The Surging Importance of Private Cloud File Sharing

Private Cloud File Sharing – Globe.com Photo

Cloud computing is increasingly being adopted by organizations to improve productivity and efficiency. When it comes to file sharing and collaboration, cloud services such as DropBox is the most widely known service. This class of services is called a “public cloud”, which is completely managed by the third party providers. Given the popularity of these services among the customers and strong marketing expenditure, public cloud services dominate media mind share. Apart from a public cloud, there is a whole class of services called a “private cloud”, which has been gaining traction among the enterprises.

Many tech startups are competing to offer private cloud file sharing solutions. One of the leading private cloud solutions, FileCloud, has become a sought after self-hosted, enterprise file share and sync (EFSS) solution in the market. FileCloud is currently used by nearly 2,000 organizations spread over 65 countries. Their major customers include some well-known brands such as NASA, Mentor Graphics, Sanderson Farms, Salvation Army, as well as federal, state and city governments in the USA, EU and Asia. Madhan Kanagavel, CEO of CodeLathe (the company behind FileCloud), lists the following reasons why companies prefer using a private cloud over public cloud:


Easy To Integrate
Highlighting the importance of easy integration, Madhan Kanagavel said, “In addition to many benefits of using a private cloud, one of the core reasons why companies prefer private cloud is that it has better customization options and ability to integrate easily with existing systems.” He attributes the success of their solution to “powerful security and controls. FileCloud provides powerful features to help companies integrate file sharing and sync solution into their IT system and business processes.”

Complete Control
Contrary to a public cloud where access and data flow are controlled by third parties, a private cloud hands complete control over all the programs and data to customers. On-premise deployments are designed to offer similar benefits and features to public cloud deployments, while it is implemented within corporate firewalls under the full control of the IT department. With that, organizations can apply the same security policies and processes on private clouds as they apply on other internal systems. Importantly, enterprises are also able to monitor core digital assets and facilitate the flow of data to meet organizational objectives. Acronis helps in recovering data from the cloud environments. It charges low cost and eases the management burden.

Better Security
The general assumption that a public cloud is more secure than a private cloud is a myth. In reality, security on a private cloud is as good if not better than a public cloud. In the case of a public cloud, the data centers and networks hold huge number of records, which attracts a variety of hackers looking for the big payout by hacking into a large database. Since private clouds mostly run on premise, there is a limited exposure to non-users of the system, thus, attracting a few hackers. Additionally, private cloud solutions, like FileCloud, offer similar enterprises grade security features as public clouds, providing powerful tools to protect against security threats. Moreover, in the case of a public cloud, third party vendors handle a company’s critical data and they might not have complete context on the importance of certain data.


Access to Usage Insights
Some organizations make a strategic mistake by assuming file sharing and collaboration are not a core part of their business. The usage data on what is being shared and user interactions are core parts of a company’s intellectual property. Handing over this valuable information to a public cloud creates a barrier to switch vendors. Secondly, public clouds can charge additional fees to provide this information in the future. Companies prefer a private cloud as they realize the importance of these factors, and learn about complete control that a private cloud offers. Studies show that private cloud implementations exceed public cloud implementations and are expected to grow much faster. Some enterprises pick the best of both worlds to create a hybrid cloud model. Each organization is unique and the type of cloud they use depends on their specific needs. The above reasons capture only a few reasons why organizations tend to prefer private clouds. Other reasons include lower costs, better customization and enhanced performance.