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In the technology world, we’ve had a few action packed weeks. First, Box announced their integration with Google Docs. Then, Microsoft made their highly anticipated announcement of Microsoft 365, their cloud solution of productivity apps that includes Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync. Next, Google rebutted the announcement in their enterprise blog entitled “365 reasons to consider Google Apps”. And lastly, Box jumped into the fray with a ding at Microsoft for being late to the cloud game and why Box’s open platform is better for consumers.

You might be wondering if there is any valuable information in all this noise. Well, despite the proliferation of cloud computing, Microsoft Office is still the de facto application for business – with 31 million copies of Office 2010 sold. And it’s likely that those organizations will continue to use Microsoft products. But many small to medium (SMBs) businesses and newer companies have embraced the cloud wholeheartedly. They often use more consumer-oriented solutions such as Google and Box due to lower costs, flexibility, and perceived ease of use. They are often looking for more platform-agnostic solutions and not necessarily for enterprise-class solutions, which offer the security that every business requires today.

At Accellion, we spend a lot of time thinking about how employees at large and small companies securely share and send files. In fact, we’ve built our entire business around the premise that information can be shared securely. We offer our solutions through a web interface, native mobile apps, and plug-ins for Microsoft Outlook, OCS and SharePoint, as well as other business applications such as iManage so that users can securely share files through the business applications they already use.

For those of our customers who migrate to Microsoft 365 or are new to Microsoft 365, Accellion offers an Outlook plug-in that enables your users to securely send files to recipients.

Remember that no matter whether your organization uses a desktop or cloud solution, it should allow you to securely send information. To learn more, download our whitepaper, “Secure File Transfer and Collaboration in the Cloud: Maximizing the Benefits While Minimizing the Risks.”

Between this week’s high profile security vulnerability of free, cloud-based services and the recent iCloud announcement, the good, bad, and ugly of cloud deployments have garnered a lot of attention.

For the record, Accellion solutions are sold only to business and government organizations.  Our customers have a choice in deployment options including, virtual or physical appliances, and public or private cloud.  They can also have hybrid deployments.

No matter where you sit on the relative benefits of cloud deployments, the fact remains that employees are increasingly taking advantage of cloud-based consumer services to share confidential information and collaborate with people outside the organization, with little to no regard for corporate and IT security policies.  These consumer-grade solutions allow individuals to share, send and sync files between devices, yet leave IT and security teams with no visibility into the sharing of enterprise data.   With Apple iOS’ lack of a file system, iPad users are especially prone to using these applications.

Enterprises need to get ahead of the issue of how employees share information. Best practice requirements that cannot be met with consumer, dropbox-type applications include:

o    Flexible deployment options
o    Centralized IT administration and management
o    Full audit and log capabilities
o    Track and own your enterprise data

Bill French at iPadCTO sums it up best:

Box, DropBox, (and soon iCloud), represent the fast-food industry of document collaboration. Accellion is a sit-down restaurant complete with a five-course menu and even a chef in the kitchen who will customize your meal if you ask. And this restaurant has a really cool customer relationship feature that will tell you precisely what you and everyone in your party ate, when you ate it, and how many calories were in it. Oh yeah, and they serve outstanding espresso in an environment that’s pleasurable to have intimate conversations without the noise and distractions of a hyper-fast eatery.

As I mentioned, Accellion, unlike competing solutions, is sold only to business and government organizations and all customers have oversight of their cloud and on premise installations – including public, private, or hybrid cloud deployments.  We let you make the choice.

We offer an enterprise solution that offers the control and flexibility that IT needs while keeping business users happy with an easy-to-use file sharing application that can be used anytime from anywhere.

For more information, read our latest white paper: Secure File Transfer and Collaboration in the Cloud: Maximizing the Benefits While Minimizing the Risks.

What’s the biggest risk on IT security peoples’ minds currently?  According to ISACA, the not-for-profit IT security association, it is staff-owned mobile devices.

Survey respondents acknowledge the risks mobile devices pose, with 58% of respondents saying mobile gear, particularly tablets and smartphones, represent the greatest risk to the enterprise and 44% saying they are aware of corporate data being insecurely stored on such devices.

Rolf von Roessing, the association’s International Vice President, stated in an interview with InfoSecurity Magazine:

Protection and risk management are more important than ever, and they should be seen as a strategic imperative.

Do studies like this help you in your quest to move this “strategic imperative” up the food chain in your organization and lend it some urgency?  Are your executives coming to you for advice on how to secure enterprise information on these devices?  If not, how long do you think it’s going to take them to make it a priority?

We just wrapped up our second Accellion Customer Conference of 2011, and it was great to experience the energy of our customers. We had a large number of attendees and engaging questions regarding our current and future product portfolio.

During yesterday’s session, the Accellion team took the opportunity to deliver Secure Collaboration tips and tricks, show a demo of our Mobile Apps, and provide updates on how customers can upgrade to the latest solutions.

For those customers who attended, and took the opportunity to engage with the Accellion team, we want to thank you. For customers who missed it, you can visit the Accellion Forum to listen to a recording of the session.

If you are interested in learning more about our Secure Collaboration solution with Mobile Apps, please contact our sales team. We’d love to share with you how Accellion can help your organization securely collaborate with colleagues, vendors, partners, and customers.

We look forward to seeing you at the next conference.

It was reported from last week’s HIPAA conference, sponsored by OCR and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, that the final rule that will strengthen HIPAA privacy and security safeguards will be released by the end of 2011.  Sue McAndrew, deputy director for health information privacy at the Office of Civil Rights in the Health and Human Services Department, went so far as to say:

“I really am hoping that we are now targeting months, if not weeks, for the publication.”

That article also reported:

As part of the final rule, business associates, which supply services and activities on behalf of healthcare providers and health plans, will be obligated to comply with HIPAA, and they will be responsible for their subcontractors following it also, McAndrew said.

Health Care organizations and their business partners should start thinking about how to provision their employees with ways to collaborate and share confidential information to improve compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA and reduce the risk of data breaches now.  If you are interested in learning more about this topic, download the Accellion White Paper: Secure File Sharing for HIPAA Compliance: Protecting PHI.