We regularly backup our photos,
music and data. Once backed up, it is incredibly easy and convenient to access
these files remotely from our laptops, tablets, and smart phones. The
well-known products that offer such services include Google Drive, Microsoft
Sky Drive, Dropbox, Box, SugarSync and many others. Almost all of them offer
the file storage service free of cost up to a certain storage limit. When
individuals rely so much on these services it is natural for corporate IT
departments to bring in such services into the workplace. Well it does have its
pros and cons.
Let us look at the pros first.
Sharing files with multiple people is now a click of a button; it especially
reduces the hassles with sharing image heavy presentations and videos. It
reduces the costs required to set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and manage
the file storage servers in an internal Data centre. It also helps with
business continuity; a coffee spill on a laptop or any other natural
catastrophes does not cause any loss of data. Since it’s a shared file,
updating is really easy and everyone is guaranteed to get the latest version of
the file. More importantly, companies need not educate their employees on how
to use these services as they use the same in their personal lives.
However, there is increased
complexity to manage the files outside of the internal data centre. Security is
a greatest concern; a malicious hacker can gain access to the entire database
at once. A disgruntled employee can copy the entire data into his personal
cloud, or corrupt the central database. If companies are relying on a third
party cloud then is their data really secure? The third party has complete
access the all the data. Downtime of the cloud due to a virus, surrounding
weather or power outages are serious concerns.
Fortunately, it is possible to
work around the negatives with well drafted and enforced policies. Firstly,
rely on cloud providers with security certifications. Have access restrictions
in place, so that not everyone has access to each and every file. Create a
culture in the company that ensures a sense of responsibility among every
employee about confidential corporate data.
Finally, cloud file sharing is a
boon, whose advantages weigh far more and the disadvantages can be overcome with
proper workarounds. The onus is on every one of us.
References:
Hi Santrupti,
ReplyDeleteIt is a well organized blog with good writing. You fully describe the pro & con of file sharing provided by cloud storage. Also there are some suggestions to handle the dark side of its application. I agree with you that cloud storage provide very attractive features to ease people’s work especially for project collaboration.
Regards,
Hello Santrupti,
ReplyDeleteGood introduction about file sharing with excellent writing. What you've done is to show the pros and cons in the way of file sharing called cloud. What is more, you have raised some of your points about how to utilize the pros and evade/handle the cons.
I believe that cloud, a new-born baby these years, will play a key role in the field of file sharing in the futures. Just keep going on the cloud and you will catch the future.
Above all, thanks for your blog
This is a well written and well thought out post. I enjoyed how you pointed out the pros and cons of cloud sharing. Its also true that this makes it much easier to back up your information. I like that you pointed that out. Its not all about just transferring between people but also transferring for our own use. I appreciate the article that were linked so that the reader can find more information. Overall, I really enjoyed your article.
ReplyDeleteHi Santrupti,
ReplyDeleteGood post on cloud based file sharing. With the availability of internet, cloud has become ubiquitous. Using cloud storage to back-up your files is definitely a good idea. And as you pointed out, once your data is on cloud, you can access it through any device which is very convenient. As you mentioned, data security is one of the most serious concerns with cloud storage. Most people think that storing data on their personal machines is more secure than the storing it on cloud. But with proper access controls same level of security can be achieved even with the cloud.
Santrupti,
ReplyDeleteOne can see right away that you put a lot of effort into writing this blog post. You start with how an individual uses the different file sharing software and gradually progress to how companies can use them. You give an unbiased view of the matter by explaining the pros and cons in detail. You back each of your points up with an explanation. I really like the way you point out not just the cons but also suggest ways in which they can be improved upon !
Great work !!