Enterprises that have begun porting data archive, backup and recovery and other back-office functions to the cloud are only taking their first tentative steps in what will likely prove to be a complete makeover of the data environment as we know it.
Already, many IT shops are starting to look past mere storage applications in the cloud and into full-blown collaboration through popular tools like file sharing or some of the broader social collaboration platforms that populate the cloud. But before we get to the how of cloud collaboration, it might help to answer an even more critical question: why? What, exactly, does collaboration do for the enterprise?
According to Collaborative Technologies Vanessa Thompson, a key factor is the need to maintain, and even enhance, business productivity over an increasingly distributed workforce. The more spread out the end points, the more difficult it becomes to work in teams, and yesterday’s collaboration tools, like email, are not only slow but tend to generate multiple copies of common data that clog storage systems and cause search and analytics platforms to work overtime. Centralized collaboration platforms help alleviate these problems, and the best way to ensure that all stakeholders have equal access to both data and applications is by hosting them in the cloud.
But collaboration is more than simply accessing shared data files, says tech journalist Jessica Oaks. It also incorporates voice and video messaging, web and audio conferencing, as well as more advanced on-line presence and meeting capabilities. There is also an element of business continuity in modern collaborative environments, given that most top platforms offer built-in redundancy that allows the enterprise to maintain connectivity even in the event of serious disruption of key data infrastructure.
Unfortunately, one of the primary inhibiting factors preventing the enterprise from taking greater advantage of the cloud’s collaborative capabilities is the enterprise itself. As Cloud4Computers’ James Stevenson points out, policies restricting cloud usage prevent workers from accessing the very tools they need in order to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly fast-paced and distributed data environment. The way around this, of course, is to establish private clouds on hosted infrastructure, which provides both the scalability and remote access that collaborative efforts require while still preserving data and applications behind the corporate firewall.
In order to establish an effective collaborative environment, however, the enterprise will need to adopt not only new technology, but a new mindset. Rather than ensuring that the flow of information follows standard point-to-point or point-to-multipoint guidelines, IT’s role will shift more toward that of an environment enabler – ensuring that access, toolsets, data stores and the like are available and compatible across the multiple platforms and architectures that will likely make up the collaborative environment.
In fact, fostering a collaborative environment is one of the ways in which IT will transform itself from a data gatekeeper and cost center to a primary driver of business productivity and profitability. The vital steps, however, are to establish centralized control of the environment and then ensure it has the proper scale to accommodate user needs.
Failure to do that will leave business units no choice but to establish their own collaboration capabilities, which may or may not be fully compliant with each other or the overarching enterprise architecture.
It would be a shame if, after finally shedding all the silos that exist within traditional infrastructure, the enterprise simply allows new ones to rise up in the cloud.
The post From Cloud Storage to Cloud Collaboration appeared first on TwinStrata is Now a Part of EMC.
