Business File Sharing
Posted by Juan Rojas on Mon, Oct 25, 2010 @ 03:36 PM
No matter the size of the company, an increasing number of businesses need to be able to send files or receive files, either internally (among staff) or externally (with clients, contractors or field staff).
Smaller companies often don't have the resources to set up their own servers (either in terms of hardware and the IT staff to maintain it), especially in the earlier days of an enterprise. This limits their ability to use FTP (the traditional choice for sending large files) or network drives (the simplest solution for internal file sharing). Large companies also face similar limitations, especially in current difficult economic times. Let's face it: everyone's on a tighter budget these days.
(Photo credit)
While email is a common choice for sending files, it suffers from a number of downsides:
1. Lack of security: email is a very easy electronic media to access...in other words, it's easy to hack. This is a major concern for businesses that handle sensitive information, such as health care-related companies (insurance firms, doctor's offices, etc.), financial institutions, or law firms.
2. File size limits: most common email programs impose limits on the size of attachments that can be sent along with messages, generally in the range of 25MB. While this may not be an issue for many non-business users, many companies need to be able to send or access much larger files, such as contracts, architectural drawings, computer applications or patient files (among many possibilities).
3. Poor tracking: if a particular file (or set of files) is subject to changes from several people, email does not really give the ability to properly track changes made, who made them or who has accessed the files in question.
The inherent risks and issues involved in FTP were discussed in the previous post on this blog.
So, if neither of the 2 most popular methods of sharing files are the best way to go, what is?
A web based file transfer service.
Online file sharing solves all of the issues mentioned earlier. For example, FilesDIRECT offers:
1. Security: 128-bit encryption is used for uploading and downloading files (the same level of encryption used by banks and major online retailers like Amazon.com), and files are sent using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) cryptography. Combined with the ability to password protect downloads and uploads, this is a level of security that cannot be matched by other methods.
2. While the vast majority of email programs severely limit the size of files that can be sent (most to a max of 25MB or less), FilesDIRECT allows users to send files up to 2GB in size without downloading any software. Downloading the free desktop app allows for file transfers of any size.
3. FilesDIRECT's built-in file management includes automatic tracking of files, including the file name and type, it's size, and upload and download history.
Another benefit is that, once a company has an account, they can set up a (free!) upload page (aka: a dropbox) to allow others (such as clients, contractors, etc.) to upload files to the company for free...without having to open accounts of their own.
All of these features make big file transfer with FilesDIRECT a natural choice for businesses of any size in any industry.