The Silver Lining: File Management and the Cloud

In case there weren’t enough topics for IT administrators and business users to disagree about, there is always personal cloud storage.

Services like Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive appeal to consumers and business users who need to collaborate with small teams or access files from multiple devices. Services like InSync go even further and streamline integration of cloud storage with the desktop.

The problem with this, at least from and IT administration perspective, is lack of control.  An important strategic plan marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ could end up on a cloud server somewhere and your best hope is that the person who put it there knows how to work the access controls on the cloud storage service. 

This is not a swipe at Dropbox, Box, Google Drive or any comparable services: I use or have used many of them for personal use. The problem is that they are not really designed to support enterprise cloud-based file sharing.

File management and cloud storage appears to be another example of the consumerization of IT.  We see it with the adoption of tablets and smart phones. 

IT administrators are living with business users on the one hand who want to be able to access information from their  iPads and Android phones while knowing that the security controls they have put in place over the years are may not yet ready for the bring your own device (BYOD) practice.  The thought of employees shipping off confidential documents and private data to a cloud service that IT can neither monitor nor control may seem like another hole in the proverbial dike.

This is where providers like Egnyte come into play.  Their Egnyte HybridCloud solution synchronizes local files with cloud storage while maintaining the equivalent of local authorizations in the cloud.  IT administrators get to control user permissions and file accessibility and users still have access to device independent storage. 

Since this is, in part, a synching service, you can get the benefits of local access, e.g. speed, when you are on the company LAN while still having the advantages of cloud storage when working remotely or with multiple devices.

Consumer oriented services are doing IT a favor by introducing new technologies and promoting adoption.  The problem is that they don’t go far enough to meet business needs. From a centralized management point of view, consumer oriented services are like half a bridge – definitely worth having but only if you can get the other half.

The BYOD phenomenon has prompted the development of specialized software for mobile device management. Similarly, we are seeing services for bringing another consumer oriented service, cloud file storage, to the enterprise.

It’s a welcome advance and can’t come soon enough.

Dan Sullivan is an author, systems architect, and consultant with over 20 years of IT experience with engagements in systems architecture, enterprise security, advanced analytics and business intelligence. He has worked in a broad range of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, software development, government, retail, gas and oil production, power generation, life sciences, and education.  Dan has written 16 books and numerous articles and white papers about topics ranging from data warehousing, Cloud Computing and advanced analytics to security management, collaboration, and text mining.

See here for all of Dan's Tom's IT Pro articles.

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Inaugural post for Dan Sullivan's Tom's IT Pro "The Silver Lining" blog about Cloud Computing.