Businesses, both large and small, often have stricter security requirements around file transfers and the users participating in those transfers that a cloud-based solution won't be able to provide.

These breaches beg a fundamental question to be answered when assessing a cloud-based versus a self-hosted solution for securely transferring files: is the cloud secure enough for the needs of my business? The cloud certainly provides a valuable level of convenience and simplicity that's just fine for most individual consumer users, but it's evident that this convenience has a cost in terms of security. If the security issues aren't scary enough, the service was completely unavailable for a period of time in January of this year. Another breach occurred in June of 2011 that was the result of a breakdown in the service's authentication software, exposing accounts without requiring proper authentication for a period of time. Unfortunately for Dropbox, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. In August of last year, usernames and passwords of Dropbox accounts were compromised that resulted in a spamming campaign to a number of Dropbox users. According to a recent survey of 1300 business users, one in five are using Dropbox to transfer corporate files, effectively circumventing any safeguards their IT departments have put in place with respect to file transfers. First of all, the exposure to potential security risks and service disruption from Dropbox is enormous. Read on.ĭropbox has had its fair share of issues over the past couple of years, shining a big, ugly spotlight on security vulnerabilities with respect to sensitive customer data. 'But Dropbox is so convenient and easy to use,' you say.

These products provide a secure alternative to cloud-based solutions like Dropbox. SolarWinds recently acquired a set of products that provide a self-hosted solution for securely transferring files both within and outside the the corporate firewall.

Dropbox transfer