The Era of Mobility: Solving the File Sharing Dilemma

The Era of Mobility

From the launch of devices such as the iPhone, there has been a shift in the way employees work on-the-go. Since the rapid development of mobile technology is making it easier to create, edit, access and transfer content from almost anywhere in the world, more applications are being developed that manage the growing amount of data that is being produced by devices worldwide. Some of the most popular applications to arise out of this 'revolution of mobility' are cloud-based file sharing solutions.

File Sharing Gets Cloudy

According to market research company, eMarketer, "The number of smartphone users worldwide will surpass 2 billion in 2016." Since smartphone users are constantly downloading the newest applications, hundreds of millions of users have started relying on file sharing apps to store videos, pictures, music, and documents on a cloud-based platform. Though free cloud storage and file sharing apps are extremely convenient for productivity on-the-go, they begin to cause risks when used for business. Requirements such as access controls, encryption and antivirus are almost always missing from free cloud storage apps and are therefore put companies at risk of data breaches and malware attacks. In order to protect company data and offer employees the convenience they desire, businesses need a secure alternative that protects files when being share outside the corporate firewall.

Enterprise File Sync and Share: The Secure Alternative

The most secure alternative for businesses to protect against the risks of consumer file sharing solutions are Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) solutions. According to Gartner Research, "EFSS refers to a range of on-premises or cloud-based capabilities that enable individuals to synchronize and share documents, photos, videos and files across multiple devices, such as smartphones, tablets and PCs." Offering the same easy functionality existent in consumer solutions, EFSS gives enterprises additional features and capabilities that meet unique needs and requirements required for business such as:

Control and Visibility

Consumer solutions are lacking when it comes to tracking and auditing user actions. Enterprises with thousands of users sharing sensitive data need to be able to see who and when data is being transferred and downloaded to and from to prevent unauthorized access to data. EFSS offers the ability to track and audit all system transactions to know who is downloading, uploading and transferring information.

Also, EFSS offers extensive access control capabilities such as Single-Sign-On integration with Active Directory and integration with other identity providers.

Additionally, EFSS has access features that allow admins to easily enable/disable users from performing various actions in the system such as uploads, downloads, and transfers.

Integration with Existing Applications

EFSS solutions are far more flexible for enterprises because they can be easily integrated with existing infrastructure and business applications. One common use case is businesses that use email clients like Outlook to send files with customers and partners. In order to supplement the file sharing processes within Outlook, businesses can deploy an EFSS plugin into Outlook to increase file size limits and be able to track downloads and transfers of every file. Giving employees an integrated plugin for email gives employees a more productive workflow and benefits the organization because of an increase in control and visibility.

Is EFSS the right solution for your organization? This decision should be made by examining your company's specific requirements and unique business needs for file sharing and collaboration. The primary approach isn't to only meet the requirements of IT, but to also find out what employees want in terms of usability and integration with existing applications and infrastructure.

IT writer and researcher covering enterprise file sharing and collaboration.