Bay Cove Human Services, a non-profit support group for people in Massachusetts, wanted to save money by moving some of its applications to the cloud--specifically Google Apps for Business. However, the social services organization falls under a number of privacy regulations, including HIPAA, so the group turned to a third party for tools that would enhance data security and control, reports CSO magazine's Joan Goodchild.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) offers Apps for Business free of charge to non-profits of Bay Cove's size, making it a very appealing option when the group needed to update its email platform, said Hilary Croach, CIO for Bay Cove. The cloud-based service seemed as secure for email as the internal system was, so they made the move. But when it came to other applications, such as Google Docs, administrators would have had relatively little control over--or visibility into--the data being shared, so he resisted.

"Most breaches in our industry come from inadvertent sharing, and Google Docs allows for that in a much greater way [than Word]. So we decided we didn't want to roll Google Docs," Croach said. "The key to being able to use Google Docs is having the visibility on it."

Users, however, wanted the document sharing app from Google, so Croach looked into third-party tools that would give his administrators the needed visibility. He landed on CloudLock, which allows him to know in retrospect if data was shared with someone outside the organization or publicly. Croach is able to see how many documents have been shared with the public and how many have been shared within his organization. He can adjust sharing privileges as needed.

"There is a huge split between cloud fans and those who believe if they can't touch it, it's not secure. The reality is somewhere in the middle," Croach said. "By adding a third-party tool, it gives me more visibility on Google Docs than I have on documents in my network."

For more:
- check out Joan Goodchild's article at CSO

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