I hope this e-mail finds you doing well and in good spirits.
It's Sunday January 22, 2017 and I am sitting at home, enjoying the much needed rain here in southern California.
Today would have been a perfect day to go to a museum, and my wife and I will probably do something like that next Sunday. Instead, today I got up at 4 am, and finished publishing my lessons for the Google Drive Section of my File Management Applications Course.
I am often asked the question, and I often see it being asked in our Between Wall and Main Strategy Forum, about which File Management Applications people should use. Mostly these are accounting and bookkeeping professionals, and the reason they are so concerned about this, is that they are putting clients' information in these services. Accordingly, the first concern is always about security.
I began to wonder, how many people really understand what they are actually asking, when they ask about security. I myself was guilty of relying on what others had told me, about what was secure, and what wasn't. These were people, whom I trusted very much, but I really had no concept of what made an app secure and what didn't.
When it came to preparing to write this course, I decided it was time to learn myself. It isn't rocket science, and you don't need to understand how encryption works. You just need to understand the regulatory bodies, and the certifications they offer based on an audit of a company's controls. The AICPA is the regulatory body for the accounting industry, and the audit reports that are issued are called, "SOC Reports."
I decided to start the entire course off with an overview on security. Then with each section, I lead off with a lesson on security for that particular application.
Over the years, I've heard all kinds of things about Google Drive's security. Recently I even read from a colleague in one of our Facebook groups that "... Google is not secure." By this time I'd done my research, and found myself shaking my head. I also felt compelled to respond. I posted links to the areas on Google where the security is discussed. Google has the SOC reports for the accounting industry. They also have HIPPA, Fedramp, and ISO certificates. In short, Google has more security certificates than any of the other services I am looking at in this course.
You see this is the problem with social media. People simply parrot what they hear others say, instead of checking things out for themselves. What's worse is when someone, holding himself out as a "tech expert' tells people the wrong thing in a Facebook group, where lots of people are reading, and relying on what they read. I like to support what I am saying with facts, and I also try to stay away from offering an opinion.
In this entire course on File Management applications, you will not see me suggest one over the other. My aim is to show you what these applications can do, and let you decide for yourself. the fact is, no one can decide for another, which application is best for them. That is something each individual, or company needs to decide for themselves. Much of this will depend on what features are more important to you, and also, what other apps you might be using to handle certain parts of your process. For example, if you are using 17Hats to automate a workflow, then you may not need ShareFile's new workflow features. All you need, then is a place to securely store files, where you can easily acquire, access, and share them.
The compelling thing about Google Drive, to me, is that, assuming you use the desktop sync tool, you can have the benefits of using both Microsoft Office, as well as Google's own native docs suite. You can also manage all of the files (including Google Documents), both locally, and on the web.
The lessons on Google Drive are all live now. The first lesson on Google Drive Security is free.
Please enjoy, and as always, bang that reply button if you have any questions, comments, feedback, or concerns!
Thanks, and happy Sunday!
Seth
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