Lafleur Trading Company

Lafleur Trading Company, established in 1975, is a worldwide supplier of the finest foods and wines. With buyers dealing strictly with reputable producers and exporters, Lafleur Trading Company guarantees the highest quality products. Some concerns have surfaced about the direction the organization should take in regards to some key areas. Companies all over, are faced with the decision of how to incorporate technology into their organization’s structure. While it is available in many forms, each company is different and would require just enough of it to enhance their organization’s strategy, structure, communication, employee relationships and their performance as a whole. Lafleur Trading Company is based upon a decentralized organizational structure with the chief executive officer on top followed by chiefs of information, financial, and operations below. A decentralized organizational structure is where high-ups delegate authority down a chain of command to allow employees at many levels to make decisions. This is beneficial because minor problems can get solved at a quicker rate because they don’t need to get escalated up the entire chain.

This in turn leaves upper management more time to accomplish their own agendas for the company. Because Lafleur Trading Company has employees at many levels within the organization, proper file data management is extremely crucial. As a consultant for the company, I would recommend they invest in Universal File Access (UFA). UFA, developed by NTP Software, is technology that integrates with common storage hosts, cloud, and object stores to make an organization’s file data available to end users on any device consistent with its active directory security and other policies. What separates it from consumer-oriented “sync and share” products is that UFA is an end-to-end enterprise solution that provides corporate end users the ability to create and interact safely and securely with an organization’s file data using any device from any internet or cell phone enabled location. This provides the users the flexibility of accessing data in the office, at home, or on the road. Technology has gotten so far advanced that cell phones are not just for making calls anymore. They can do much more now, such as accessing email, data, or surfing the web. With more and more organizations adopting a “bring your own device (BYOD)” type of environment, the need to secure them is even greater. UFA provides organizations with the flexibility to leverage their existing storage infrastructure, while safely taking advantage of opportunities created by the BYOD movement.

What makes NTP software even more appealing is the fact that they are the only vendor with extension support in OS and File Systems for Windows, NetApp, EMC, and HDS. UFA can transport any data created remotely to these storage hosts within an organization’s data center using cloud as a transport and caching mechanism, but not as data store unless it is specified. Key components of UFA include:

Cloud Connector – one or more services that maintain a connection between internal storage hosts and the BYOD Manager. It integrates with Windows Active Directory and provides control over limits on size, quantity and type of file data BYOD Manager – one or more services that offers connections to end-user devices. It provides flexible caching options, proxies Active Directory security and aggregates communications BYOD Suite – client software appropriate for all common devices and operating systems. It provides end users with the ability to immediately upload and delete file data, and allows for lost or stolen devices to be shut down and wiped of business-critical information In order to minimize risk, it would be the company’s best interest to only allow certain devices and have the devices that are to be supported, to be registered with the company in order to keep out the unsupported devices.