I recently wrote an article for CMSWire discussing the latest trends in enterprise mobility and what to look out for in 2015.
Mobility has been a hot topic in the enterprise space for nearly two decades. However, times have certainly changed since the world was dominated by Blackberry and Palm. The enterprise mobility space is now a robust, highly specialized, and rapidly responsive environment where even Microsoft allows users to edit Office files on third-party mobile applications. Why? User experience, integration, and productivity rule the market, and for IT administrators, understanding the trends that drive this ever-changing marketplace is crucial.
What’s Hot:
- Control of Highly Sensitive Content: Organizations have started to realize that not every piece of content needs to have the utmost security controls applied to it. As such, solutions are beginning to forgo the mandate of content security and focus on the concept of content control.
- EFSS Solutions Deeply Integrated with ECM: The enterprise file sync and share market has blossomed quickly, now with more than 100 vendors competing for their share of the market. One of the biggest differentiators is integration with enterprise content management (ECM) systems like SharePoint, Office 365, EMC, SAP, and OpenText.
- Hybrid Solutions: Although there is plenty of marketing buzz around mobile and cloud exclusively shaping the future of business, hybrid solutions – combining on-premises and cloud investments – are gaining popularity in the IT field.
What’s Not:
- Content Security and the “Dropbox Problem”: Locking down everything no longer makes sense, and often causes employees to overstep these administrative boundaries and use unmanaged, consumer-based solutions to increase productivity.
- Stand-Alone Solutions: As the Mobile Device Management (MDM), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM), Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS), and ECM markets continue to converge, stand-alone solutions in any of these spaces may soon find themselves targets for acquisition or elimination.
- Cloud-Only Solutions: With storage no longer a differentiator and numerous options to connect on-premises content to the cloud, cloud-only solutions must now find new ways to stand out amongst the pack.
- BYOD: Bring Your Own Device policies are still relevant for organizations, but many have already adopted solutions – or at least policies outlining the dos and don’ts.
To read more about the enterprise mobility trends for 2015, please visit CMSWire.
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In the financial services area, the “dropbox” problem still exists and hopefully 2015 is the year that large file transfer becomes a standard operating procedure rather than a exception or case-by-case solution.
unfortunately is not just the financial services area that is having the “dropbox” issue. It is rampant everywhere, and corporations are losing their IP.
Could not agree more. This is a widespread, common issue that affects organizations across all industries and sizes. Content is king in more ways than one, and it often represents the company’s IP, trade secrets, and future. Large file transfer is also dangerous in that if it’s not controlled, audited and secured, it can be made freely available by the recipient or intercepted by malicious forces while in transit.
To combat these issues, AvePoint has introduced AvePoint Perimeter, a secure collaboration solution for SharePoint. Large file transfer is a primary story here, as it facilitates transfers of files up to 2GB without the need for a FTP server, extranet or cloud-based solution. For more information on Perimeter, please visit the following link: https://www.avepoint.com/products/mobility-and-productivity/sharepoint/perimeter/
I agree that companies are figuring out that not all data needs to be treated as confidential, and this has begun to open the door for hybrid solutions. The trick is to figure out effectively and efficiently which data is and is not confidential.
Suzanne, this is a great point. This hinges on three core ideas. First, the idea of content security vs. control, as stated above. The other two are the concept of classification of data, and the ability to restrict and control sharing of information based on that classification. As organizations consider moving to the cloud or making a larger investment there, they must be cognizant of the risks it can present, as well as a classification structure on how to ensure only the right information is moved, created or consumed there.
You need solutions that key into these stories and give organizations the flexibility to choose, enforce, regulate and share on a ongoing basis. For anyone facing these types of issues, I would recommend taking a look at our Compliance Guardian & Perimeter solutions as a way to set this up in a secure, controlled fashion.
Thank you very much for your feedback and insight Suzanne, much appreciated!
Suzanne, this is indeed a great point. Classification of data is the first step to me in data protection. It helps also users to become aware of what is sensitive data and what can be shared without concerns. However the big hurdle is how to get all data classified; firstly the current tools are not very user-friendly and secondly they are not cross platform and as such hard to get successfully introduced.
Good post.
I think too many companies fail to start with a risk/threat assessment and end up over estimating the cost of some threats.
Hi Jason,
Definitely agree on this. Impact and threat assessments are key building blocks for not only compliance assurance, but also overall network and application security.
Good post Daniel. Thanks for sharing. However the trend can’t be restricted as mobile enterprise is the field with spontaneous innovations. One such innovations that emerged is Cloud MBaaS (Mobile Backend as a Service) which is a server side mobile services for multiple platforms. Check this article to get into more details. Article Link