Sync and Share that CIOs Trust and New Users Love

For all intents and purposes, we have all become the "new user" (e.g. across all demographics—not just GenY/C). We are all more mobile and social than ever before and have become very comfortable interacting with cloud/SaaS-based applications. We are using an average of five to seven different devices and are very active when it comes to sharing content in our personal lives (pictures, videos, music, articles, etc.) with family and friends. To avoid the traditional limitations and frustrations of email, we've been using tools like Dropbox and other cloud-based services—and consequently have grown accustomed to the ease and flexibility of sharing information. It simply doesn't matter where we are or what devices (iPads, iPhones, Android, iPod Touches, etc.) we're using to access and share information. This seamless and frictionless experience is what we've come to expect—creating a new usage pattern commonly referred to as "sync and share."

The Challenge

However, when we go to work it's a completely different story—the experience we've grown to expect is pretty much non-existent. Think about the sheer frustration (and sometimes stark terror) when we're under the gun to send or get access to that critical presentation (especially when dealing with third parties)—and then find out that the file is too large to send/retrieve in email. We then find ourselves scrambling to set up FTP sites or breaking files up into manageable chunks—while our deadline mercilessly draws near. It's at those moments when we realize one of the key benefits of sync and share and challenge the organization to provide the same experience at work as we do at home. However, we're reminded (by IT, and rightfully so) of compliance rules, IP sensitivity and other regulatory requirements stipulating why our corporate knowledge must be protected.

To address this issue, we've used "shared work-space" tools to set up secure environments to exchange content. However, this approach has shown to have limitations given the complexity supporting such environments (setting up VPN access, setting up and maintaining users and groups, etc.). In addition, these tools don't natively allow you to manage and control content once it gets to mobile devices—nor do they easily synchronize content across all devices and environments/repositories as changes are made. This hardly creates an environment and experience that's seamless and frictionless.

As a result, many have begun to bring consumer sync and share applications (Dropbox and others) into the enterprise—often ignoring or consciously accepting the inherent security risks created by such tools. Just like a scale, when more weight is given to userproductivity, the lack of enterprise controls creates more risk for the organization. In addition, these tools often introduce another new repository/silo/infrastructure-adding further complexity to managing a single "source of truth" (i.e. record). What is created is yet another copy of "the truth" which challenges IT and/or users to keep it all synchronized. On top of all of this, these tools lack the enterprise pedigree of proven performance and scalability (along with the aforementioned security issues) to meet the demands of today's highly regulated industries—creating another technical nightmare and risk for IT. This hardly creates an environment that's seamless and frictionless—or in this case... even secure.

The Solution

As a result, a tremendous void has existed in the market where organizations have had to make tough choices between user productivity and ensuring corporate compliance/trust. What is needed is a true enterprise sync and share solution (as offered by EMC's Syncplicity) that eliminates the whole "productivity versus trust" debate—by providing both. It must provide a simple and intuitive experience to share, collaborate and keep content synchronized across all environments and devices—with the enterprise-class performance and security that companies require. To accomplish this, several key capabilities are required:

1. A cloud/SaaS offering—ensuring anywhere, anytime access;

2. Seamless user interaction—uses existing file folder structure; no need to manually drag and drop content. It provides online and offline access at all times, to all files, folders, versions and sharing content without size limitations;

3. All content is managed in place—providing seamless and automated synchronization across everything (repositories and devices); no need to create a separate repository/"space"/infrastructure to enable the sharing of content. This ensures a single, consistent document of record, every time;

4. Enterprise-grade mobile access—providing access to every file you need from virtually any device (iPad, iPhone, Android-and now even Kindle Fire);

5. Provides IT with the controls to govern internal and external data access and safety policies-including file and folder sharing restrictions, retention policies, device and location restrictions and remote wipe options; and

6. Enterprise-level security and reliability—providing complete access control (including single sign-on and 2-factor authentication), full data encryption (AES-256), military-grade security certification (SAS 70 Type II, PCI DSS, DoD 52220.22, NIST 800-88) and complete data durability (99.999999999%, multiple data center and geographic distribution).

Moving Forward

Now more than ever, the power of ECM can be easily delivered to the masses (internally and externally) without the complexity and limitations of the past. Users can truly have anytime, anywhere, and any device access in a seamless, frictionless collaborative experience. At the same time IT has the security controls and enterprise-class performance needed to protect the organization. This enables organizations to deliver a new dimension of speed, service and simplicity to customers, partners, suppliers and employees. The key to this transformation is providing sync and share that CIOs trust and "new users" love.