There are things we do innately – check the time, read the news, breathe. For me on the road, it’s second nature to share ideas. Even though I lead a file sharing division (Syncplicity), I’m not the only one who thrives because of sharing, as I learned this week.
By publishing its first Magic Quadrant for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing (EFSS), Gartner makes one thing clear: the ability to easily and securely share files in the workplace has become a modern day necessity. The report presents sound guidance for mapping EFSS to your own enterprise organization’s priorities.
While of course I’m thrilled to see that Syncplicity is furthest on the Completeness of Vision axis, we sincerely believe this Magic Quadrant will help customers redefine how work within their organizations gets done. Strategically understanding how EFSS fits into your mobile and social future will yield benefits far beyond making sharing innate:
- EFSS empowers employees to cast off time-consuming tasks to automation and focus instead on breakthrough ideas (see the Gartner report’s comments on Syncplicity ease and speed)
- EFSS thrills IT by providing secure and compliant tools people enjoy, repeatedly use, and will virally transfer to more people without the need for IT support (see report comments on our enhanced user experience, editing docs and integration with mobile apps)
- EFSS connects you to all of your existing infrastructure, bringing you into the modern mobile-social era without sacrificing all you’ve built already, especially storage systems, SharePoint, and office solutions (see report comments on integration strengths)
For EMC, this more frictionless way of working started after the Syncplicity acquisition in 2012. Then we made the leap to 60,000 EFSS users, sharing our lessons learned here. Over the past two years, we have packed in innovations based on enterprise customer feedback.
The Syncplicity approach, as the report highlights, confirms a belief we’ve held since the beginning: design matters. Build an app that’s amazing to use, functionally and aesthetically, and uptake will occur organically.
It takes functionality that meaningfully impacts all enterprise stakeholders for true ROI.
And now in 2014, Gartner is tracking EFSS and has delivered the Magic Quadrant format to guide all of us on next steps. An ecosystem of file sharing market vendors, scrutinized annually by the likes of Gartner, will only further innovation and expedite this new way of mobile working.
Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing has arrived in the enterprise. Check out the full report.
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