Three Predictions on Enterprise File Sharing in 2015

However, the enthusiasm many people have about cloud and similar services has a pitfall: that is, the frequent and devastating breaches of security to have befallen public (for example, the hacking of celebrity cloud accounts) and private (such as the hacking of Target’s customer database last January) file services.

The fact is, many cloud services — even the private, “sophisticated” ones — are woefully underprepared for the security breaches, and that should cause concern for any consumer, casual or not. Companies, which handle millions (if not billions) of digital files, are certainly taking notice of the phenomenon.

“While cloud based file transfer services are attractive for their ease of use and deployment, many lack the necessary security, auditing and regulatory controls required by enterprises today. Companies that handle sensitive data such as financial and or health records need to carefully assess whether a cloud based solution can provide the level of protection needed while also meeting compliance requirements imposed by standards such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and PCI (Payment Card Industry).” said Van Glass, CEO of JSCAPE, a leading provider of managed file transfer software.

Entrepreneur has drawn up three predictions regarding cloud-based platforms to watch out for in 2015:

1. Businesses that use public cloud platforms will continue to be hacked: Businesses that use public cloud platforms such as Dropbox and Google Drive will continue to see their data vulnerable to hacks. Using these platforms is essentially outsourcing private data to a third-party that is distressingly unsecure and unregulated. Files such as employee information, business proposals, and mega-merger term sheets are liable to hacking, which can spell disaster for any business. Private cloud platforms aren’t invincible, to be fair, but at least they offer more information and troubleshooting resources if an incident does occur.
2. Consolidation will cause massive data transfers: Though there are more than 120 cloud-based vendors available today, giant companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have the advantage in terms of money, funds, and resources. Most likely, some of these 120 companies will be integrated into larger ones (as Dropbox was integrated into Microsoft in 2011) or merged with each other. As a result, billions of digital files will have to be moved to different clouds. Large-scale data migrations are incredibly intricate and time-consuming. Moreover, they are just as prone to human error as any other kind of migration.
3. Consolidation will also cause specialization: As cloud vendors acquire or merge with other vendors, the remaining companies will struggle to keep afloat. One probable solution some of these companies will come to is to specialize their services. For example, a cloud vendor may focus on legal files; that is, managing, sharing, and storing digital documents for lawyers, court officials, and clients. As vendors specialize, they will garner more attention from companies weary of public vendors that want tighter security features — features that are typically found in private cloud platforms.

As companies expand and look toward the future, they will see the need to rely on private vendors more and more as security concerns increase. 2015 will be the year of productivity concerns coupled with privacy issues.