Enterprises or employees have to share a lot of files to run business. They face a lot of restrictions in sharing such files physically. Maybe the files are too large for USBs, or it would be time consuming to share files by physical means. As a lot of businesses now run across different parts of the world, sharing important documents physically may not be viable.

It is under these conditions, enterprises and employees are increasingly adapting cloud as a means to share files. But, being a relatively new method of file sharing, there isn’t a lot of awareness about the different aspects of cloud sharing and its management.

First of all,

Companies have to provide secure means of sharing.

With plenty of cloud sharing resources such as Dropbox, Box etc, available, employees are inclined to use them unless enterprises provide them with secure cloud file sharing options at the company level.

The trouble with using the popular options is that it will open up avenues for security risks. Without a standard system, employees would open up accounts with different non-monitored vendors. Employees might use these private cloud services to share highly confidential or sensitive data. Having such information outside of an organization’s control puts it under risk.

The situation becomes even worse if they use the same passwords as they use for company email account or other accounts. All of these would present challenges in cloud management to the IT admins.

But, what if the company plans to use private clouds?

Well, if that’s the choice, then the least you can do is to make your employees aware of the risks. One simple way to do this is by conducting training sessions by cloud management experts.

There are minor things that employees might miss out while using new technology. Like ticking a checkbox here and there, this might make all the difference. Employees can learn the importance of these things from training sessions. Such sessions are cost-effective and help employees use file sharing through the cloud the way they are supposed to, rather than follow what they do at home

Being flooded by data, it’s quite normal for employees to think that no data is safe anymore. But with the right kind of awareness, they would be able to understand that the cloud is very similar to other hosting methods.

What do the enterprises who have adopted cloud say?

According to them, while cloud storage and management can be a pain point, it still has a lot of benefits. Finance is one major aspect as the need for physical on-premises servers is eliminated. Then there are the advantages of easy accessibility with any device, simplicity of use, sharing files without VPNs and also back-up through file syncing.

Conclusion

Cloud certainly makes file sharing far easier than before. But for it to be effective and secure, enterprises must have clear policies to protect them from potential risk. At the same time, it is not the best of ideas to shun the use of cloud altogether given the benefits it provides.