The Week That Was in Cloud-Based File Sharing

Keeping up with the latest cloud trends can sometimes feel like a full-time job. It’s not what MSPs are paid for (at least not directly, anyway) but it’s important for them to stay up-to-date on all the latest news and notes in this fast-paced industry.

With that in mind, I wanted to direct your attention to four interesting stories – all relating to cloud-based file sharing – that you might have missed. Let’s take a look:

Safe File Sharing In the Cloud: What You Need To Know – This Q&A between Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras covers some of the lesser known tactics for keeping files and data safe in a cloud environment, notably the use of “double-blind” encryption. Here’s a quick description:

Using what is known as “double-blind” encryption, some vendors allow subscribers to lock their data locally with their own private key before sending it cloudward.  When the data arrives on the cloud’s servers it is in its own unique encrypted “package” where it then given an outer encryption package by the host.  Only the owner of the data, the subscriber or those he or she chooses to share with, can unlock that inner encryption envelope.  If the data is copied or moved from the server by a unauthorized party, they will need two keys to unlock it.

Study Shows Hybrid Storage Demand – Forbes writer Ben Kepes broke down the results of a study sponsored by Egnyte, which shows a significant amount of interest in a hybrid cloud model among enterprise respondents. Here were a few of the more eye-popping stats:

• 91 percent of organizations prohibit some kind of data from being stored by third-party, cloud computing service providers
• 84 percent of respondents currently have a Public Cloud Model (i.e., both the application control plane and data reside in the cloud)
• 69 percent of respondents believe their organization would be “Extremely Interested” in an file sharing service that would allow their organization to store some or all of its file data using its own on-premises storage resources
• 54 percent of respondents believe flexibility and control over where data is stored is driving their organization’s interest in keeping its data on-premises
• 36 percent of respondents have concerns over the accessibility of public cloud- resident data to third parties

Cloud not all doom and gloom for IT jobs market – Is the cloud good for job growth? We’ve touched on this subject before, but this week, Computerworld writer Karl Flanders examined how it will specifically affect the outsourced IT market.

Cloud specialists will be required – both in-house and at service providers, ranging from cloud product managers and consultants, to network managers and engineers – to help businesses shift to, and maintain, their cloud environments. Businesses are likely to need cloud specialists with the ability to project manage in line with business requirements, while cloud providers will need staff with technical cloud skills to maintain service levels. A huge number of these job opportunities are on the horizon; opportunities which if capitalised on now, can reap huge rewards in the future.

Those were just a few of the cloud stories that caught our attention. Which ones caught yours? Be sure to let us know in the comments section.