Mimecast has launched Large File Send for Outlook, a new service that hopes to make sending large files secure and easy for users but meets the governance and management needs of IT staff.
The service aims to eliminate a common data security, or ‘Shadow IT’, threat caused when users turn to consumer cloud file sharing services to send files because their corporate email service prohibits this. With Large File Send the user simply attaches a file to their email in Outlook as usual and presses send.
The Mimecast service then intercepts the file, notifies the recipient of their secure download location and passcode. The user never needs to leave Outlook and the file doesn’t burden the email system or leave the network but remains secure and compliant with corporate policies. Mimecast Large File Send for Outlook will be available to customers in August.
The threat to corporate data security from consumer-grade cloud storage and services was identified by IT professionals in a recent report by Freeform Dynamics for Mimecast on Shadow IT. It found that 81% of IT teams are concerned that employees are putting sensitive data onto consumer cloud storage and services like Dropbox and Box.
Mimecast Large File Send for Outlook allows users to send files of up to 2GB securely. These large files bypass the Microsoft Exchange server or the Microsoft Office 365 25MB per email limit without impacting the corporate networks performance or clogging the user’s own inbox. Files can be sent to external recipients and non-Mimecast customers.
Grant Fletcher, product manager, Mimecast, said: "Before today, organisations either simply block large file sending over their email systems or implement business solutions that are expensive, complicated and unpopular with users.
"It’s not surprising that users turn to easier-to-use consumer services. Consumer cloud file sharing services have become a Shadow IT menace as using them leads to business critical or confidential information leaving the safety of the controlled corporate network.
"Mimecast Large File Send for Outlook is built to solve this problem for the user and the IT team. Users get the ability to securely and easily send very large files both within the corporate network and to external recipients, without having to leave Outlook and go to a third-party cloud service. It’s a win-win for the user and the IT team; large file sending is simple for the user so they don’t need to go outside the corporate network and because of that the IT team solves a major Shadow IT threat."
