Nowadays it’s hard to imagine a business functioning without file sharing. It may include contracts, backups, visual assets, and other data, so adopting a file-sharing solution is one of the first aspects to consider.
With the availability of tools on the market, it’s easy to get lost or make the wrong choice.
So here we go with the list of items to check before making the final decision on the choice of remote file sharing solution:
Control and compliance with other applications
If there’s an established infrastructure, a file-sharing system should be compatible with it. Otherwise, the work processes may be disrupted, and technical staff, as well as other employees, will experience difficulties performing their duties. Special attention needs to be paid to integrations with access control systems as they allow applying restrictions and privileges based on user roles. Some solutions like Triofox support integration with Active directory while others offer integrations via commonly used Microsoft office suite applications like SharePoint. Thus, you may need to test demo versions of several file services to ensure there will be no conflicts during integration.
On-Premise vs Cloud
With file-sharing systems, you have the choice between traditional on-premise storage or Cloud. On-Premise storage is cheaper in the beginning and faster as data is stored locally. But it’s more difficult to manage from a technical perspective. After the deployment, it requires advanced technical skills as well as in-house technicians and a further increase of management costs. The Cloud is considered to be more reliable, as the management is often on the vendor’s side, but the initial costs are significantly higher. There is no correct answer to what is better as it all depends on your goals and capacity.
Cross-platform support
If your users are scattered between Windows, Linux, and macOS, cross-platform support is a must. The trend of using mobile is also being developed, so if there are emergency cases when the file needs to be shared or modified right away, it’s better to use a solution that offers access through mobile devices or have its application for such cases.
Security compliance
With the adoption of new privacy protection regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, or CCPA, if you store data of your customers, there are strict requirements for the storing and processing of customers’ data. So when looking for a file-sharing service, make sure they are compliant with these laws or allow additional security service integration to have all the files scanned and monitored with anti-malware software, as well as end-to-end data encryption. In addition, it’s worth checking if the extra authentication protection like 2FA, OTP, or SSO is supported to secure logins to the system.
Hidden costs
Pay attention to the “unlimited” or “unmetered” wording. It may seem pretty straightforward, but when it comes to real use cases, it often appears that it’s a marketing trick, and there are limits. A lot of limits. The storage may be unlimited “Unmetered” usually calls for checking acceptable use policy, where you can discover that the storage is unlimited only for a certain amount of users, and if your team is bigger you need to pay extra, or there’s a monthly bandwidth limit. It’s better to have all the information at hand prior to purchase.
Wrap-up
If you managed to put checkmarks near all of the items, you found the perfect option to modernize your business processes. But it also may happen that some of them will not be relevant ( like the compatibility with other systems or you don’t need the advanced management options). It may seem fine to skip these parameters at the beginning, but if your business expects growth in the nearest future, we still recommend that you check them in advance. It’s much easier to make some upgrades to a current solution than plan the data migration if it’s not flexible. Assessing any file sharing solution against these parameters will help you to make the right choice.
