Bay Cove Human Services selects CloudLock for Google Docs to gain visibility and control of their corporate data stored on Google Docs

Each day, Bay Cove provides effective, compassionate care to over 4,000 individuals and families who face the challenges of developmental disabilities, mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction and aging at over 130 sites in Boston and southeastern Massachusetts. Their goal is to provide full, rich lives for people with the greatest challenges.

Business Problem

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When the CIO at Bay Cove Human Services decided it was time to migrate from their legacy email system, he evaluated the available alternatives and decided to move all 1,500 users to Google Apps for Business for email, calendar, Wiki and document collaboration both internally and with external suppliers.

Since Bay Cove handles sensitive data that is subject to multiple regulations like HIPAA, the IT team had a mandate to gain visibility and control access to all corporate data stored in Google Docs. This was a requirement that could not be met using standard admin features.

The CloudLock Solution

CloudLock for Google Docs is a Google Marketplace application, built on the Google Apps engine. The product provides IT Managers in companies using Google Apps with the same visibility and control they are used to having with their on-premise data.

“The decision to leverage cloud technologies to drive efficiencies in our operations was a strategic one. Selling the Google Apps and Google Docs solution internally was easy because of the ROI,” said Hilary Croach, Chief Information Officer at Bay Cove. “CloudLock for Google Docs not only puts our cloud data governance on-par with that of our on-premise data; it actually puts us in a better place. Having the capabilities to quickly identify data exposures and fix them immediately are the kinds of key IT controls every organization needs to have.”

Bay Cove Human Services did not stop at replacing only their legacy email system. They company is also taking advantage of the advanced collaboration capabilities the Google Apps platform provides. “We love our Google Apps environment for its simplicity,” said Croach. “It feels good to put our organization at the forefront of technology while still having the security controls for our corporate data stored on Google Docs.”

Governing Access and Usage of Google Docs with CloudLock For Google Docs

CloudLock for Google Docs provides a bi-directional view of who has access to what and what is accessible to whom, showing:

• Documents that are shared with anyone worldwide
• Documents that are exposed to people outside the company
• Documents exposed to everyone inside the company
• Usage and permissions of sensitive documents
• An audit of how end-users collaborate on data

“Being able to audit end users, and seeing the access rights of both the documents they own and the documents they collaborate on is critical for us, “ said Croach.

Get Back In Control – Revoke Excessive Rights

Gaining visibility into which documents are exposed inside and outside the domain and having a bi-directional view of who has access to what is only part of the solution. CloudLock for Google Docs also gives the domain admin greater control by:

• Alerting document owners of potential exposures or excessive rights
• Letting the domain admin fix or revoke excessive rights
• Maintaining an audit trail of all permissions changes made by admins on end-users documents

“One of my duties as the CIO is to make sure my IT organization has not only visibility, but also control, “ said Croach. “We handle sensitive client data that’s subject to HIPAA regulations and need to govern and protect it.”

Working With Data Governance Experts

“I view this as more than just a product acquisition, but rather forming a strategic relationship with an innovative company with data governance expertise,“ said Croach. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the product expands into other data repositories in the cloud.”