The 5 Devastating Risks of Shadow IT

Shadow IT.

It’s that stealth cloud of unsanctioned services that users are adopting to support their eagerness for greater mobility and data access. But in their fervor to get things done quickly, they’re likely putting business data in critical jeopardy.

Here are the 5 top devastating Shadow IT risks you need to avoid…

The risky business of using consumer-grade file sharing to do enterprise-level tasks can

put data in the wrong hands.

Using consumer-based file sharing solutions such as Dropbox or Google Drive places mountains of business information in uncontrolled storage, outside of necessary corporate retention policies and eDiscovery eyes. Valuable data that goes “off the reservation” can create monumental exposure.

Risk 1: Data Leaks

Curiously, just what users were seeking to avoid when adopting a “Shadow IT” service,

is the challenge they create – lower productivity.

These “Shadow IT” services are typically not enterprise-ready. This means they are actually slower and more challenging to use than enterprise-enabled solutions. The result is slower performance and productivity drain as users hunt for where content is stored or twiddle their thumbs waiting for consumer services to load or download files.

Risk 2: Productivity Drain

When employees “go rogue” they can expose the corporate network or compromise company data without IT ever even knowing.

It’s often impossible for IT to know if Shadow IT apps are being used, or which ones and by whom. This makes it even more impossible to effectively mitigate the risk and protect the network. Without authorized app adoption and clear governing policies, users may put your enterprise at risk without even realizing they’re doing anything wrong.

Risk 3: security breaches

Likely unbeknown to your users, the use of unapproved software can put your company out of compliance with critical government

and industry regulations.

Compliance standards including PCI-DSS, NERC/FERC, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, GLBA, FISMA/NIST and more each present specific operational requirements that must be systematically addressed to ensure a compliant infrastructure that is free of risk. Using Shadow IT puts your organization in peril of failing a compliance audit that can cost dearly to resolve.

Risk 4: compliance gaps

The bottom line for each of these Shadow IT risks is they can mean disaster to the financial health of your organization.

When users, knowingly or not, remove IT from the decision process when selecting the solutions they use, they are charting treacherous territory. They may not engage companies with the proper SLA guarantees, security processes or even business credibility. As a result poor data security, security integrity or service reliability can quickly mount into costly results.

Risk 5: financial danger

To learn more about how Commvault® can better enable your users with the IT control you need to stay risk free, visit commvault.com/solutions.

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