Feb 19, 2014

Sharing business files through a consumer-grade program can put essential data at risk of data breaches, with the organization racking up significant financial losses if information is compromised. Enterprise cloud solutions and online document transfer services have made collaborating on documents more streamlined without compromising the safety of sensitive company data. As organizations come to rely more on their files for decisions and overall operations, it’s imperative to consider file sharing options that will provide security and ensure employees can work together effectively.

Collaborating on projects can be difficult if users don’t have the right solutions on hand to enable simultaneous changes and viewing. Years ago, workers would have needed to get together in person and work on the same file to create the product needed for their projects and other tasks. With file sharing solutions, however, there are more collaboration opportunities, and staff can work on the same document remotely, with changes being made in real-time to ensure that everyone has the most recent version of the file.

According to research by the Enterprise Strategy Group, there’s a greater demand for hybrid cloud deployments in organizations using file sharing services and collaboration applications, as the hybrid deployment provides an extra layer of protection and more flexibility. A wide majority of businesses (97%) using a public cloud said that they would be interested in a hybrid deployment which would still enable some data to be kept on-premises to protect sensitive information. The hybrid option is flexible and allows the company to have better oversight into where their data will be located.

Upgrading for better collaboration practices
Working together on documents have traditionally been a risky move as employees would often have to find the information they need or would rely on a program to share the file, which may not have provided adequate protection. The Civil Aviation Authority in the U.K., for example, previously relied onemail to share files back and forth, causing some to be lost and creating delays in document processing, according to Baseline Magazine.

By switching to an online file sharing solution, the organization was able to handle numerous versions of complex documents, and it gave more accountability to data ownership. Having an enterprise-grade service provides significantly more security than regular email does, and it mitigates the potential for lost information. This will ensure that risk is minimized and allow employees to work more efficiently together.