Why Should Companies Invest in Enterprise-grade Secure File Sharing?

People need to share data. File sharing has existed in one form or another since way before the cloud, the internet, and computers. It started with copying text by hand, and evolved to reel-to-reel audio tape duplication which led to the birth of the cassette tape. Later, the floppy disk came to prevalence, followed by the compact disc (the humble CD) and the memory stick. Secure file sharing consisted of ensuring things were delivered by hand by a trusted source, or posted with insurance. But even then, information could be intercepted and stolen in transit. Floppy disks could be stolen. Paper documents could be photocopied. Tapes could be duplicated. Memory sticks could be lost. All could be easily destroyed or corrupted.
The internet changed everything. Finally, we could share files and documents with one another without having to transfer them to a vulnerable physical medium. Instead, they could be shared directly over the internet. As the internet became more powerful, the amounts of data we transferred grew dramatically. Today we can transfer a floppy disk's worth of data in less than a second. You can store 73,142 times more data on a thumb drive. In 2012, cloud file sharing skyrocketed. The internet presently holds about 5 million terabytes of data. In 2012, about 1.7 million of those terabytes were uploaded and stored on the internet. We have so much data now we don't even know where it all is. This put our information at a whole new level of risk. With the prevalence of digital data, files can be duplicated, shared and transmitted without knowledge or much expense, and the need for secure document sharing is now a major concern for individuals, but particularly for businesses. Companies frequently need to share sensitive, confidential and highly valuable documents and data between employees, offices and clients.
In fact, 77% of organisations don't provide adequate secure document sharing, either desktop or mobile, for their employees. As a result of this, many professionals resort to using consumer file sharing tools in order to get their work done, such as Dropbox, iCloud and YouSendIt. They are great for consumers, easy to use, visually appealing, and work on any device, anywhere in the world. But they are not designed for business. The level of security is not enterprise-grade, putting information at risk. The ability to reset passwords or gain access to consumer accounts via phone support or email poses even greater risk to confidential files if employees are using consumer cloud services to access their work from home or on any device they want to use. This is vitally important, considering the fact that 90% of organisations have experienced a leakage or loss of confidential documents in the last 12 months. This could be through employees sharing files through insecure mediums such as sending via insecure consumer file sharing sites.
There is an alternative however: enterprise-grade secure file sharing platforms, such as HighQ Collaborate. These platforms offer the usability and convenience of the consumer file sharing services with the security of an on-premise cloud solution. Information is securely hosted and managed, and it works securely on any device inside or outside the company firewall. Balancing this is a series of security measures from end user security controlled by IT through highly secured data centers. Enterprise secure file sharing platforms provide all the ease of employees want with the security, accountability and regulatory compliance companies need. What's more, the platforms keep track of everyone who is viewing, downloading, changing and sharing documents, a vital security measure that enables a full audit trail if necessary. It is possible to set permissions on sites, folders and even individual files to limit access and maintain granular levels of security.
Many companies are beginning to see the need for secure file sharing platforms, and many are beginning to embrace it already. They are already seeing benefits such as increased employee productivity by streamlining file sharing and collaboration tasks, making sure that all employees are using the same standard, company approved and secure document sharing service, and making sure that employees have the most up to date versions of documents. All with the knowledge that the files are protected with the highest grade security, on systems built for business.
Rashme Kour is a senior software developer in united states. She is passionate towards writing articles on latest technologies and it's upgrades. Right now she is doing a research work on Secure File Sharing & Data Collaboration

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