Cloud-sharing services: Balancing accessibility and data security

Between the spread of cloud-native SaaS tools, AI-assisted workflows, and hybrid work, cloud sharing services are becoming essential for just about every workflow. According to Zippia, 60% of all corporate data worldwide is now stored in the cloud. While cloud-native workflows have significant advantages over the traditional reliance on on-premise tools and systems, they bring a unique challenge: balancing accessibility and data security.

Cloud-sharing services allow employees, contractors, and other contributors to get access to an organization’s data no matter where they work from. Data security only becomes more vital to ensuring precious information isn’t accidentally shared with unauthorized recipients when these recipients can be working from anywhere.

That’s why striking a balance between these two competing objectives is so important. In fact, you need to stop treating them as opposites and make them both part of a single, unified strategy.

Why cloud-sharing services have become a strategic priority

Cloud-sharing services were never quite a luxury, but they’ve also never been as prevalent as they are now. Companies use an average of 106 SaaS apps, with each app both storing and pulling from data on the cloud. Cloud-sharing services are the connective tissue between all of these apps, allowing teams to swap files and data back and forth.

This is especially the case as hybrid and remote work become more popular. While the future may not be fully remote as leaders suggested in 2020, 51% of employees with remote-capable jobs have a hybrid arrangement. Between collaboration with hybrid employees and external contractors, cloud-sharing services aren’t a nice-to-have; they’re essential infrastructure for every workflow.

The problem? They’re also a security weak point, with growing vulnerabilities. The more users access these platforms, the more potential there is for one of them to be a malicious actor, or even simply to side-step essential security measures and accidentally leak data. IT and cybersecurity leaders have to face an endlessly growing potential for attack or simple mistakes.

This can’t be resolved through absolute security measures or a laissez-faire attitude, either. The former increases the risk of shadow IT (end users deploying their own systems without consulting IT) and other compliance gaps. The latter creates unnecessary security risks.

Securing cloud-sharing services is as essential as keeping the traffic lights running in a busy intersection, but that security comes at a cost.

The real cost of getting the accessibility-security balance wrong

Cloud-sharing services can enable everything from working with contractors to ensuring that busy executives can access an essential file at a conference. But while that accessibility is essential, for many organizations it seems to continually conflict with security needs.

IT and cybersecurity leaders set the balance between accessibility and security, and it’s all too easy to get that balance wrong. An approach that’s too strict can lead to frustrated employees and productivity drag. But this doesn’t just result in decreased productivity; employees can even take cyberattacks less seriously. According to Accenture, 46% of organizations deal with cyber fatigue, or an apathy towards cybersecurity. An approach that prioritizes accessibility over security is no better. At worst, it can lead to a data breach, which costs an average of $4.4 million.

The right strategy achieves balance by making data and files easy to access for end users while ensuring that the right measures are in place to prevent unauthorized access and other security issues.

The 5 pillars of secure and accessible cloud sharing

Balancing security and accessibility with cloud-sharing platforms goes beyond picking a platform and trusting its default settings. It depends on building a foundational framework that’s robust enough to meet your organization’s security responsibilities while empowering the innovation that comes from seamless collaboration. This framework has five pillars.
 

Granular access controls

A cloud-sharing platform should give IT teams the ability to finely regulate who gets access to specific data, how long that access will last, and how that access will change over time. Even if an organization is relatively small, with few distinct roles across a lean team, these measures need to be put into place early so they can scale with you as you grow. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to accidentally create holes in your cybersecurity practice that also grow with you.

End-to-end encryption and data residency

While most cloud-sharing services typically offer end-to-end encryption as a standard feature, it’s something worth investigating if you’re considering options outside of the most popular services. Additionally, if your organization operates in multiple regions (or services clients from these regions), you may need to take steps to abide by regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
 

Zero trust architecture

Trust-by-default is a gateway for malicious actors and potential slip-ups. Zero-trust architecture verifies every potential access and share request through measures like contextual authentication, device posture checks, and continuous validation during active sessions.
 

Visibility and audit trails

Visibility into your cloud-sharing solution’s security measures is essential to preventing an unnecessarily heavy-handed approach to cybersecurity. Real-time monitoring of sharing activity, with automated alerts for suspicious activity and other irregularities, gives your IT team the intelligence they need to act (or react) where needed rather than maintaining resource-intensive oversight. Similarly, such features create an audit trail that can answer questions if something does go wrong.
 

User experience by design

Security protocols should work hand-in-hand with end user workflows, not against them. While some elements of your cybersecurity will inevitably create drag in these workflows, it’s important to prioritize accessibility and usability where possible. This includes offering regular training as necessary, using settings that account for how teams collaborate, and making secure sharing experiences as frictionless as possible.
 

What enterprise leaders should look for in cloud sharing services

Cloud-sharing services are the infrastructure that enable cloud-native collaboration across software tools, which makes choosing the right one all the more important—especially when balancing accessibility and security. Here are some key criteria to reference when choosing the right solution:

• Security certifications (e.g., SOC 2 Type 2)
• Granular admin controls
• Integration with existing IAM (Identity and Access Management) and SSO (Single Sign-On) solutions
• Audit capabilities
• Data residency options
   

The importance of platform consolidation vs. point-solution sprawl

Many organizations end up using multiple cloud-sharing platforms, and rarely by design. Google Drive might be used for sharing files in some projects, while Slack might be prioritized for quick file exchanges, and Sharepoint is supposed to be the organization’s official cloud-sharing platform.

Instead of accepting this default—as often happens—prioritize consolidation of all file sharing into a single platform. When it comes to cloud sharing that’s both accessible and secure, an all-in-one solution like Zoho WorkDrive excels compared to an amalgamation of multiple platforms.

Don’t sacrifice security for accessibility (or vice-versa)

Where cloud-sharing platforms are concerned, the choice between security and accessibility isn’t one you actually have to make. While they might naturally compete with one another, IT and cybersecurity experts can find the right balance between the two. By basing your cloud-sharing practices on a framework of granular access control, end-to-end encryption, zero trust architecture, visibility trails, and user experience, you can create policies and choose platforms that support that balance instead of bouncing between extremes.

Cloud-native workflows and hybrid work have put more pressure on IT teams to find this balance, but as AI and automation reshape collaboration, these challenges will multiply without the right preparation. Set the stage for the way your teams work by making the right call now.