Sensitive company data is at risk of being exposed, thanks to employees using their personal devices, and public cloud providers, to store work documents. Huddle’s ‘State of the Enterprise Information Landscape‘ report found 91% of US workers used a personal device for work documents, and 38% of the workforce used a personal cloud account as work storage.
Breaking down worker demographics, the report found:
- Men are more likely than women to use a personal cloud solution in work (43% v 30%)
- People under 38 are most likely to use a personal cloud solution (53%)
Document overload
The driving force behind the use of cloud storage and personal devices seems to be a feeling of ‘document overload’ with employees feeling their existing work tools aren’t able to meet their working and collaboration needs.
- 65% Try to attach large files to emails
- 50% Want the ability to work from anywhere
- 49% Want a single place to access all their documents
- 28% Have problems searching for docs
- 24% Find themselves waiting on coworkers
- 21% Have issues finding the most recent version of a document
Organisations which find ways to improve employee collaboration, document sharing, and provide anywhere access to information will benefit hugely in the future. Improved collaboration and faster communication helps businesses run more efficiently, with quicker decision making and customer responses. However. it’s essential companies decide on a solution that improves document management without impacting on data security.
Personal clouds are not the answer. Instead IT departments need to look at how they can combine a secure, private, cloud with access across multiple devices from any location their employees are working from.
SMS offer several business cloud storage services, giving organisations the flexibility to choose the one right for them. Our most popular is OneDrive for Business — available as part of Microsoft Office 365.
