Why Fix Something That Works?
“If Box or Kiteworks works for us, why should I change?”
I hear this from CIOs and infrastructure leaders every week. Those tools are proven and familiar. But what worked yesterday doesn’t always serve today’s needs. These tools represent a technology paradigm that was once necessary: discrete storage and sharing solutions, separate from the apps where content is created. But no paradigm lasts forever, and things have changed.
What’s Changed
Collaboration across organizational boundaries has become a source of business advantage. But the experience of 3rd party tools isn’t collaboration — it’s transfer —requiring context‑switching and file transfers between systems. This erodes productivity and undermines the letter and spirit of DEX.
➥ AI has emerged as an accelerant of productivity. To work effectively, it needs files in final form in context. When they are externalized as copies and versions, you lose the clean, governed corpus that AI relies on. This leads to sub-par AI outputs and hallucinations, as well as low confidence and slow adoption.
➥ Security risk grows with duplication and externalization. Every extra copy of a file and every file in the custody of a 3rd party expands your attack surface. Files should remain under your control throughout their lifecycle. This starts with keeping them in your tenant and subject to your zero-trust controls. Neither is do-able with 3rd party file transfer tools.
Modern collaboration is more than moving files back and forth. It’s a friction-free process of joint work on content shared and accessed in real time, in a secure environment, with continuous monitoring, enforcement, and reporting.
The Shift: From File Transfer to Collaboration
eSHARE’s Trusted Collaboration Fabric is an extension of M365 that enables 3rd party access through a trusted share – sort of a virtual data room – with data-centric controls that govern access to files. It also contains data in your tenant. Instead of copying files into a 3rd party solution, where it’s exposed to a potential breach of the 3rd party custodian, you share links to the original file with external stakeholders. This means there is a single source of truth inside your tenant. It also mean users can share files in the flow of work. All shared data falls under your unified policy and controls umbrella, leveraging native DLP alerts and labels, and reporting to the rich visibility and analytics dashboard of eSHARE, as well as your SIEM. Trusted shares have your brand and leverage your URL for deliverability. Identities are managed automatically.
Behind the scenes, eSHARE’s Zero Trust policy engine evaluates access to every link based on data-centric and contextual signals – DLP alert, label, user and user profile, file attributes, or ABAC if you have it -- that are correlated with your policies and enforced in real time. Every action – access, view, download, change and more – is controllable by policy and logged.
Everyone wins with trusted collaboration. Security can have a completely closed tenant. And users can share data as if the tenant is completely open. IT is relieved of the burden of managing 3rd party tools. Data protection teams get zero-trust controls and full visibility. The business – maybe most importantly – gets the benefit of real-time collaboration: employees are more productive; tasks are completed faster; and quality of work is better. In addition, trusted collaboration accelerates the value realization of GenAI.
Share links, not files. Keep data in M365. Apply policy automatically. See everything.
How It Works In a Nutshell
• Start in M365. A user who wants to share a file externally creates and shares a link directly from SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive or Outlook and a trusted share is created. A portal –sort of a virtual data room -- is instantiated.
• Policy decision. Before the recipient can access the file corresponding to the link, the file is evaluated by eSHARE’s policy engine for compliance with the company’s data security policies. These leverage signals form M365. Policies are fine-grained.
• Enforcement. The policy decision is enforced at the moment of access and continues to be monitored and enforced persistently. Enforcement can include: allow; block; prompt for justification; accept terms of service; withdraw access. And many other options.
• Unified experience. Once access is approved by the policy engine – more or less instantaneously-- external users engage seamlessly with the file through the portal. Internal and external users can view, edit, comment, co-author and more.
• Observability. Every access and action is logged for audit purposes, analytics, security, and compliance. Both performance and security reporting are supported. The logs are irrefutable and support compliance needs for pharma, insurance, finance, and defense.
F100 companies adopting trusted collaboration report the ability to retire redundant tools, reduce their attack surface by >90%, and obtain savings in the $10–15M range.
Regulated Industries Benefit the Most
➥ Insurance: Regulator, member-client, partner and TSA exchanges with link‑based sharing provide chain‑of‑custody and revocability without proliferating copies.
➥ Pharma/Life Sciences: Keep data contained for collaboration with CROs, suppliers, and partners; maintain complete evidence trails across channels.
➥ Defense Industrial Base: Meet stringent controls (e.g., ITAR, CMMC L2) by enforcing least‑privilege, assuring personnel are authorized to access, eliminating risky external copies
➥ Financial Services: Reduce data sprawl and improve forensics and audit readiness while staying in users’ flow of work.
Let’s Continue the Conversation
I spend a lot of time with CIOs, infrastructure leaders, and IT teams who are navigating this paradigm shift. If you’re wondering whether your current tools still serve your business—or whether the time is right to explore trusted collaboration—let’s connect.
“If Box or Kiteworks works for us, why should I change?”
I hear this from CIOs and infrastructure leaders every week. Those tools are proven and familiar. But what worked yesterday doesn’t always serve today’s needs. These tools represent a technology paradigm that was once necessary: discrete storage and sharing solutions, separate from the apps where content is created. But no paradigm lasts forever, and things have changed.
What’s Changed
Collaboration across organizational boundaries has become a source of business advantage. But the experience of 3rd party tools isn’t collaboration — it’s transfer —requiring context‑switching and file transfers between systems. This erodes productivity and undermines the letter and spirit of DEX.
➥ AI has emerged as an accelerant of productivity. To work effectively, it needs files in final form in context. When they are externalized as copies and versions, you lose the clean, governed corpus that AI relies on. This leads to sub-par AI outputs and hallucinations, as well as low confidence and slow adoption.
➥ Security risk grows with duplication and externalization. Every extra copy of a file and every file in the custody of a 3rd party expands your attack surface. Files should remain under your control throughout their lifecycle. This starts with keeping them in your tenant and subject to your zero-trust controls. Neither is do-able with 3rd party file transfer tools.
Modern collaboration is more than moving files back and forth. It’s a friction-free process of joint work on content shared and accessed in real time, in a secure environment, with continuous monitoring, enforcement, and reporting.
The Shift: From File Transfer to Collaboration
eSHARE’s Trusted Collaboration Fabric is an extension of M365 that enables 3rd party access through a trusted share – sort of a virtual data room – with data-centric controls that govern access to files. It also contains data in your tenant. Instead of copying files into a 3rd party solution, where it’s exposed to a potential breach of the 3rd party custodian, you share links to the original file with external stakeholders. This means there is a single source of truth inside your tenant. It also mean users can share files in the flow of work. All shared data falls under your unified policy and controls umbrella, leveraging native DLP alerts and labels, and reporting to the rich visibility and analytics dashboard of eSHARE, as well as your SIEM. Trusted shares have your brand and leverage your URL for deliverability. Identities are managed automatically.
Behind the scenes, eSHARE’s Zero Trust policy engine evaluates access to every link based on data-centric and contextual signals – DLP alert, label, user and user profile, file attributes, or ABAC if you have it -- that are correlated with your policies and enforced in real time. Every action – access, view, download, change and more – is controllable by policy and logged.
Everyone wins with trusted collaboration. Security can have a completely closed tenant. And users can share data as if the tenant is completely open. IT is relieved of the burden of managing 3rd party tools. Data protection teams get zero-trust controls and full visibility. The business – maybe most importantly – gets the benefit of real-time collaboration: employees are more productive; tasks are completed faster; and quality of work is better. In addition, trusted collaboration accelerates the value realization of GenAI.
Share links, not files. Keep data in M365. Apply policy automatically. See everything.
How It Works In a Nutshell
• Start in M365. A user who wants to share a file externally creates and shares a link directly from SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive or Outlook and a trusted share is created. A portal –sort of a virtual data room -- is instantiated.
• Policy decision. Before the recipient can access the file corresponding to the link, the file is evaluated by eSHARE’s policy engine for compliance with the company’s data security policies. These leverage signals form M365. Policies are fine-grained.
• Enforcement. The policy decision is enforced at the moment of access and continues to be monitored and enforced persistently. Enforcement can include: allow; block; prompt for justification; accept terms of service; withdraw access. And many other options.
• Unified experience. Once access is approved by the policy engine – more or less instantaneously-- external users engage seamlessly with the file through the portal. Internal and external users can view, edit, comment, co-author and more.
• Observability. Every access and action is logged for audit purposes, analytics, security, and compliance. Both performance and security reporting are supported. The logs are irrefutable and support compliance needs for pharma, insurance, finance, and defense.
F100 companies adopting trusted collaboration report the ability to retire redundant tools, reduce their attack surface by >90%, and obtain savings in the $10–15M range.
Regulated Industries Benefit the Most
➥ Insurance: Regulator, member-client, partner and TSA exchanges with link‑based sharing provide chain‑of‑custody and revocability without proliferating copies.
➥ Pharma/Life Sciences: Keep data contained for collaboration with CROs, suppliers, and partners; maintain complete evidence trails across channels.
➥ Defense Industrial Base: Meet stringent controls (e.g., ITAR, CMMC L2) by enforcing least‑privilege, assuring personnel are authorized to access, eliminating risky external copies
➥ Financial Services: Reduce data sprawl and improve forensics and audit readiness while staying in users’ flow of work.
Let’s Continue the Conversation
I spend a lot of time with CIOs, infrastructure leaders, and IT teams who are navigating this paradigm shift. If you’re wondering whether your current tools still serve your business—or whether the time is right to explore trusted collaboration—let’s connect.
FAQ
How can CIOs ensure compliance and audit readiness in Microsoft 365?
Balancing collaboration speed with strong governance is the top challenge. Features like Teams/SharePoint external sharing can create oversharing and audit gaps if unmanaged. Pairing Microsoft Purview with a guest-less external collaboration layer like eSHARE keeps data in-tenant, applies existing controls, and gives CIOs/CISOs the visibility they need without slowing work.
What is the biggest Microsoft 365 governance challenge for CIOs and CISOs today?
Balancing collaboration speed with strong governance is the top challenge. Features like Teams/SharePoint external sharing can create oversharing and audit gaps if unmanaged. Pairing Microsoft Purview with a guest-less external collaboration layer like eSHARE keeps data in-tenant, applies existing controls, and gives CIOs/CISOs the visibility they need without slowing work.
How do organizations manage Microsoft 365 guest account sprawl?
Balancing collaboration speed with strong governance is the top challenge. Features like Teams/SharePoint external sharing can create oversharing and audit gaps if unmanaged. Pairing Microsoft Purview with a guest-less external collaboration layer like eSHARE keeps data in-tenant, applies existing controls, and gives CIOs/CISOs the visibility they need without slowing work.
