One hot, new enterprise trend is mobile content management (MCM). Some will argue that “it’s just content management” and you don’t need the mobile descriptor. However, I believe that not only is it a category, it goes beyond mobile devices because the content is mobile, not just the endpoints. And it is far more than just content. It’s content collaboration that is becoming more and more mobile.
People collaborate around content. We see people signing up for consumer-level personal cloud storage services to share all kinds of content. Of course, business people clearly want–need–to share content: It’s how you get your work done. However, this puts your enterprise content on the move and accessible in places where it is hard to manage.
Tools, like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, have emerged from our personal or consumer lives and are now used in business, and this ad hoc use gives rise to serious concerns about security, content management and governance. In turn, enterprise-focused providers, like Box and Accellion, aim to bring more security to this transient content while still providing access from anywhere with any device. Even Dropbox now positions itself as an enterprise offering. The need for secure cloud content, accessible on all devices, is clearly obvious.
I believe that mobility and the cloud are working together to drive convergence across the content and collaboration spectrum. Dynamic, interactive content types, like video, are emerging, forcing enterprises to manage content across devices and access points. But ordinary documents are increasingly created and accessed in the same wide-ranging ways.
Your content is literally traveling as it moves through a flow of activity that crosses geographic and enterprise boundaries, depending on who shares and collaborates with whom. Moreover, it flows not only among people but also among devices. Much of it is generated and/or accessed on mobile systems and needs to be shared with the highest level of security. Cloud and mobile content management players are emerging to deal with these needs and concerns, but enterprises have to be proactive and make use of these new tools.
Enterprises have to address content mobility in their enterprise content management strategies to properly manage this content. MCM offerings have to do more than just two-factor authentication as enterprise security needs become deeper. Overall strategies must look at and address the content, apps and devices, with attention to content version control, user access privileges, locking content and collaboration around the content.
So, while users can sign up for cloud storage services, IT should also ensure that content can be federated: stored in a secure, managed repository for security, compliance, long-term asset tracking and records management.
It’s 10 p.m.–do you know where your content is?
People collaborate around content. We see people signing up for consumer-level personal cloud storage services to share all kinds of content. Of course, business people clearly want–need–to share content: It’s how you get your work done. However, this puts your enterprise content on the move and accessible in places where it is hard to manage.
Enterprises have to address content mobility in their enterprise content management strategies to properly manage this content.
Tools, like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, have emerged from our personal or consumer lives and are now used in business, and this ad hoc use gives rise to serious concerns about security, content management and governance. In turn, enterprise-focused providers, like Box and Accellion, aim to bring more security to this transient content while still providing access from anywhere with any device. Even Dropbox now positions itself as an enterprise offering. The need for secure cloud content, accessible on all devices, is clearly obvious.
I believe that mobility and the cloud are working together to drive convergence across the content and collaboration spectrum. Dynamic, interactive content types, like video, are emerging, forcing enterprises to manage content across devices and access points. But ordinary documents are increasingly created and accessed in the same wide-ranging ways.
Your content is literally traveling as it moves through a flow of activity that crosses geographic and enterprise boundaries, depending on who shares and collaborates with whom. Moreover, it flows not only among people but also among devices. Much of it is generated and/or accessed on mobile systems and needs to be shared with the highest level of security. Cloud and mobile content management players are emerging to deal with these needs and concerns, but enterprises have to be proactive and make use of these new tools.
MORE: Is Your ECM System Ready for Video Content? Not!
Enterprises have to address content mobility in their enterprise content management strategies to properly manage this content. MCM offerings have to do more than just two-factor authentication as enterprise security needs become deeper. Overall strategies must look at and address the content, apps and devices, with attention to content version control, user access privileges, locking content and collaboration around the content.
So, while users can sign up for cloud storage services, IT should also ensure that content can be federated: stored in a secure, managed repository for security, compliance, long-term asset tracking and records management.
It’s 10 p.m.–do you know where your content is?
Dave Smith is the research director and lead analyst for collaboration at Aragon Research. Previously, Mr. Smith was a research analyst at Gartner, where he covered collaboration and web conferencing. Follow him on Twitter @DaveMario.
