PLM Cloud Concerns and Dropbox Reality for Engineers

Last week at AU, I attended Innovation Forum – The Reality of the cloud. The presentation made by Theresa Payton of Fortalice LLC caught my special attention. It was about security. Check later here. Security is loaded and complicated topic. Physical security is one of the top 5 concerns of customers related to the decision of using cloud services. Even if consumption of online services is growing crazy, companies are very careful in placing their missing critical data assets to the cloud. Especially when it comes to IP (intellectual property). Navigate here to read what SearchCIO blog is saying about that. You need to register to read full article. The following passage is interesting:

To be sure, some cloud services are pretty lightweight, such as filling out a form to schedule an online meeting. But for mission-critical applications or storing data in the cloud, you need to ask tough questions: “What does their data center look like? Are they willing to show you a diagram? Backup plans? Security documents?” asked Jessica Carroll, managing director of IT for the United States Golf Association, which uses the cloud for business continuity, as well as for collaboration with 1,500 golfing associations nationwide.

Contact any CIO in the industry and his team will drain you down with the endless list of questions about security. However, here is a news for you, Mr. CIO. I don’t know if you are aware, but 34% of your engineering staff is placing data on the cloud in their Dropbox accounts. What is more surprising – half of them are aware they are doing it against the company rules. Navigate to the following link to read more and see some diagrams – Guess what Mr. CIO? One in five of your employees uses Dropbox at work.

One out of five of 1,300 business users surveyed said they use the consumer file-sync-and-share system with work documents, according to new research by Nasuni, an enterprise storage management company. And, half of those Dropbox users do this even though they know it’s against the rules.

However, the fact employees are putting files in the Dropbox is just half of the problem. Since they are using private accounts, the information remains there even after an employee is leaving the company.

“The sensitive data stored in Dropbox is not secure and just as importantly, not controlled by IT. This means that if an employee leaves the company, the information that [a] user has stored goes with them, creating a significant risk of data loss or exposure. Furthermore, as the amount of sensitive corporate data stored in Dropbox increases, the online file-sharing service will become a more attractive target for hackers and other malicious groups.

What is my conclusion? Think about PLM and Excel. Who won the game? I think the answer is clear – Excel. Each time, PDM/PLM software was incompetent to provide a reliable solution, Microsoft Excel won PLM competition. Now, guess what? If company and corporate IT continue to abuse users’ demand to have flexible and easy access to information, the information flow will go from proprietary data and file servers directly to Dropbox and similar “easy to use” cloud services. Companies need to pay attention. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg