Cloud filesharing systems are all the same, right? Think again. While most of the household names boast similar features and pricing, there are dozens of other variables you should consider, some of which have significant financial, security, or business-continuity implications.
Consider this scenario: you’ve recently migrated your entire organization to a cloud-based fileshare, and employees have been using an app to sync shared folders to their computers. One of your users accidentally installs malware, which then infects these folders. The malicious files sync to the cloud, then to the entire company. Shouldn’t your filesharing system be able to block malware or quickly restore infected files from backup? You would expect so, but in our extensive experience across many clients and many solutions, this isn’t always the case.
The only thing worse than living through an IT nightmare is finding out you were overly optimistic about your recovery options. Details that don’t seem critical in normal times—like the quality of your provider’s support team or the speed of backup restoration—become the difference between maintaining seamless operations and shutting down for an extended outage or, even worse, losing valuable data.
Here’s another common scenario: Your team has been collaborating on a presentation for weeks when, just before the deadline, the file disappears. You reach out to IT, but their hands are tied because the original owner accidentally un-shared the document. The only solution is to get the owner to correct their mistake—but they just left on a week-long backpacking trip.
Many cloud-based filesharing systems use a peer-to-peer model, where the power lies with users. It’s important that users have enough control to share files without leaning on IT for every move, but too much power creates issues for the true owner of the data—the organization. Business-first systems give administrators full access to and control over all files, folders, and permissions, eliminating scenarios like the one above and minimize file retention and security issues.
We analyzed all major cloud filesharing providers across 18 security, financial, performance, and business-continuity variables and concluded that the best cloud-filesharing tool on the market is Egnyte, which optimizes performance, quality of service, security, and recoverability at a reasonable price. A close second was OneDrive for Business, a great option for organizations already on the Office 365 platform. Both of these products have a business-first architecture, setting them apart from most other popular alternatives. Between these two and the rest of the crowd was a large gap—Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive did not measure up to our front-runners, and we have plenty of frustrating examples from our experience trying to support these products that back up this conclusion. When you consider Egnyte’s advantages, it’s hard to believe that Box and Dropbox cost about the same.
Every organization has different needs and filesharing tools are not always one size fits all. If you’re a Kinetix client, your Client Success Manager would be happy to help you determine the best fit for your team. If you’re not a client, reach out to us at moreinfo@kinetix.com or contact us here.
