The collaboration and file sharing space is quickly growing as established enterprise veterans, startups and consumer-focused providers answer the growing need for mobile file sharing solutions. When conducting your search, it is important to remember not all collaboration tools are equal. There is a vast difference between those developed for consumers and those developed specifically for enterprise organizations. To help IT regain control over corporate data being shared via mobile devices, consider the following:

Businesses require more than just a freemium, public solution. Meeting the needs of enterprises requires choice of where to store data, particularly sensitive information (organizations in EMEA do not want data stored in the U.S.).

Allowing employees to sign up for individual file-sharing accounts exposes organizations to significant data security and compliance risks. Because IT has no visibility or control over the information being accessed or shared, it is impossible to know just how exposed an organization is to a data breach.

Enterprise-level solutions provide IT with the necessary visibility and control to monitor and manage what information is being accessed, by whom and when, so the enterprise can comply with industry regulations, such as SOX and HIPAA, that require monitoring and reporting systems to be in place. Utilizing security controls, IT administrators and business users can set policies to prevent files from being forwarded to unauthorized users. [Also see: ""]

When looking for a solution, make sure you have the ability to set automated security policies to validate recipients, set workspace and file expiration dates as well as multi-tier access and permissions to workspaces and files. With file access monitored and logged, demonstrating compliance will no longer be an issue.