At the recent Momentum at EMC World event in Las Vegas, EMC announced the acquisition of Syncplicity, a privately held company based in Menlo Park, California that offers a cloud-based synchronization and share file management solution. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Syncplicity solution allows users to interact with one another and share content using the device of their choice, while at the same time enabling IT to apply the required security and governance.
It allows organizations to protect data on the personal devices that employees are increasingly bringing into the workplace, and that can pose a huge security risk if not managed properly.
This was an acquisition EMC needed to make to gain market share in the share file market to allow it to compete against growing companies such as Box.com that are established in this area, and at the same time to introduce EMC products, in particular its cloud solutions, to a new audience.
Organizations must allow personal devices in the workplace
This is an important acquisition for EMC because it helps to secure content, regardless of the device it resides on. Organizations should consider this type of product if they are planning a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy. The reality is that employees are going to bring their own devices into the workplace whether or not the organization allows it. This poses a huge risk if the devices are used without authorization.
If the organization is not aware they are being used they cannot be managed and there is no control over the content created and sent out of the organization, or in some cases corporate content that is copied onto such a device. If a personal device is lost or stolen, corporate as well as personal content is available to whoever finds the device.
It is therefore preferable for organizations to allow employees to use their own devices but manage the corporate content on them. This can include controlling what the user can do with the content, and preventing anyone finding such a device from accessing any corporate content. Security is an important element of Syncplicity, and all content uploaded and stored on devices is encrypted.