Dive Brief:

• Sharing files via enterprise file management software is growing in popularity in school districts, as more adopt formal policies on email security and file sharing. 
• Using cloud storage systems or enterprise products like Box, Citrix ShareFile and Syncplicity eliminate the need for email attachments and can help protect confidential documents.
• Free file-sharing options also exist, but they're not as secure and don't increase collaboration the same way a school-wide platform would.  

Dive Insight:

One senior analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group tells Ed Tech Magazine that teachers using freeware like Dropbox created security issues for some school districts, since it meant that educators were able to retrieve school information on personal devices like smartphones. Adopting one platform used by all school staff eliminates that problem, increasing security and heightening administrator control.

Education influencers like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have previously called for stronger data infrastructure in higher education, and the same need can be found in K-12 classrooms. Network attached storage tools can also be a solution for some districts. They typically offer a secure, cost-effective way to rapidly store data and allow multiple users access, and using virtual storage also lets schools maintain existing infrastructure.