

As soon as information is shared, no limits can generally be placed over the period of accessibility or the number of downloads. Personal sharing solutions do not give central oversight over what information is shared, and with whom. Even if back-ups are realized, most CGFS organizations do not expose an easily accessible channel to request a copy of backed-up data. Most users or organizations trust solutions to keep the most recent and correct versions of any file, without realizing that there are little solutions that implement any protection against data corruption. Corrupted DataĪ study by CERN shows that silent data corruption is introduced in about 1 out of every 1500 files. Also, the system can easily be abused by an end-user to permanently delete files. If no history retention or deleted-file protection is in place, the previous versions will also be lost in the cloud. Data LossĪs the design of sync solutions is such that changes to files and folders are directly synced to all connected devices, any file deletions or incorrect changes will automatically be carried through on all synced devices. With information being replicated on countless personal devices, the administration loses control over the information and the risk of data theft or abuse drastically increases. The IT administration and business owners are not aware of product installations and cannot control the devices that are able to sync with corporate shares.

Many of the issues with CGFS solutions emanate from a lack of oversight. The best-known solution that falls into this category is Dropbox Personal, but the same applies to the regular, and free, versions of OneDrive and Google Drive. “What makes it unsafe for my organization? And how can we avoid the use of these consumer applications?” In this blog series we’ll tell you all about it.”Ĭonsumer-grade file sync solutions (referred to as CGFS solutions) pose many challenges to businesses that care about control and visibility over company data.
