top trends in enterprise file sharing

Top Trends in Enterprise File Sharing Chandana Gopal

Research Manager

Business File Sharing

Agenda

Growth in file sharing

Challenges with sharing in a business context

Definition of business file sharing

A real-world use case

Trends in Business File Sharing

Recommendations

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A viral growth pattern

to adoption

File Sharing has

followed the adoption

pattern of popular

social networking sites

600

60

200

50

900

100

462

95

1100

200

555

170

Facebook LinkedIn Twitter File Sharing


Files Are Everywhere In Our Lives

We share moments of our lives with our family and friends with files

Consumers use services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, and iCloud to store personal files

People have used personal file sharing services to share large files

• A local dance studio uses Dropbox to send

music home for students to practice

• Demo recordings are accessed by clients via Box

• Homework assignments are all done on Google Drive.

Files hold the content we communicate to market, sell, explain and support customers

4

Files Are the Context of My Digital Life


Friends Family

Colleagues Acquaintances

I Control Access To My Files Across

These Different Groups


Friends Family

Colleagues Acquaintances

Similarly, In A Business Context…I

Need To Control My Files


Colleagues

Contractors

Customers

Partners


At work we live at two extremes

that are hopelessly obsolete

We cannot share – or we share

without any control

Modern business requires us to

control how we share

In Most Businesses, there Is a HUGE

Disconnect Between…

…What I need to do…

Share my work with my business network

• Contractors

• Customers

• Partners

• Business service providers

Work on large files

• Video

• Large #s of files

• File packages & folders

Share anywhere using mobile

Control what I share and who I share with

… And what I am forced to do

Sharing is an “employee” thing or a VPN thing

Other than that, sharing is using email, which isn’t sharing at all!

Files larger than my email system accepts have to be sent via • USB drive

• Consumer service

• FTP

No control over sharing privileges, which means NO SECURITY


Business File Sharing Cloud Software

Definition

Cloud software that allows:

Sharing across multiple devices owned by the

same person

Sharing across multiple people in virtual teams

Users to have administration capabilities

Easy set-up by the modern business worker


File Sharing Services Align With Modern

Workers And The Modern Enterprise

With File Sharing, we can: • Work anywhere

• Collaborate inside and outside the enterprise with virtual teams

assembled based on skills and availability

• Always available content on any device

• Supports a mix of personal and enterprise-owned devices to perform job

• Work on projects that cover a spectrum of confidentiality requirements

In other words, file sharing supports what modern

workers need to do their jobs well


Email Versus File Sharing

Email is the most common method for sharing files within an enterprise and between virtual teams • There is no control over the confidentiality, security

and privacy of the email and its attachments

• There is no workspace and file management is chaotic, and versioning is impossible

• We are increasingly working with multimedia files that are larger than email attachment size limits

Enterprises are rapidly adopting business file sharing services to solve these problems


Case Study

An Executive

Networking

Firm

Requirements:

• Needed to collaborate with many

external parties

• Had to exchange large video files

• Had to allow access and revoke

access to files

• Needed versioning on files

• Needed a reliable & easy-to-use

solution

Email or content management systems

could not satisfy any of those

requirements!


Top Trends In Business File Sharing

Services

Incorporating more business oriented

features

Designing services for different roles

within an enterprise

Integration with process automation

Improving performance on mobile devices


File Sharing Adopts More Business

Oriented Features

New features align with the business

requirements:

• Security

• Administration

• Collaborate

• Visibility and reporting

• APIs and integration with core enterprise services


Different Roles Within Businesses that

Share Files


Author Editor Reviewer Viewer

Heavy document

editing

Works mostly on

a computer

Heavily uses

desktop sync

Moderate

document editing

Toggles between

file system and

browser UI

Sets tasks for

author for review

Light document

editing

Uses mobile

device and

browser to review

files

Needs ability to

sign-off

Uses mobile

device and

browser for

viewing

Viewing without

download is

advantageous

Guest access

Desktop Sync Mobile and Browser

Integrating File Sharing With Process

Automation

Managing content in one location, which is

accessible by a virtual team that includes trusted

external team members

Integrating processes to the content as needed

to support efficiencies and application

requirements


Improved Security On Mobile Devices

Integration with mobile device management

vendors to separate business and personal files

on the same device

Improving security of files on mobile devices

Integrating files with applications on mobile

devices


Recommendations

Email is the least secure application within your organization. If you

have teams working on confidential projects using email, you should

consider file sharing services as a replacement

• Many organizations are considering data loss prevention as way to

make email more secure. File sharing is a cost-effective first step

Large files that have to be exchanged between team

members. File sharing provides:

• a cost effective alternative to using courier services and USB drives

(slow and expensive)

• FTP (unreliable and complicated)

• Consumer services (no control over what is shared)

File sharing is optimized for virtual teams

• If you find that you have a large number of contractors and partners,

then a file sharing solution is logical to adopt


Thank You


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