The one minor difference we note in our research is that the regulatory environment in the E.U. is somewhat more complex and that complexity has slowed the wide spread adoption of cloud computing. Interestingly, while adoption has been slower, the level of interest in cloud computing from E.U. based IT leaders is virtually identical with that of U.S. corporate IT leaders. Approximately 44% of IT leaders plan to invest in cloud computing solutions within the next three years.

Although we found increased usage of mobile devices in the workplace to be about the same across Europe as in the E.U., one area we did not explore was the European wireless infrastructure. As all U.S. visitors to Europe know, the wireless technology in the E.U. has always been superior to that of the U.S. This is due to the fact that the U.S. built its wireless systems on an older, less scalable technology called CDMA, whereas Europe started with the more advanced and highly scalable GSM technology.

What our briefing did confirm was the business value inherent in collaboration driven by secure social media. We note that an entire software industry grew up around building collaboration software. Yet for all the effort major companies put into developing smarter, easy to use corporate collaboration software, nothing has the appeal and natural adoption rate of social media. Infotrieve is the only document delivery platform for corporate information centers and corporate libraries to build a secure social media set of tools into their software platform. To learn more about how Mobile Library uses secure social media to enhance business value, click here.

However, we also want to focus on how important the “secure” is in secure social media. When researchers are collaborating on a project the intellectual property they create is the lifeblood of the company and must remain within the enterprise. In fact, cyber-security is so important to virtually every organization that they have created a role called the CSO, or Chief Security Officer. The sole focus of that job is network security across the entire organization.

While social media is employed by the marketing department in most companies, some have banned the use of any personal social media by employees. A quick Google search reveals why CSO’s are so concerned about employees using their personal social media accounts in the workplace. CSO’s are not only concerned about the technical security breaches in the headlines below, they are also concerned about the inappropriate use of social media by employees potentially inadvertently revealing critical corporate IP, unannounced new products or even financial information.

The social media features of Mobile Library allow corporate CSO’s to sleep at night knowing that information shared on the fully-secure platform will trigger headlines like these. For more information about Mobile Library’s secure social media features and how it allows employees to share and collaborate, please click here.