Managing Unstructured Data in the SaaS Sphere with FileCloud
April 5, 2023Unstructured data can be a challenge with SaaS, causing compliance and security headaches for enterprises. FileCloud’s powerful integration capabilities can help.
Unstructured data can be a challenge with SaaS, causing compliance and security headaches for enterprises. FileCloud’s powerful integration capabilities can help.
The SaaS market has flourished in the last 10 years, with a major acceleration in 2020. Market analysts speculate that this growth will continue, projecting that subscription-based sales will increase five-fold by 2027. While SaaS offers enterprises many advantages, there are also some downsides, including the proliferation of unstructured data that is often dispersed across different apps within the same enterprise. This is often caused by the need to switch from an industry-specific SaaS platform to a different UI and app for collaborating and sharing files. With its powerful integration capabilities, FileCloud saves you time and revenue by ensuring your enterprise data is all retained in the same place.
Between 2015 and 2021, there was a 1275% increase in SaaS adoption, with around a quarter of business operations taking place on a SaaS platform. This is because business leaders recognize that SaaS offers many efficiencies. Significantly, these include quick scalability if required and the ability to outsource burdensome software maintenance requirements.
An estimated 59 zettabytes of digital data exists globally, and approximately 80% of this is unstructured data. This data often contains valuable assets, such as customer details and vital intellectual property. However, with the growth of SaaS, companies are finding it harder to keep track of where they store their unstructured data. This can occur for several reasons, including the lack of a single access point to multiple data repositories and lack of real-time alerts when there are unauthorized attempts to access data.
Unstructured data often consists of valuable business assets and intellectual property, including customer information, business plans, and product blueprints. Despite this, leadership teams are often surprisingly unclear about arrangements in place regarding storage and security for this data. With cyber-criminality and cyber-warfare growing globally, this dearth of visibility and sound governance leaves enterprises more vulnerable than ever to security breaches.
The problems associated with keeping track of data are often compounded by the fact that employees collaborate on content outside of the primary SaaS platform they use for other day-to-day operations. A common scenario is that users download files to local devices before uploading them to a file-sharing app for content collaboration purposes.
This unwieldy approach to file management:
The increasing lack of a network perimeter requires a granular approach to security and, by extension, to file management. A scenario where users move from their primary industry-specific SaaS app to another solution to share files is clearly fraught with risks. This is especially the case where remote workers are downloading business-critical files to local devices.
With the growth of SaaS only accelerating, there is clearly a need to address this expansion of attack surfaces. One way of addressing these problematic, yet all-too-common, approaches to file management is to take advantage of some of the current, growing trends in SaaS to address security and compliance concerns. These include:
FileCloud provides APIs that can be integrated with most SaaS platforms for compliant file-sharing purposes. Instead of switching to another solution such as Dropbox, Box, or Egnyte to collaborate, users can share files from within their familiar SaaS platform. This removes the awkwardness associated with moving between apps for a basic function of daily work, such as content collaboration. It also provides users with a more intuitive and enjoyable experience. FileCloud's highly versatile branding capabilities allow enterprises to retain users' affinity with your logo across all file collaboration activities.
FileCloud has built its APIs on PHP and Apache, and its file-sharing microservice is an integrated part of SaaS solutions in areas such as financial services, construction, and media & entertainment. Moreover, our APIs perform all the activities available via the FileCloud UI, including setting granular access restrictions and managing storages through network shares, on-premises, or cloud.
Additionally, FileCloud as a microservice provides a major layer of security and addresses compliance concerns through features like:
In fact, FileCloud has documented some case studies of how our customers collaborate using our platform as a microservice within larger, sector-specific SaaS environments. In each example, the customers have found that FileCloud has resulted in optimized security, improved adherence to multiple compliance requirements, and revenue savings. To find out more about how enterprises have experienced FileCloud as an integrated microservice on top of an existing SaaS solution, see the following case studies:
If you're wondering specifically how to regain control of your enterprise data and want to check whether FileCloud suits your needs, you can schedule a free product demo. You can also start a free trial of FileCloud, with all features included, at any time. Sign up for a 15-day trial for FileCloud Online, or alternatively, if you want to try FileCloud on your own infrastructure, you can try a 30-day trial of FileCloud Server.
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Written by Deirdre Clancy, Technical Content and Communication Manager
