Secure file sharing, storage, search, and synchronisation

Overview

Web 2.0 has really thrown a spanner in the works.

For many years now IT teams have been carefully constructing integrated collaboration systems behind the corporate firewall, including content management and document management systems, CRM and email. Disparate and dispersed groups of employees can now share ideas and contribute jointly to projects.

Web 2.0 and cloud-based file sharing systems allow them to bypass the company firewall altogether. Attracted by their friendly interfaces, speed and ease of use, many employees prefer these new apps to the legacy systems provided by their organisation.

This is not without risk, however, as such applications, present potential data security and compliance risks, undermining corporate data security policies leaving the company open to intellectual property theft and , and reduced integrity of corporate data stores.

This paper argues that rather than ICT ignoring these new developments, IT teams should embrace them. It provides a useful checklist of features that collaborative tools need to have, and gives pointers as to what the future of collaboration might hold.