Few would question the value of collaboration to speed time to completion in any number of typical business processes.  New technologies and Web connectivity have fueled the growth of this dynamic marketplace. IDC estimates that SharePoint’s growth was double that of the other tier one Collaborative Content Workspace vendors in 2008 and at this year’s SharePoint Conference, Microsoft claimed over $1.3 billion in SharePoint sales in 2009, with the total number of licenses sold well over 1 billion.  There is no doubt that SharePoint is rapidly gaining acceptance as a valuable collaborative tool in many enterprises. 

Two logical needs have developed as a result of this.  First, end users and IT management are both requesting that this high-use application be integrated into the company’s overall SSO/Web access management environment to improve user experience and reduce administration/help desk costs.  Second, end users who are now comfortable using SharePoint for collaboration and content management internally, are pushing IT to enable the same functionality with the contractors, partners and customers that they need to collaborate with.

The security groups in these organizations are faced with a variety of challenges related to the increased use of collaboration. One concern is protecting confidential data, another is secure, automated access and a third is centralized control and reporting. These issues are growing and evolving as collaboration technology proliferates and matures.

CA is helping large organizations deal with these security challenges and manage specific types of content within their SharePoint environment. We will be demonstrating these solutions at the RSA conference next week in San Francisco. Stop by booth #1533 if you are interested in discussing secure collaboration!