ownCloud: Assuring Secure File Sync and Share

Today, government organizations and departments are challenged to improve public service while gaining easy and secure access to information as well as streamline data transfer within departments and across agencies. In response to demands for efficient and secure file sharing, these agencies are adopting File Sync and Share (FSS) solutions which mostly require their data to be hosted on public cloud servers, beyond an agency’s governance reach and outside IT’s control. This would bring in significant data security issues and intrusion risks. To avert the outcome of these challenges enterprises need an FSS solution that installs on-premise, and operates completely within IT’s security and governance realms and yet provides easy end user access and mobility applications. ownCloud, an Information technology and services company headquartered at Lexington, MA, offers government agencies and departments with solutions to use for FSS applications with consumer-grade speed and ease of use along with security, governance and control of an on-premise solution.

ownCloud solutions can be deployed on premise and on private cloud infrastructure to allow government and public sector organizations to have direct control over the data environment, ensuring to ensure data availability and access only to authorized parties. The solution integrates with the existing directory, security, and rights management systems, enabling enforcement of data governance policies end-to-end. This would also preserve data within the organization and empowers IT department to manage proprietary information and business risk; leveraging existing data management, security and governance tools and processes. “ownCloud employs single sign-on through Secure Assertion Markup Language (SAML) and flexible logging features to provide auditors with detailed visibility into all data access activities,” Markus Rex, CEO and Co-Founder, ownCloud.

The firm’s solutions also help government agency and department managers to review proposals, research reports and contracts while they are offsite or on mobile through ownCloud’s mobile applications to offer secure mobile file sharing.

ownCloud employs single sign-on through secure assertion markup language (SAML) and flexible logging features to provide auditors with detailed visibility into all data access activities

Users can browse, download, edit, and upload files using tablets and smart phones, all under IT control. ownCloud also provides an Anonymous Upload feature that allows external parties, like systems integrator or contractor, to securely upload files under well protected and monitored environments. It also secures in-flight data through encryption using advanced Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols to prevent unauthorized access. The company also offers Universal File Access, a common file access layer that provides access regardless of where the data lives – in applications, object stores, on-premise storage or in the cloud.

The numerous success stories of ownCloud stand as a testament of its efficiency in delivering secure solutions in the FSS arena. Once, Consortium GARR, an Italian telecommunication network for University and Research which provides high-performance connectivity and advanced services to the scientific and academic community approached the firm to address its impediments. The University has a rich history of supporting medical research that includes a sophisticated authentication model using federated identity and its researchers are often on the move – collaborating with peers, seeing patients or teaching classes. This way the researchers in the organization needed to access to files from any device and also required a tool that assured privacy and security when dealing with healthcare related data. Joining hands with ownCloud, the customer could rapidly integrate the solutions to their existing authentication system thereby leveraging their privacy and security infrastructure as well as reducing administrative burden and deploying the file-sharing solution.

The company released its latest version of solution- ownCloud 9.0 which offer improved collaboration, scalability and integration. The new release includes full federation, letting users on different servers share directories and files.