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at a glance

Enterprises commonly exchange documents with other enterprises or with government or regulatory agencies for the purpose of collaboration.  Contracts, requirements, proposals, technical specifications, documentation, and so on – these are just some of the documents that businesses exchange on a daily basis.

While the cloud enables solutions such as Dropbox and Box.net for document sharing on desktops and in the cloud, many corporations have already invested in SharePoint as the enterprise document repository and moreover, are not keen to use cloud-based services where the documents are also stored or otherwise available in the public cloud due to security and privacy concerns:

Today, individuals working in such corporations usually approach this common, day-to-day task by:

  • Emailing documents to recipients and – as necessary – renaming it to indicate a new revision or version.
  • Requesting external, partner access to Intranet sites which may include requesting VPN access or at the least, portal accounts
  • Unsecure, ad-hoc methods (i.e. user independently makes a document available via cloud solutions or FTP download sites).

It’s clear that each of these solutions are sub-optimal for reasons of usability, agility, and security, especially when enterprises have already invested in SharePoint and already use SharePoint as a repository of record for key documents.

Thinktastic DropPoint – powered by Windows Azure – is designed to enable controlled document publishing and distribution across enterprises.  DropPoint is a cloud-enabled document distribution engine that allows teams across enterprises, across networks, and behind firewalls to securely exchange documents or other data stored in SharePoint directly from SharePoint itself without the need to provision access through privileged ports.  Point-click-drop files from one SharePoint farm to another easily and securely.

In seven words, DropPoint is “SharePoint to SharePoint Cloud-Based File Sharing”.  It’s designed for enterprise collaboration from the bottom up.

Contact us today to get a demo and sign up for the beta.

is DropPoint right for your organization?

IBM Bans Dropbox: Should SMBs Follow Suit?

If you missed it, Big Blue recently banned its 400,000 employees from using Dropbox…Among IBM’s reasons for the policy change: Security-related concerns. (more)

SharePoint: Caring about Secure Sharing

[W]hile SharePoint has the built-in advantages of being a core part of the Microsoft stack for the enterprise, it may surprise you that there really isn’t an effective and secure way for SharePoint users to share sensitive documents within the enterprise.

This is causing some to scratch their heads while others put their hopes in solutions that are outside the firewall or choose to ignore the challenge altogether. In other cases, enterprises try to address the issue of secure document sharing by trying non-enterprise-ready solutions. (more)

The Cost of IT Convergence

While Ponemon Institute does not review or endorse companies or products, Ponemon says an enterprise-grade file-sharing solution “pays for itself very quickly” because it allows businesses to both control the sharing of data and know what’s being shared. CFOs who don’t want to invest in an enterprise collaboration tool due to the capital expense are “missing the point.”

“The average cost of a data leak,” Ponemon says, “is probably more expensive than the most expensive enterprise file-sharing tool out there.” (more)

Unlike consumer-oriented document synchronization products, DropPoint is designed from the ground up to hand control of document exchange back to IT by integrating transparently into existing SharePoint environments and securely synchronizing your documents across SSL secured channels.  Your organization’s documents are never stored in the cloud and governance policies can be applied independently on both sides.

how is DropPoint different from OneDrive Pro?

OneDrive Pro and SharePoint 2013 allow enterprises to enable cloud-based document sharing with an enterprise SharePoint 2013 deployment and users with OneDrive Pro clients.

DropPoint fits into this model as an enabler of cross-enterprise collaboration and delivers documents from one SharePoint farm to another — where OneDrive Pro picks up.  OneDrive Pro enables easy access to your enterprise documents; DropPoint enables easy, secure access to documents on external enterprise farms.

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