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Will the Public Cloud Ever be Safe for Enterprise Files?

By Tom Scearce, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Attachmate and Novell

Controlling corporate data. It’s the number one priority for enterprise IT. Several recent
breaches into public consumer cloud services (significantly among them Dropbox, JPMorgan
Chase, PayTime, Inc., Deltek, and many more, including Goodwill Industries) have proven that
security concerns for enterprise files are justified. So what’s the solution?

Obviously better security systems, but choosing among the many offerings often comes down to
which vendor is the cleverest marketer, and that’s a dangerous trend. As the enterprise file-
sync-and-share (EFSS) market continues to heat up – there are now more than 120 third-party
vendors vying for market share, many leveraging the public cloud – many vendors have created
clever marketing campaigns that promise innovative solutions with top-notch security, but they
are often fraught with peril.

In a nutshell, here’s how these vendors work:

• Target tech-savvy consumers and mobile professionals with free, easy-to-use file
sharing software.
• Give generous amounts of free storage to these users, who in turn recruit their friends,
collaborators, and clients to use the software.
• As these network effects take hold, monitor the platform for accumulations of users
within large enterprises.
• Pitch a company-wide license to these enterprises, presenting active user counts as
proof that “the people have spoken, and our product has won.”

Unfortunately, IT leaders are put in the awkward position by top management: Choose a
“winner” among several EFSS products that often genuinely lack adequate, enterprise-grade
security and management features. If you’re one of the IT leaders being asked to make these
uncomfortable trade-offs, pay attention to what follows.

It’s popular, so it must be secure. Right?

As has been proven time and again, just because everyone is doing something doesn’t make it
a good idea. Take late-1920s America, and the rush to buy stocks on margin, or the lax real
estate market before the financial crisis of 2008. History reminds us that rising tides eventually
fall. And when it does, many ships are left stranded.

There’s a parallel in the current EFSS market. It is extremely risky for enterprise management to
assume, despite the claims of some EFSS vendors, that end-user adoption numbers have any
bearing on a product’s readiness to meet enterprise security requirements. This is particularly
true for enterprises in highly regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and education.
4 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – December 2014 Edition
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