Archive for the ‘Collaboration’ Category

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What’s next? Constant Reinvention.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

What’s next?  I was inspired to consider this question today after reading John D. Halamka’s blog entry on Life as a Heathcare CIO.

If you’re not familiar with his work, John Halamka is, an MD, MS, and is Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network (NEHEN), Co-Chair of the HIT Standards Committee, a full Professor at Harvard Medical School, and a practicing Emergency Physician.  He is also a long time Accellion customer and has implemented Accellion’s secure file sharing at both BIDMC and Harvard Medical School.  You can read more about his implementation of Accellion in this eWeek article.

Given the scope of his career, it seems like he must ask himself the “What’s Next?” question a lot.  On his blog he answers it.  What’s next?  Constant Reinvention.  He recently announced he is going to step down as CIO of Harvard Medical School, help them find a fulltime replacement for the role and embrace the next reinvention of his career.  About the next phase of his career he states:

It’s July of 2011… and I feel powerful forces are aligning to create a quantum leap forward in electronic health records and health information exchange technology.

We think he’s right.  Healthcare organizations are struggling with the growing use of mobile devices and unmanaged Dropbox-type of solutions in their enterprise and need to secure, manage and audit the mobile sharing of electronic health records, research and other Protected Health Information (PHI).  They know this problem puts the organization at risk for non-compliance with HIPAA and Hitech. The organization could also run the risk of a serious data breach, making news headlines, and incurring hefty regulatory fines.

Accellion’s healthcare customers tend to be more savvy than most and care about offering their staff easy to use file sharing and collaboration applications while still securing and managing sensitive patient and research data.

Accellion is constantly introducing new products and features, and the market continues to have new problems to solve – unmanaged Dropbox-type of solutions in the enterprise, proliferation of new mobile devices.  Asking “What’s Next?” helps us all to thrive and innovate.

So, thanks John for providing today’s inspiration and we wish you luck for your next reinvention.

Posted in Accellion, Collaboration, Data Breach, Data Security, Healthcare, HIPAA, Mobile | No Comments »

Accellion in Action: Seattle Children’s Hospital

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

A recent issue of Research Practitioner Magazine includes the article, “Collaboration Moves Research, Clinical Knowledge” and talks about the importance of medical researchers reaching out to potential collaborators, nearby and globally, as they work on ground-breaking medical research.

For more than 100 years, one such facility, Seattle Children’s Hospital, has provided inpatient, outpatient, diagnostic, surgical, rehabilitative, behavioral, emergency and outreach services to children from infancy through young adulthood.  Part of Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, has nine major centers, and is internationally recognized for its work in cancer, genetics, immunology, pathology, infectious disease, injury prevention and bioethics.

Accellion customer Wes Wright, Chief Technology Officer at Seattle Children’s, weighed in on how Seattle Children’s uses file transfer and collaboration technology from Accellion to facilitate their research.

Seattle Children’s Hospital in Washington struggled sending secure files through a difficult-to-use secure file transfer protocol server and using email encryption. Less than a year ago, however, the hospital and foundation switched to a Web-based program, one that offers encryption, user tracking, and transfer of large data files. The program is offered by Accellion, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

The switch to the new file transfer system was spurred primarily by research needs, says Wes Wright, vice president and chief technology officer at Seattle Children’s. “We put the solution in to help us transfer data files for research, but it has since spread out among the whole organization.” After the purchase, the system took only took about three weeks to implement.

About 4,800 employees use the system now… the reason is the simplicity of the plug-in, Wright says. If a user wants to transfer a file, he opens Microsoft Outlook and chooses new mail. In the right-hand corner of the new mail is a plug-in that says “Accellion.” “You hit that button and it opens a file browse window. You browse to the file you want and attach it.”

…The system also tracks who has downloaded and looked at each file. “Whenever anyone accesses a particular file, we keep a log of it,” he says. Sometimes researchers send the file to themselves and download it on their home systems so they can work at home. “We know that user X sent it to himself and then downloaded it when he got home. We can keep track of that file and where it went.”

Such technology is “the wave of the future with HIPAA and high-tech regulations and rules,” Wright says. “The easier we can make it to securely share and collaborate among researchers, it’s going to be a research differentiator.”

We’re so proud Seattle Children’s Hospital staff and research team use Accellion to help move such important work forward.

Posted in Accellion, Collaboration, Data Security, Email Attachments, Healthcare, HIPAA, Mobile | No Comments »

Lord of the Files – File Sharing Gone Wild

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Who would have thought that the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, an English literature staple for English schoolchildren, was not only the idea behind the popular TV series “Lost”, but also provides important parallels to the story currently unfolding of enterprise file sharing gone wild.  In the Lord of the Flies the attempts by the group of British schoolboys to govern themselves when stranded on a deserted island is in some ways akin to how business users are today attempting to govern their file sharing when deserted by IT.

The major themes of the Lord of the Flies include an exploration of the conflicts of civilization and the loss of innocence, both of which seem applicable to the current conflict of business user vs. IT in the world of enterprise file sharing.  While the novel, and even the TV show, may be rather more graphic on the conflict of living by rules vs. savagery, valuing the good of the group vs. individual gratification and exploring law vs. anarchy perhaps some good lessons can be learned?  Just how would Ralph, Jack, Simon and Piggy, the main characters in Lord of the Flies have handled file sharing?

Ralph, the elected leader of the group, the representative of order, civilization and productivity, thinks about how the boys should organize themselves and get to work to maximize their chance of survival and rescue.  Is Ralph perhaps the CIO figure?  Would Ralph, the CIO, be taking charge, implementing an enterprise file sharing solution so business users can not only survive and can get their jobs done, but also stay out of trouble.

Jack, the opposite of Ralph, the character representing savagery not civilization, demonstrates how he can use his savagery to control the boys who increasingly abandon civilization to follow him.  Hmmmm… not sure about this Jack character, although we have all seen business users do things they shouldn’t.

Simon, is the character who just does what is right not because of Ralph or Jack’s influence, but just because he knows it is the right thing to do.  This would be the business user every organization would like to have.

Piggy, the inventor and intellectual, uses his inventiveness to benefit the group.  It is Piggy who initially finds a conch and blows it to bring all the boys together on the island and Piggy who makes a sundial so they can tell the time.  Piggy, in the world of enterprise file sharing would have early on blown the conch he discovered, to alert IT and Security teams that they needed to work together to give business users a way to share files securely.  Piggy would also be the one to design and implement the system.

So how does this story end?  In Lord of the Flies, the boys are eventually rescued and returned to civilization, but not without some casualties.  The adult who steps onto the island does remark that he would have expected better from British boys!

How does the story end in enterprise file sharing?  I’m betting on the Ralphs and Simons of the world to give this story a happy ending.

Posted in Accellion, Cloud, Collaboration, Email Attachments, UK | 1 Comment »

How many of your employees are taking their iPad or iPhone on vacation?

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Leaving the office behind has always been a challenge for some, but the iPad is now making it even harder. As employees head to the beach, mountains, and island getaways how many husbands and wives are sneaking an iPad into their luggage?

In the past 12 months, with the introduction of the iPad, there has been a surge in the volume of users.  According to information released by Apple for their investor community, close to 25 million iPads have been sold to date.

Many of these iPads are being used for business, and employees are taking advantage of free and low cost cloud-based collaboration solutions to solve their file sharing needs, without adequate security, tracking, or visibility for the organization.

When your employees and their partners are using free, unmanaged cloud-based services to share and sync files, you know your organization is at risk for a data breach, intellectual property theft or non-compliance.  Well, actually, because they’re using these apps and you have no visibility into what they’re doing, maybe you don’t know how exposed your organization is to a data breach.  Consider this instead: how many people in your organization do you think are taking their iPads on vacation with them this summer, and how many plan to access business information on their iPad?  iPads are also attractive targets for thieves and can be accidentally left behind.

Accellion announced today that our native file sharing and collaboration application for the iPad and iPhone have been made available for download off of the App Store in iTunes just in time for school to be out and vacations to begin.  Designed to work with Accellion Secure Collaboration, the Accellion Mobile Apps for iPad and iPhone are now available for download for free from the App Store in iTunes.  Download the app, and know there’s one less thing to worry about before you go on vacation – of course getting caught doing work on vacation might still get you in trouble with your loved ones.  We can’t help you there.

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Posted in Accellion, Collaboration, Data Breach, Data Security, Mobile | No Comments »

What we can learn from our friends in the Government

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

Reports from the team who attended GovSec in Washington DC highlighted that there is a lot to be learned from the government sector.  Based on recent conversations, it seems to me, government IT organizations are among the most risk averse of all industry sectors.  Risk adverse organizations are:
o    Proactive; they don’t wait for a data breach to happen, they secure their communications
o    Most likely to have an organization-wide data risk assessment and profile
o    Understand that a true adversary only has to be right once, but your security measures have to be right in every possible way
o    And understand that the most destructive adversary can easily come, accidentally or intentionally, from within the organization.

We’ve seen plenty of high profile, reputation-destroying data breaches this month, including the recent notable addition of Sony to the list.  We’re still waiting for specifics on how many of these data breaches occurred, and the true price Sony will ultimately pay, not just in lost revenue while the network was down, but also in lost future revenue as gamers switch to the competition.

Most organizations wait till a major problem happens, and then take action.  John Pironti, during a recent Accellion-sponsored Enterprise 2.0 webinar, entitled “5 Security Essentials for Collaboration” put it best.  After a data breach, companies,   “fire people, hire a new outside security team, and throw a lot of money at finding a solution.  For six months.  And then attention wanes.”

Maybe it’s because politics is fickle, maybe it’s driven by regulatory compliance, or maybe it’s because government – federal, state and local agencies have seen the repercussions of data breaches and have digested tough lessons from their peers.  Whatever the reason, we have seen robust growth in this segment, with new Accellion government wins across the globe, from The Bahamas to Western Australia, from governing bodies to law enforcement agencies.  Organizations have to react once a data breach or noncompliance occurs, but it’s great to able to point to some good news and a market segment that’s being proactive.

 

Posted in Accellion, Collaboration, Data Breach, Data Security, Government, UK | No Comments »

The Data Breach that Keeps on Giving

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

The Epsilon data breach of last week keeps on giving, with millions of email notifications being sent out from the companies affected, informing recipients of the incident.  The New York Times has weighed in and made recommendations for Congress to address this type of failure for consumers with an editorial “Who Really Sent That E-Mail?”

The breach at Epsilon underscores the urgent need for a federal standard of data safety that ensures companies follow adequate policies and procedures to protect consumers’ information and determines companies’ legal liability for breaches. As Congress debates new data privacy rules, it should put data security at the forefront.

We agree with the The New York Times about the importance of protecting consumer information and hope Congress and more companies take data security seriously.  Trusting third party marketers with your data is a risk, but there are ways to mitigate the risks and share securely.  A big part of why corporations and government agencies deploy Accellion is to be able to keep track of who is using what data when, internally and across organizational boundaries.

Posted in Accellion, Collaboration, Data Breach, Data Security | No Comments »

Top Ten Reasons You Need Secure Collaboration

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

10.  Your company has already had a data breach. Don’t make the same mistake twice.  According to a recent survey by McAfee, only half of the companies who have had a data breach or attempted data breach, have taken steps to remediate and protect systems for the future.

9.  People don’t think before they send files. Ideally, they would think twice. But they don’t.  A lawyer accidentally sent a confidential document to a New York Times reporter instead of to a law colleague–both shared the same last name. The result: Nightmare on Email Street.

8.  People get distracted and leave things behind, including that shiny new iPad with the latest sales pricing and quotes.

7.  People write down passwords in obvious places including the same bag their iPad was in when it was left behind.

6.  People turn off security safeguards if they get in the way.

5.  No matter what kind of company you are, you can be a target. The recent data breach at marketing firm, Epsilon, ended up being a colossal 2,500 company data breach, for the price of one.  Epsilon counts brands like BestBuy and Citigroup among its 2,500 customers, or did.

4.  People upload documents to unsecure file-sharing sites even when they know they shouldn’t. Doctors, in blatant violation of HIPAA, have been known to “go outside the system” to send MRIs, including use of free dropbox-type services.

3.  People download files they shouldn’t. If an employee leaves a company, sensitive files often leave, too.  Even worse, files may continue auto-syncing.

2.  Customers get mad when their credit card information is stolen, especially when they get charged for a 3D HDTV that they didn’t order, and that wasn’t delivered to their house.

1.  You like your job and want to keep it.

 

Accellion Secure Collaboration: Share Securely.

 

Posted in Accellion, Collaboration, Data Breach, Data Security | No Comments »

“Forget telling execs they can’t use their new shiny iPad”

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Thanks Mike Rothman, analyst and president at security research firm Securosis, for pointing out in this week’s CSO article by George Hulme, that denying execs the use of their shiny new iPads is not going to make anyone popular. We agree with you Mike, “You have to try to find a way to secure these devices the best you can.”

Judging by the lines outside the Apple stores, more iPads are heading into the enterprise, so this issue is not going away. What’s the big deal with iPads? George Hulme sums it up perfectly “One of the biggest challenges the consumerization of IT creates for the enterprises is the lack of control over where work data is stored and how it’s shared on user devices.”

So if your execs are starting to show their high-tech flair, bringing iPads into the office – here’s our Accellion iPad security tip to keep everyone happy and secure:

Implement Accellion Secure Collaboration so that execs have secure access to sensitive information from their iPads but the information is stored on secure servers not on their iPads.

The result:

i) Your execs get to use their shiny new iPads to easily and securely access and share information with internal and external users.

ii) Confidential information is stored securely on IT managed servers.

iii) You have complete tracking of all file activity including dates and times of all downloads, uploads and recipients.

iv) When your exec leaves their iPad at the client site, on the train, in a conference room, you don’t need to call in a SWAT team, Accellion has you covered and your files are safe.

Here’s a link to more information about Accellion mobile apps. It’s the app every exec with a shiny iPad needs, so they don’t tarnish your company’s security.

 

Posted in Accellion, Collaboration, Data Breach, Data Security, Mobile, Product | No Comments »

Observations from Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit – Part I

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Accellion is participating at the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration (PCC) Summit this week as part of the launch of our new Secure Collaboration Solution.

A couple of interesting takeaways from the first day of the Gartner Summit:

Hybrid cloud deployments will be the norm for enterprise deployments of portals, content and collaboration as enterprise organizations balance security and cost management. Accommodating the security requirements of different geographies, users and information sensitivity means public cloud only solutions are not viable for most enterprise organizations.  This was good to hear given Accellion’s breadth of on-premise and in-the-cloud public, private and hybrid deployment options for secure collaboration and file transfer.

The real value of enterprise content is when it is in-motion being shared with people inside and outside the organization. Enterprise content management systems represent content at rest, which for most organizations is a cost. When this content is shared as part of a business process in the form of legal contracts, product designs, sales proposals, then it generates value for the organization. Sounds good to us, since Accellion is all about sharing information securely.

More today at the conference on the mobile worker and the social enterprise.  Accellion iPhone and iPad app demo got a good workout yesterday at the Exhibit – devices are both recharged for today.

Posted in Accellion, Cloud, Collaboration, Product | No Comments »

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