Osterman Research/Axway survey finds 82 per cent of employees turn to personal email accounts to sen

Monday, 14 December 2009 05:47

The survey revealed that 82 per cent of employees use their personal email accounts to send large work-related files when an email attachment exceeds the size limit imposed by IT. However, IT professionals report this as their least-preferred method for file transfer. Physical media is also used by 80 per cent of employees, which is also discouraged by IT.

Security and compliance issues are the most serious problems with file transfer activities, cited as a challenge by 53 to 68 per cent of those surveyed (depending on the type of file transfer involved). Email systems were never designed to support large file transfers and they do not manage them well. Additionally, email performance suffers, storage costs rise and overall IT costs increase when these large files are sent as attachments.

File transfers are exceedingly common between organisations, at growing volumes, which further exposes organisations to data loss if not managed through secure means. The research shows that 20 per cent of organisations transfer files with more than 500 external organisations each week, while another 22 per cent transfer files with 101 to 500 external entities weekly.

An earlier Osterman Research survey found that 29 per cent of the emails sent through corporate email systems contain attachments. Additionally, the typical user in a large organisation sends and receives 149 emails in a typical day. In an organisation of 5,000 users, the following message volumes will be generated annually:

• 193.7 million emails will be sent and received

• 56.2 million will contain attachments

• 10.7 million will have an attachment that exceeds five megabytes

• 3.4 million will have an attachment that exceeds 10 megabytes.

“Growing file sizes, coupled with attachment size limits and storage issues, create a file transfer impasse between employees and IT, with data security and audit trails the primary victim,” said Michael Osterman of Osterman Research. ”Organisations should determine how to address these issues associated with sending attachments via email. File transfer systems should run independently of email, provide data security and audit trails, while enabling the definition and enforcement of file transfer rules and policies.”

Of the IT decision maker respondents surveyed:

• 64 per cent are concerned or very concerned about the violation of security policies or mandates as a result of file transfers, yet many continue to allow the use of standard FTP

• 61 per cent are concerned or very concerned about the compromise of proprietary customer or company data

• 56 per cent are concerned or very concerned about their ability to comply with internal or external audit requirements

• 53 per cent are concerned or very concerned about the visibility and monitoring of file transfer and exchanges.

“All industries, regardless of size, face file transfer issues,” said Joe Fisher, senior vice president of product and solutions marketing at Axway. “Without a dedicated, secure file transfer system, organisations must be prepared to deal with the consequences, including compromised sensitive data security, costs associated with remediating security violations and higher operations or IT costs for shipping physical media or storage for email systems.”

Osterman Research and Axway will host a Webinar that will discuss the survey findings on Dec. 16th, 11:00 a.m. US Pacific Summer Time. Attendees will also receive the full Osterman Research white paper.

The survey of mid and large size organisations was conducted in the summer of 2009 and sponsored by Axway. The survey is comprised of individuals who serve a primary role in IT management, manage email systems, use file transfer/managed file transfer tools, and hold executive management positions.