Category Archives: Egnyte

Box, Cloud Storage, DropBox, Egnyte, Microsoft, News & Analysis, Office, Storage as a Service

Box, Dropbox and Egnyte offer cloud storage options for Office

Microsoft Office cloud storageMicrosoft has announced new co-authoring features for users of Office Mobile and Office Online who store their files with cloud services such as Box, Dropbox and Egnyte. Tighter integration with these services means that files can be worked on ‘natively’ as they reside in the cloud service, without users having to come out of their office application.

The new options come nearly a year after the Cloud Storage Partner Program (CSPP) was launched in February 2015, when Microsoft invited cloud storage providers to connect their services to Office Online and Office for iOS. “Today, we’re adding real-time co-authoring with Office Online for documents stored in partner cloud services, extending our Office for iOS integration to all partners in the CSPP and enabling integration between Outlook.com and cloud storage providers Dropbox and Box,” wrote Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft’s corporate VP for the Office team.

Instant co-authoring with Office Online is now available for users with documents stored in Box, Citrix ShareFile, Dropbox and Egnyte. Koenigsbauer also invited all Microsoft’s CSPP partners to integrate their storage services with Office for iOS so that users can designate these partner cloud services as ‘places’ in Office, as is possible now with Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox. The new changes mean that users can browse for PowerPoint, Word and Excel files on their preferred cloud service from within an Office app without having to interrupt their train of thought by coming out of the application.

Box is now used by 41 million consumers and 54,000 paying businesses, including 55% of the Fortune 500. Among the new features offered are real time co-authoring between Box and Office Online and the integration of Box with Office for iOS and Outlook.com. Users can make concurrent, real time edits to content secured in Box including Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Box, an early member in the Cloud Storage Partner Program, has introduced a new application for Windows 10 and integrations with both Office for iPad and iPhone. DropBox and Egnyte both also announced real time co-authoring the ability to collaborate across Powerpoint, word and Excel using documents stored in the cloud.

Egnyte, File Sharing, Opinion

Bringing the enterprise out of the shadows

Ian McEwanIan McEwan, VP and General Manager, EMEA at Egnyte discusses why IT departments must provide employees with secure, adaptive cloud-based file sync and share services, or run the risk of ‘shadow IT’ — inviting major security vulnerabilities and compliance issues within organisations.

The advent of cloud technology has brought a wide range of benefits to businesses of all sizes, improving processes by offering on-demand, distributed access to the information and applications that employees rely on. This change has not only made IT easier for businesses, it is also fueling new business models and leading to increased revenues for those making best use of the emerging technology.

The cloud arguably offers a business the greatest benefit when used for file sync and share services, allowing users to collaborate on projects in real-time, at any time on any device from any geographic location. File sync and share makes email attachments redundant, allowing businesses to reclaim and reduce the daily time spent by employees on email, as well as the chances of files being lost, leaked or overwritten. If used correctly, IT departments can have a comprehensive overview of all the files and activity on the system, enabling considerably better file management and organisation.

Employees ahead of the corporate crowd

Unfortunately business adoption of file sharing services is often behind where employees would like it to be and staff are turning to ‘shadow IT’ – unsanctioned consumer-grade file sharing solutions. These services undermine the security and centralised control of IT departments. Businesses lose visibility over who has access to certain files and where they are being stored, which can lead to serious security and compliance problems.

CIOs need to protect their companies from the negative impact of unsanctioned cloud applications by implementing a secure solution that monitors all file activity across their business.

Secure cloud-based file sharing

To satisfy both the individual user and business as a whole, IT departments need to identify file sharing services that deliver the agility that comes with storing files in the cloud. It starts with ensuring that a five-pronged security strategy is in place that can apply consistent, effective control and protection over the corporate information throughout its lifecycle. This strategy should cover:

  • User Security – controlling who can access which files, what they can do with them and how long their access will last.
  • Device Security – protecting corporate information at the point of consumption on end user devices.
  • Network Security – protecting data in transit (over encrypted channels) to prevent eavesdropping and tampering.
  • Data Centre Security – providing a choice of deployment model that offers storage options both on premises and in the cloud and total control over where the data is stored.
  • Content Security – attaching policies to the content itself to ensure it can’t leave the company’s controlled environment even when downloaded to a device.

A solution that addresses these security areas will allow efficient collaboration without sacrificing security, compliance and control.

A user friendly, business ready solution

Furthermore, the selected solution and strategy will need to keep up with business demands and industry regulations. Flexibility can be achieved if businesses consider adaptive file sharing services that give them access to files regardless of where they are stored – in the cloud, on premises or a hybrid approach. This enables a business to adapt the service for its own changing business preferences, as well as industry standards that can dictate where data is stored and how it is shared. Recent changes to the US-EU Safe Harbour regulations which determine how businesses from the US and EU must share and keep track of data, highlight the necessity for businesses to have an adaptive file sharing solution in place to meet the demands of new regulations,  or else risk heavy fines and reputational damage.

The final hurdle towards successful implementation of a cloud-based file sharing service is ensuring user adoption through simple functionality. If a service isn’t easy to use, staff may find themselves falling back on shadow IT services due to convenience. It is important, therefore, that IT seeks solutions that can be accessed across all devices, and can be integrated with other popular applications already in used within an organisation.

The integrity and privacy of a business’ information requires a secure, adaptive cloud-based file sharing solution that gives organisations comprehensive visibility and control across the lifecycle of its data. Overlooking the security implications of shadow IT services can result in a company incurring significant costs – not just in financial terms, but for a company’s brand, reputation and growth potential. It’s time for IT departments to act now and adopt cloud services that enable efficient collaboration, mitigate any chances of risk and lift the shadow from corporate data.

Big Data, Content & Applications, Devcon Construction, Egnyte, News & Analysis, Software as a service

New Egnyte service promises to impose strict version in the cloud

AppsCloud file service provider Egnyte has launched a Smart Reporting and Auditing service which promises to impose order on the way content is created, edited, viewed and shared.

The service is currently exclusive to Egnyte customers who want visibility and control over their organisation’s entire content life-cycle, whether files are in-house or in the cloud. The rationale is to help companies stop wasting money on the multiplication of effort involved when multiple versions of the same file exist across the diaspora of in-house systems, private and public clouds.

The promised returns on investment in these cloud services, the company says, are lower costs, less risk and higher productivity through visibility. Cost savings are promised on reducing bandwidth consumption, minimised support issues and less wasted employee time. Risk will be minimised, according to Egnyte, as fewer files will be leaked out of the organisation and suspicious activities – both internally and externally – can be highlighted. Visibility improvements will boost productivity by speeding the progress of projects and the prevention of unchecked document replication and mutation, which leads to multiple teams working on multiple different versions of the same project.

Companies and vendors have still not cracked version control yet, said one analyst, and the cloud will only make the task more complicated.

“Content is at the core of just about every business process today, but users are accessing files across multiple devices, anywhere, any time,” said Terri McClure, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group. “It is entirely too costly and there is simply too much data.”

Solving the big data analytics problem will be increasingly important, said McClure.

Devcon Construction, the largest general contractor in Silicon Valley, has used the service on trial to track confidential design plans and blueprints. “It gives complete visibility on how the files are shared and accessed, so we can effectively manage desktop and tablet device workflows out in the field,” said Joe Tan, director of IT at Devcon Construction.

The cloud service now makes detailed file analytics and insights possible, claimed Isabelle Guis, chief strategy officer at Egnyte. “It’s critical for businesses to optimise file infrastructure and protect against potential threats,” she said.