The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District in Vancouver Island was established in 1967 as a federation of member municipalities and electoral areas. With a population of over 30,000, it provides important services to its member jurisdictions, including local services such as community planning, water supply, and fire protection. The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District Board of Directors recently adopted the philosophy “we are all one”, which applies to the way the district uses information and communication too. For this reason among others, the district wanted to upgrade its information access and management services for employees and other users.

Constituents and district officials expect secure, easy to use information access, at least on a par with any of the consumer-grade solutions they have used elsewhere. The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District is also responsible for regional as well as local services, and must communicate with external government entities and agencies too. Blueprints, urbanization plans, network drawings, emergency service plans, schedules, budgets, accounts, and authorizations are all part of the information flow that must be ensured. And even if the files containing these items are created with different office software applications, members of the target audience must be able to consult the files without having to load new software onto their own devices.

Where large files are involved, the traditional solution has often been FTP (file transfer protocol) software. With FTP, file transfers can be fast and secure, copying data from a central server to a remote device, or vice versa. While FTP can be an excellent base for a solution, today’s communities and their regional federations like the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District need more. User-friendliness is paramount. Users are increasingly savvy about what today’s technology can offer them. Drag and drop interfaces and scheduling are no longer differentiators; they are expected as part of the default functionalities on offer. IT system administrators want easy integration and minimal disruption to existing file-sharing functionality. The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District needed the right solution at the right price.

When the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District elected to use FileCloud, they found the answer to their needs. First, FileCloud brought users a secure way to access and view files remotely from any device with a browser. In fact, “users can now access files from virtually any device with an Internet connection,” says George Rose of the Information Systems Department. Even better, with OpenOffice installed on the FileCloud server they can even open and view file types that their devices may not support. The district can also use additional functionality of this type with Microsoft applications, thanks FileCloud functionality. With Microsoft Office Mobile Apps integration, documents can be opened and edited from FileCloud and saved back using Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote). With Outlook integration from FileCloud, users can share a file or folder that resides on the FileCloud directly from Outlook. Learn more why FileCloud is the best FTP replacement in the market.

George Rose also states, “FileCloud really shone for us, by using LDAP and having the ability to use the security already configured on the shares and files on our file servers.” Seamless integration with enterprise LDAP and Active Directory support are integral parts of FileCloud. User accounts can be merged from existing systems. Single sign-on support, including NTLM SSO, SAML 2.0 and ADFS make FileCloud security and ease of use even more advanced.

Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District is accountable in all sense of the word to its users and residents. Budgets must be seen to be properly spent, with demonstrable return on investment. Data must be managed in accordance with regulations. With FileCloud, the district gets the data control, privacy, and security it and its constituents need. Regulatory compliance can be proven, thanks to the detailed audit capabilities in FileCloud. Finally, existing investments in IT infrastructure can be leveraged. FileCloud is not a rip-and-replace product, but a fit-in solution, integrating easily and well with current systems and practices. Advanced sharing with public, private and temporary file shares, and granular file download extend the possibilities.

The FileCloud solution can be used from tens of users to millions, each user benefiting from the same excellence in files sharing and synchronization functionality, performance and reliability. The comprehensive functionality in FileCloud already helps many companies today to run their operations more efficiently and satisfy their own customers better. Talk to FileCloud today about your requirements. You can try FileCloud for free for two weeks to see for yourself how easy great file sharing and synchronization can be, while keeping all your confidential data safely on your own servers.