Secure Low-Cost Data Sharing and Collaboration With iPad

Cloud-based storage services offer a low-cost alternative to high-end enterprise-class collaboration tools. At the same time, a new class of intelligent mobile devices — smartphones and tablets, spearheaded by the iPad — is driving the need to share sensitive data while on the move. For many organizations, the basic requirement is the ability for a small group of users to share a set of documents related to a specific project.

With business needs and the sudden availability of viable mobile platforms driving this initiative, IT departments are struggling to determine the security of the cloud and mobile platforms that compose this new infrastructure. Senior management's adoption of new and attractive devices, such as the iPad, makes it extremely difficult for IT departments to prohibit their use on corporate networks. Dropbox and iPad have become an irresistible combination.

Given the availability and low cost of these low-end solutions, users are taking advantage of them in their own homegrown solutions, often regardless of corporate policy. Thus, it is imperative that IT departments address these low-end solutions quickly to restrict their use, or transition users to a more appropriate environment to ensure that those solutions are as secure as possible.

I have a new Analysis Brief in the pipeline that examines the security issues surrounding the use of cloud-based data sharing and collaboration services to share sensitive corporate data with your iPad.

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