Google Drive Boosts Security for Business Customers
More than one million organizations are paying for Google Drive cloud storage and collaboration service as Google (GOOG) announced new updates and security features for its cloud storage users this week.
According to a blog post by Google Drive director of product management Scott Johnson, one of the updates includes enhanced eDiscovery capabilities for Google Apps Vault. The retention policies and legal hold capabilities are similar to those currently available for email and chat but have been extended to cover Google Drive-stored files.
Google for Work, formerly Google Enterprise, includes email, calendar, video calls, cloud storage and document editing and more. Less than one in five organizations paying for Google for Work use Google Drive at least once a month, according to a report by CIO.com, and Gmail is the most popular service within its enterprise portfolio.
Google for Work has 5 million monthly active users and has seen growth in large, highly regulated industries and businesses outside of the US, CIO.com reports. More than half of all Google for Work customers are located outside of the US.
In addition to enhancing its eDiscovery capabilities, Google Drive has added the new ISO/IEC 27018:2014 privacy standard which validates its privacy practices and ensures customers that it is complying with its contractual agreements.
On the mobile side of things, Google Drive has continued to update the Mobile Device Management (MDM) included for its business customers. This enables users to monitor usage, encrypt devices and enforce strong passwords.
