Dropbox and us: Your questions

We recently got a chance to quiz Daniel Nicolas, channel manager at Dropbox, and James Chowen, cloud product manager at Virgin Media Business, on everything cloud, collaboration, and productivity.

From General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), to getting senior executives to buy-in, our two experts were insightful and informative when it came to the transformational power of cloud technology.

First up: GDPR. That’s the new EU regulation establishing a framework for handling and protecting the personal data of EU citizens. It comes into effect in May 2018, so it’s natural the topic is front of mind for business-owners right now. Our first question asked Nicolas whether Dropbox was ready for the new laws:

“We are working towards being compliant with GDPR, as any company is having to do. On top of that, as a cloud service provider, we are working with third parties to make sure we have all the relevant certifications in place to comply with the regulations when they’re implemented.”

Nicolas had plenty of advice for small businesses in the build-up the new regulations:

“If you think your organisation may be affected by GDPR, now is the time to start preparing. We’d highly recommend seeking legal advice to determine the requirements for your specific situation because there are a number of factors to consider, but the sooner you start, the better it’ll be for your organisations.”

With many organisations making more use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, he turned to how the new regulations would affect these devices:

“Over half of UK organisations have a BYOD strategy and policies in place, but they have to be aimed at preventing any unauthorised devices from accessing sensitive business or personal information.

“That means they need to have the right set of tools in place that allows for security compliance, as well as mechanisms to ensure they can monitor and control whatever happens to their company data. And should an employee leave the organisation, they need to be able to perform a remote wipe on all data.”

And there’s also education involved:

“The organisation must also ensure employees are aware of the risks of sharing data with unauthorised users. This means educating them about the dangers of unsecured WiFi, unapproved apps, and passwords, as well as the importance of separating corporate and personal data on their devices.”

Next, the focus shifted to Virgin Media Business’ own Chowen, who was keen  to share an app recommendation:

“A marketing automation app I’ve been looking at recently is SiteWit. It allows you to set a monthly budget, and the keywords you work with. Then an algorithm bids for you, based on your budget. So rather than you having to sift through Google Ads, it’s all worked out for you – very clever.”

He finished by sharing some advice on getting buy-in for cloud from senior figures in your organisation:

“For me, what’s going to be interesting is that when GDPR comes into play, and you have to think about how you’re storing data, it’s going to be a wake-up call for senior executives: Am I doing this properly? Could I be using a safer method? Is my server GDPR compliant?

These are people concerned with money, and there are hefty fines if you’re not compliant, so we might start to see a shift.

What we’re trying to encourage is a bottom-up approach; for employees to approach the IT department so they can get the attention of senior executives to say, ‘These are the tools we want to use and try and encourage collaboration and adopting cloud adoption.’”

We hosted a full webinar around the importance of Cloud with James and Daniel, you can watch the full webinar here: