not to take advantage of investments already made in data protection
And we are not alone. A rising chorus of voices, analysts, press and most importantly organizations – are saying why not leave the data where it is, and just give employees the “consumer-grade” experience they demand.
We’re ownCloud. And we too believe companies should just leave the data where it is – protected by all the investments they’ve made in storage, security, management, tracking, governance and more. Just give end users better access to this data and these systems. Employees get what they want, need and frankly now expect; IT gets to maintain control – and freedom of choice of where to store this data (on-premises or cloud, or a hybrid). AND, increasingly important, there is no data sprawl – no new silos of redundant data in potentially unsecure locations outside of your control.
We also believe in freedom of choice, choice to use your own storage for sensitive data. Freedom as well to choose the cloud service of your choice. Freedom to choose where, physically, your data resides.
Look, companies make mistakes, trends begin to peter out and sanity returns. Don’t throw open your data to the winds, don’t create even greater complexity for what – on first glance – appeared to be simplicity.
Give employees what they’ll use, give IT back control, use what you already have.
