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Studies have shown in recent months that the majority of consumers don’t really entirely understand Cloud computing. In fact, 9 out of 10 American consumers claim not to use Cloud computing, yet all of them had used the Cloud in some form or another in the past year without knowing it.

The caveat, then, is whether this knowledge gap transcends to the business leadership in the corporate space.

If we look at the present state of the corporate Cloud environment, it seems that the trends point to more of a misunderstanding than a lack of knowledge.

While the Cloud represents unprecedented accessibility, scalability and utility, the vast majority of business owners still opt against it for an increasingly popular reason: Cost.

This reluctance toward Cloud adoption due to financial concerns is therefore a puzzling matter, as it would most likely actually prove more cost effective.

Here at eTransmittal, we provide a Cloud-based service, or rather Software as a Service (SaaS) with very clear benefits to businesses as both an online collaboration tool and an FTP Replacement option for file sharing.

We ourselves use the Cloud for our operational purposes and we’ve enjoyed the cost-savings and efficiency benefits. But even our own testimonial aside, still many more Cloud-savvy companies are raving about the new tech trend. Granted, the Cloud may not be right for everyone, but we might be so bold as to append a big “Yet” to that statement.

The focus in this scenario should be squarely on the small business, as they stand to gain the most from leveraging Cloud computing. While still very much a generic term, the Cloud represents a fresh, flexible technology that truly levels the playing feel in today’s corporate space.

Small businesses who adopt Cloud computing technologies can overcome barriers and operate with a level of efficiency that empowers them to keep pace with their larger counterparts.

Whether or not business leaders in our ever-evolving technological economy are getting a good grasp on Cloud computing won’t be an issue for much longer. Like any other widespread technological advent, the Cloud will become more approachable as the early adopters revel in their successes. 

Over the past couple of years, Cloud computing has taken a clear and definitive foothold in the corporate space. The trend has hastened in 2012, although the precedent of widespread adoption may have been a bit short-lived.

As the previously swiftly growing trend begins to wane, analysts are discovering that businesses, especially those at the enterprise level, are taking the pace a bit slower now. There are a handful of reasons for the more cautious approach, but among those reasons, three in particular seem to stand out.

Whether you're eyeing the Cloud as an FTP Replacement for your file sharing or an ultra-accessible collaboration tool, we’ll explain what those barriers are and how you can overcome them to stay on track toward your ambitions to leverage the benefits of the Cloud.

The first issue that comes up at the forefront with business owners is security. The sensitivity and importance of a company’s data is often placed at the highest regard, and rightly so. But the fears associated with poor security in the Cloud, including news-worthy scares of isolated incidents of breaches and hacking, are largely unfounded. On the contrary, a company is usually better off in terms of security with a Cloud-based system.

The best tool for overcoming security fears related to the Cloud is education and awareness. Your CIO or IT department management will play a key role in assessing the security threats associated with moving data to the Cloud. Learning about the systems, the way data is stored and moved, and gleaning a clear understanding of the security measures in place will put these fears to rest.

Establish policies early on to address any vulnerabilities that seem to stand out. Furthermore, it’s best to abandon the myth that having data in close proximity makes it any more secure. In actuality, the Cloud servers at your local datacenter are much better equipped to protect your digital assets than in your local office.

Another prominent obstacle that seems to loom over any efforts to pursue Cloud computing is the cost. Not only does the Cloud hardware and services seem expensive, but the technology changes, infrastructure overhaul, IT personnel, software cost and maintenance costs seem to crash together in a nightmarish scenario with an outrageous price tag. In truth, however, the costs are minimal and the returns are great.

If your firm is concerned about the costs, the best method might be to outsource your technology. Partnering with an IT services provider will put all of the needed assets in one accessible place, on the shoulders of the tech vendor. Furthermore, they have the expertise and experience not only to complete the Cloud migration without a hitch, but to transform your technologies from a cost center into a revenue generating asset. You’ll spend less overall and they will assist in reducing your IT spend. In the long run, your returns will overshadow the initial expense, and you’ll be free to focus on the core business.

The final primary reason that businesses have been reluctant to make the jump to the Cloud is the knowledge gap. Executives worry that the staff and users of the Cloud services within the firm won’t adapt quickly enough or the learning curve will prove too counterproductive. They may have these concerns even for themselves if they aren’t as technologically savvy. Extra training, new procedures and the fear of a deluge of errors and mistakes are enough to put the brakes on a move to the Cloud.

But there’s no reason to abandon a Cloud-bound journey on the basis of such a knowledge gap. The solution to this barrier is two-fold: First, it is imperative to plan carefully for which Cloud services are needed and provide the most value. Don’t adopt anything that isn’t necessary. By keeping the selection of Cloud services precise and goal-oriented with the benefits in mind, you’ll reduce unnecessary headaches and make the transition easier on everyone.

Secondly, most Cloud service providers offer extensive, in-depth training services, learning resources and expert support. Tap into those offerings right away, and find out ahead of time how much support is available. In this manner, you don’t have to sacrifice a robust Cloud service for the sake of usability. You can get exactly what you need, even if it’s complex, and the knowledge gap can still be quickly closed.

Corporate migration to Cloud platforms is in full swing and many IT professionals are touting the advent of a new era in collaboration and computing. Consumer-focused services, most commonly those pertaining to online file storage and file sharing, have preceded the influx of business-oriented Cloud infrastructures almost as though they were a test market of sorts.

But making the jump from the typical business Cloud platform to the Enterprise level could prove a much larger leap, and evidence pointing to that challenge continues to surface. The next move is learning lessons from Cloud failures and overcoming the obstacles. Let’s take a look at some of the recent occurrences from which we can glean insight from the missteps of the pioneers in the front of the pack.

Dropbox Security Breach

This week, the consumer-focused Cloud service Dropbox lit up headlines across the web after enduring a significant security breach. Dropbox and a large swath of its users were subsequently hit with a massive spam attack. News reports indicate that an internal employee’s account was hacked, most likely using a stolen password.

The culprit allegedly stole a project document containing user email addresses from the compromised employee’s account. Thereafter, the hacker went to work spamming the users with a deluge of gambling website ads. After further investigation, technicians discovered that many of the affected users were using their Dropbox credentials on other websites – a common, albeit risky, practice that security proponents staunchly discourage.

The setback for Dropbox is especially disheartening for the company, as the firm’s focus has been largely aimed at the Enterprise space. Having successfully staked a claim to the file sharing market in the consumer realm, Dropbox has held strong confidence in its pursuit of the sought-after Enterprise space. Naysayers are coming out of the woodwork in droves with just the opposite message in mind.

Amazon and Netflix Outage

Back in late June, we posted the news story about Amazon’s EC2 Compute Cloud failures and the Netflix outage. Amazon’s  EC2 system in Virginia went offline due to power outages caused by severe storms in the area. The outage knocked the Netflix service offline, frustrating the movie-streaming masses for a short time.

A couple of weeks prior to that event, the EC2 went down for about 7 hours – a near eternity in the perspective of ultra-speed ‘internet time’. Given the big scale brand that is Amazon, and the outspoken trumpeting of its Compute Cloud in previous months, the setback added insult to injury.

If only an isolated singular incident had occurred, the blowback wouldn’t put such a blemish on Enterprise Cloud concepts, but the fact that the outage was repeated sparks a concern.

Lessons Learned

Looking at these two big-brand blunders, many IT pros would declare the Cloud unfit for Enterprise use or in any manner that widens the service scope to massive scales. But every technology advancement has its pitfalls and failures. The take-away for anyone in the Cloud, whether vendor, consumer or business owner, is to learn from the mistakes and take a more proactive approach.

We recently published an article outlining the effectiveness of Managed Service Providers as a ‘fail-safe’ of sorts for common Cloud breakdowns. Preventative measures and hands-on maintenance under the supervision of technology professionals are key components to the contingency plan. Careful planning and documentation can further allay any emergent events.

Amazon’s lesson was squarely focused on redundancy. Most of us can agree that we aren’t likely to see another power outage cause such a crippling effect to Amazon’s EC2. That’s because they have taken preventative measures to insure against a similar crisis in the future. The luxury for those of us following the trail they blaze is that we enjoy the lesson without the consequence of the misstep.

The lesson Dropbox is learning is much different, and in many eyes more impactful because of the security concerns. Nevertheless, it’s a lesson just the same and avoiding similar occurrences in the future will come from reinforcing vulnerabilities found during the ‘learning process’. Given the significance of hot button issues like privacy, confidentiality and security these days, Cloud service providers will react with their own preventative measures gleaned from Dropbox’s disaster.

The enterprise space is still a viable target for the Cloud. The new technology provides more security and versatility, acting as an FTP replacement, an unprecedented collaborative tool and an infrastructure of accessibility to rival any before it. But at this point, for those of us still watching and learning, we could end up only having ourselves to blame for future failures if we don’t take advantage of the lessons unfolding at the front lines.  

As businesses blaze new technological trails into the future of corporate computing, Cloud-based systems are positioned at the forefront. We are quickly approaching a threshold at which Cloud computing transitions from an experimental concept to a fully integrated business resource. While some of the bigger players on the field have encountered pitfalls in Cloud computing, such as Amazon’s latest outage, the game is growing more approachable.

One of the problems with evaluation and visibility regarding a new platform like the Cloud is that there’s not much empirical evidence yet. Only after a period of testing, trials, application and evaluation would we really get a good feel for results and success rates – whether the news is good or bad. While we’ve only previously heard a huge amount of hype from proponents and vendors championing the Cloud as the end-all technology, there has been only scarce reports of real, actionable historical performance data. Until recently, it was assumed the lack of data was because it simply wasn’t available yet. But it’s time for a second look.

We’re now entering a time where we should be seeing quite a few reports, results and success stories from the Cloud computing space; not just from vendors but from businesses expecting returns from a Cloud platform in which they’ve invested significant time and money. However, there is still only a paltry volume of testimonials and documented successes. At this point, the reason is most likely because companies deploying Cloud platforms are considering their developments to be trade secrets and private, sensitive assets. You might occasionally run across an article or white paper touting a company’s success with a Cloud strategy, but you can count on the fact that there are thousands more that haven’t even been published.

You also won’t be seeing too much Cloud hype anymore. This is because the inherent value and flexibility of the Cloud is becoming more apparent to business owners and CIOs. Vendors and service providers will have to rely less and less on ‘educational’ marketing and ROI-focused hype in order to convert new adopters. This is also the phase where free trials turn into annual contracts, service providers go to work managing all the clients they reaped in the hype phase, and the attention is on the engine in your new car rather than the car salesman wooing you into it.

As the Cloud is also filling in voids of demand and problems needing solving, more businesses are becoming reliant – almost captivated – within the new infrastructure. Because of the added security, the Cloud represents an email and FTP replacement option that simultaneously improves productivity and efficiency while remedying drawbacks of the older, less effective and less secure platforms. 

One of the natural barriers encountered in the shift toward Cloud computing has also been lifted recently; which is the ‘you go first’ mentality. Small businesses are reluctant to enter a space that even the behemoths of the land won’t venture into. Logically speaking, it makes sense to consider why such a universal enterprise space isn’t being pursued by the big players. But those fears have been quickly evaporating as technology titans like Google, HP, Amazon and Mircosoft enter the fray with committed strategies. That’s just one more obstacle removed from the path of a sweeping and swift movement.

Yet another indicator, which is clear and calculable regardless of reports and testimonials, is the money invested in Cloud computing. Cloud service providers and vendors are enjoying a steadily growing clientele and the profits are rising. Businesses are pouring more and more money into Cloud systems, which is often an uncontestable sign of the value of returns expected.  A company contributes funds to the areas that stand to yield the greatest returns. The Cloud is clearly becoming one of the top contenders in that arena, and rightly so. 

How Contractors are netting huge rewards by putting their money where the Cloud is

Back in February, our feature article, “The Secret to Pushing Green Building into the Mainstream” focused on concepts that could improve the adoption rate of Sustainability measures among A/E/C (Architecture/Engineering/Construction) firms. Only a few months have passed, and the trend is catching on like wildfire.

The ‘Secret’ article highlighted the importance of support-based vendors and contractors promoting value in their green-minded offerings. As it turns out, A/E/C firms are quickly discovering that value (and then some) as they internalize green practices – and not without the help of at least one eco-friendly ally in the building industry: ABC Green.

Both the ambitious efforts of ABC and the swiftly growing community of A/E/C businesses pursuing ABC’s Green Contractor Certification program serve to reinforce proof of promising progress resultant from establishing value in green practices.

It appears as though the barrier of justifying investments in sustainability products and policies is rapidly dissipating. Perhaps the most significant evidence to such a claim is the fact that contractors are committing to the cause like never before, by implementing intensive internal sustainability overhauls.

The requirements for companies wishing to net ABC’s prestigious Green Contractor Certificate represent a direct influence within the applicant’s own internal operations – it’s no longer about applying green standards just at the jobsite, and rightly so.

While the program isn’t a newborn (it was established in 2009), we are now entering a period of maturity for the early adopters, as the initial application covers a three-year period. The vastly superior advantages of infusing sustainability measures into the core business, rather than only serving them ‘ala carte’ on projects are now becoming strikingly apparent to those initial applicants such as Oklahoma-based Flintco Constructive Solutions.

We exemplified this type of low-hanging fruit in the form of implementing green-minded measures in our February article by pointing out the bevy of benefits relating to online document management and archiving, including our very own Software as a Service product, eTransmittal.

But there is growing consensus to those benefits elsewhere. Not only does ABC list such requisites for their Green Contractor Certificate as establishing “a policy for archiving documents electronically”, but companies like Flintco are heralding the money- and time-saving returns of implementing cloud-based document management.

An article published this month in Construction Executive magazine entitled “Green From the Inside Out” featured details surrounding Flintco’s three-year venture to internalize their sustainability efforts in line with the ABC Green Contractor Certification requisites.

Cited as one of Flintco’s “biggest operational game-changers resulting from certification” was their new policy governing electronic document storage and submittals. According to the article, the company “no longer runs projects with paper-based documentation, instead relying on digital solutions for three-quarters of its work.”

The list of benefits Flintco touts simply from switching to electronic document management represents an astounding return on investment. Among the rewards realized over the certification period: Postage and shipping cost savings in the hundreds of thousands, flexibility to accelerate project schedules, and the re-positioning of personnel away from paper creation and storage and over to more valuable roles such as quality assurance.

While specific case studies like Flintco carry significant weight, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.  Perhaps one of the most important, albeit subtle, take-aways from such a story isn’t just an encouragement to implement electronic document management, but a rally cry to implement it now. With six-figure savings on the horizon in as little as three years, we doubt too many contractors will be waiting much longer.

The Cloud is a massive new frontier for business as well as technology. Although the virtual space empowers companies with new tools, resources, scalability, security and myriad other benefits; it can quickly become more expensive than initially expected if not handled properly.

Taking a few proactive steps at the outset can help minimize unexpected costs and avoid unforeseen money drains while setting your company up to get the most out of the new platform. These four tips below should be on the top of the Cloud migration ‘to-do’ list:

Proper Procedure and Documentation

Establishing clear, repeatable and scalable procedures, protocols and documentation right at the beginning will streamline your migration while creating a case study for the big move. Proper process can significantly reduce the margin of error and mitigate wastefulness in all matters of engaging a new platform for your business.

This is also an opportunity to establish visibility and set up the teams and designations of who does what and how things work. Documentation is another important piece of this puzzle, as you’ll benefit greatly from taking detailed notes every step of the way and applying what you’ve learned.

Tools Are Your Friend

The Cloud is awash with all sorts of cool tools, many of which are approachable in price, or even free in many cases. Taking advantage of these resources will not only hasten your pace in the competitive space, but also help you to effectively leverage your upgraded assets and visualize and react optimally within the new environment.

Because the Cloud is all about collaboration and interaction with multiple parties, you’ll want to employ tools with monitoring and alert functionality to maintain the utmost visibility on your systems. Balancing usage vs allocation will also become a key issue that is well remedied with the right software.

Proper IT support

Perhaps one of the gravest mistakes a company can make is diving into the Cloud without the proper technology support – namely your core IT team. Not only is this type of change a very intensive technical undertaking requiring the expertise of a tech professional, you’ll need ongoing support in the form of a savvy human (help guides and online resources only go so far).

Whether you employ an IT crew in-house or you’ve hired an outsourced IT Consulting firm, the goals and applications will be the same: Bolstering sound support from beginning to end. It is especially ideal to work with the same IT team from the development phase and indefinitely as long as your company is growing in the Cloud.

Dedicated management

Your new platform in the Cloud will ease the pressures of many IT roles and maintenance issues, but only to a marginal degree at the outset. You can grow your resources and infrastructure to make things easier to manage as you move forward as well. But despite these benefits, you’ll never end up in the position where abandoning dedicated management is an option.

You should have someone in place in a designated leadership role governing the Cloud operations and the existing technological assets built into the firm’s architecture. That individual can play a consulting role and should be a comfortable decision-maker for the migration as well as changes down the road. They can help establish and maintain an audit trail, and dictate the governance of all things Cloud. This position is extremely critical and should be in place before the jump to the Cloud even gets off the ground.

How much does ‘free’ FTP really cost?

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) has long garnered mass popularity as a simple and ‘free’ file sharing tool, making it one of the most approachable resources in a business toolbox. But the illusion that FTP is free belies a much greater, more deceptive long-term cost.

It’s a cost that, over time, will devour a company’s bottom line.

This article represents a huge wake-up call…an undeniable break-through that will change the way you think about FTP as a ‘free’ tool for your everyday business needs.

Forget everything you know about FTP and discover the true costs in our break-down below. Most FTP clients are indeed free to download…but a business can’t run with just the client.

This list represents the typical FTP infrastructure for a business, with approximate costs for each item:

Hardware - $2500 (or more)

While the price will vary depending on the processor on the server and other factors such as hard disk space, a reliable and capable FTP server won’t be cheap. Plan on extra costs such as server operating system software and other oft-forgotten necessities.

Software - $500

There is no shortage of FTP software out there, and some of them are even “free” (although remember there’s no such thing when it comes to FTP). But you won’t just need a client, you’ll need FTP server software, which range widely in price from $200 to $2,000.  On average, a solid, cost-effective program can be had for around $500.

Bandwidth/Hosting - $1300 initial, $900 per month

The costs of hardware might actually be pretty easy to swallow in comparison to the rest of the expenses, which will continually sap away your budget. These items are also dynamic resources which might not work how you’d like them to all the time – which means, in the event of problems, you’re tacking on more lost productivity and more evaporating money.

In the case of bandwidth and hosting, plan on forking over around $1,300 just for setup, configuring, backups and other services (especially if you employ a datacenter and your servers end up off-site). After that, you’re probably paying just shy of $1,000 to keep things humming along each month. Bear in mind these costs don’t take into account any issues encountered along the way or any additional services you might need.

Setup & Configuration (1 Day / $600)

Another widely variable cost that you’ll endure is the dreaded set-up and configuration phase. You’ll likely have a couple of in-house techs tackle this tall task, in which case you’re looking at a time and payroll cost of around $600 and a solid day’s work. If you can do all this stuff yourself, bravo! Just calculate how much a full day of your time is worth and use that cost for your projections.

This setup will involve installing and configuring your server OS, setting up security protocols as well as configuring backups, FTP software, permissions, firewalls, IP addresses and the network. Plan for the possibility of additional time (and money) to deal with any necessary patches, troubleshooting or upgrades.

Ongoing Maintenance - $1,800 (or more) per month

The maintenance costs for upkeep on your FTP infrastructure will include any handling by your IT staff as well as any technical support you might get from your datacenter or webhost. On average, the cost runs about $1,800 per month. If your firm is like the many others that use FTP on a daily basis for all necessary file sharing and document management, be sure to budget toward the high end on this item as your users (and your server) will need lots of attention from IT team members.

Emergencies, Breakdowns and Setbacks - $1,100 (or more) per month

Because FTP is not designed to handle the type of work that most companies push through it, the infrastructure is prone to a huge variety of problems. Whether permissions are constantly needing updates, files get lost or overwritten, your hardware fails or you end up draining all your bandwidth too quickly, the end result is the same: You’re forking over more money to patch things up – and this doesn’t even account for the lost revenues endured during the outage.

This list encompasses the base costs typical in most FTP environments in the corporate space. While there are tons of variables and hidden costs not mentioned here, just the base numbers are sobering enough. Now that we have our estimates, let’s add it all up and see how much FTP really costs:

Hardware………...…….$2500

Software………...……..$500

Bandwidth……...……..$1300 + $900/Mo.

Setup & Config….….$600

Maintenance…….…..$1800/Mo.

Crises & Setbacks..$1100/Mo.

The grand total is..................... $4,900 initially, plus $3,800 monthly. 

So after a full year, your “free” FTP systems will have cost you about $50,500!!

The  best take-away you can get from all this number-crunching is the abandonment of the myth of so-called ‘free FTP’ (‘free’ being most likely the only appealing factor that drew you towards it in the first place). There’s no further reason to use FTP now that the true costs are exposed. Instead, switch to a cloud based FTP Replacement solution that’s designed for the tasks at hand.

If you upgrade to a more optimal tool, you might find that ‘missing’ money or swiftly-draining payroll hours are quickly and significantly mitigated. By ditching FTP, it is entirely possible that you’ll see massive boosts to your bottom line simply by switching to a more effective solution. 

The speed of business isn't slowing down any time soon. The files we send are getting larger, we're distributing them to more people, more often and over increasingly greater distances. The accomplishment of our collaborative tasks is heavily reliant on one universal tool: File Transfer Protocol (FTP). But FTP's capabilities and convenience factors are beginning to wane in the shadow of drawbacks that are increasingly apparent in the hastening digital business environment. 

We've put together a list of four of the most common ways FTP can harm your business. It might be wise to evaluate whether any of these are impacting your company:

1)    Security Vulnerabilities

You don’t have to look far to find resources online that decry the security flaws in FTP. Increased concerns over privacy, security and compliance regulations are prompting many firms to reevaluate their technology tools, and FTP should rank near the top of that list.

Every other application or program that is as commonly used and tied to as many systems as FTP is given the highest levels of security scrutiny. It is only practical that we should examine our FTP systems in a similar fashion.

2)    Permissions Management

CIO’s, system administrators and webmasters should be all too familiar with the idea of managing permissions. FTP servers are accessible via the web and there are usually multiple users accessing the same FTP site. Because of this ease of accessibility and the folder-file directory system inherent to FTP, there will always be permissions issues. This is especially true if you have a lot of users, a lot of FTP sites that serve various purposes, and/or sensitive data to protect from prying eyes.

Managing who has what level of access and which parts of the FTP server they can see can quickly sap precious time away from IT administrators. FTP seems convenient and it’s easy to use. But it’s imperative to evaluate how much time (and money) is wasted managing FTP users, sites and all their individual directories. After all, your IT department is also managing your servers, your email systems, your workstations, your networks…you get the idea.

3)    Tracking and Monitoring

This one is pretty simple – FTP simply doesn’t have the proper tracking and monitoring capability. Aside from very basic and hard-to-interpret activity logging, there is simply no way to see a visible trail of activity or any way to monitor activity on the server.

With so many users, folders and files – especially on larger FTP servers and web servers – there is too much room for error. Files can get overwritten, deleted or moved and there’s simply no way to immediately know about it, and certainly no way to track down the offender and hold them accountable.

4)    Costly Servers

Most users only see your FTP site from their side of the screen. Perhaps even your own employees are never aware of the ‘back end’. But the reality might prove more sobering, especially to those concerned with the technology budget.

All FTP sites are often based in heavy, space-hogging, high cost servers. If the servers are on-site, they represent a direct cost center to the company, including maintenance, server management, security, cooling systems and more. If the servers are off-site, you’re paying for the colocation, hosting services, monitoring, rack space and support.

Aiming Higher

The quickening pace of the cloud-based file sharing trend is taking the competition toward enterprise-level markets, with leaders in the industry actively pursuing IT departments at bigger businesses.

While there’s still plenty of ebb and flow for competitors in the mainstream small to medium sized business markets, the enterprise-level realm represents a unique challenge.

File sharing giants such as Dropbox are finding that it might be tougher than they thought to apply what they’ve learned from conquering a user base of 25 million by this time last year as they break into enterprise markets.

So far, the needs of users have been relatively clear. FTP Alternatives such as Dropbox and Yousendit enable workers at all levels to accomplish simple, yet important collaborative tasks more quickly and easily.

A ‘Free” For All

Free versions of popular file sharing services are especially attractive, and not just to the bread-and-butter clients in the SMB arena. Employees at enterprise-level firms are indeed gravitating toward the services, but often unbeknownst to – and without the approval of - their respective CIOs.

As a result, the focus is shifting toward the technology leadership at enterprise businesses, but the approach will need some tweaking to land the bigger fish.

You Get What You Pay For

CIOs have greater concerns beyond those of the majority of users. They want systems that are scalable, easy to use, meet their specific needs and integrate seamlessly. But few factors are more important than document security.

In many cases, CIOs are finding that free versions of the more popular services won’t meet their needs effectively. Furthermore, by purchasing enterprise-level licenses for their file sharing software, CIOs can provide their subordinates with the tools they need while mitigating widespread unapproved usage of less secure services that could create vulnerabilities.