During a research conducted by World Wide Worx, a South African research firm, and Cisco, it was said that Nigeria and Kenya businesses would greatly benefit from cloud technology. The research shows that 80 percent of Nigerian business will be using cloud services by the year 2014 compared to Kenya at 72 percent and South Africa at 66 percent.
For most companies, adopting to cloud technologies is not an option. Their employees are already using public cloud services whether or not approved by company. This could be dangerous for any organization whether small or large, but here are ways to get ahead of the game:
1. Get clear policy of cloud storage
Document storage for most small and medium companies has been something that has been overlooked. Most employees use cloud services such as Dropbox which could have been opened as a personal accounts by individual employees. Companies regardless of how small they are need to address the virtual document storage as soon as they can. Services like Dropbox which are public cloud can be used but measures to have private cloud should also be looked into.
2. Streamline Document sharing
Handling company documents can also be a bone of contention. For those using Google services such as Gmail, document sharing can become quite easy. But with the great services like Google Drive, companies can forget to structure their policies on use of such services. Let it be clear that company documents can only be shared using official company emails and accounts, to be able to track company documents.
3. Address BYOD (bring your own device) policies
Like it or not, employees will use their personal gadgets to access emails and documents when they are away from the office. As the head of your company you need to know what type of devices your employees are using to access company documents and communication. Offer them protection in terms of antivirus for their devices rather than trying to abolish the system. You can invite IT experts to give valuable talk on how to secure one’s devices.