Intellectual works

Plenty of file data is never stored in a database or application, but goes straight from the mind of knowledge workers into a file. Software source code is an obvious example, as are legal documents, product roadmaps and strategic planning documents. These files often contain intellectual property and a wealth of information and rich detail about market opportunities, partnerships, business operations, future plans and strategic advantage. Sharing this information on file servers and network attached storage devices can be critical for mobilizing your company and uniting distributed project teams, but it's just as critical to ensure that the data is protected from intentional or even inadvertent harm.

Also see 'Offsite meeting security: test your convergence IQ'

Application communication and storage

When applications need to communicate with each other, but don't speak a common language, using intermediate files on a shared file system can serve as a form of enterprise application integration. For example, a bank with a legacy application running on a mainframe, and another banking application running on Microsoft servers, can use files on a shared file server or NAS device to exchange information between the disparate systems. While only the applications should have access those shared files, it's highly likely that the file servers or NAS devices where the files are stored are accessible by many users. So, care has to be taken to safeguard access and prevent sensitive data from being compromised.