Enterprise Information Protection

Enterprise Information Protection (EIP) has rapidly become a top enterprise security priority as organizations shift from largely on‑premises communication to complex, daily collaboration across mobile devices, cloud services, and external partners. Because users frequently access corporate data off-premises and on privately owned devices, traditional perimeter security is no longer sufficient. EIP solutions address this “post-perimeter” reality by protecting the data itself while still enabling flexible, low-friction sharing with employees, partners, and customers.

Core EIP use cases include protecting intellectual property, safeguarding personally identifiable information (PII), and enabling secure remote collaboration. Common approaches combine rights management, document repositories, and encryption applied at either the folder level (shared keys) or file level (per-document keys). Effective rights management allows authors or administrators to define granular actions—such as viewing, editing, saving, printing, forwarding, or screen capture—and ensures these controls persist as the document moves across internal infrastructure and cloud environments. Mature offerings also include policy frameworks, key management (optionally with HSM support), broad file and device compatibility, integration via APIs, and full auditability across data at rest, in motion, and in use.

Market direction is shaped by remote work acceleration (notably in early 2020), expanding multi-enterprise collaboration, and privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA that constrain data collection, retention, and erasure practices. The vendor landscape remains heterogeneous, spanning startups and large platforms. Featured vendors highlight different strengths: Exostar for regulated-industry collaboration and high-assurance identity services; NextLabs and Seclore for broad capabilities integrating classification/DLP and dynamic policy controls; Fasoo for innovation in tracing, print controls, and tamper-resistant auditing; and Microsoft for integrated classification plus rights management aligned with familiar Office/Teams workflows and external collaboration via Azure AD B2B.

• Major EIP use cases include protecting intellectual property, protecting PII data, and enabling secure collaboration at a distance.
• Encryption is used at either the folder level with a shared key or at the file level with individual keys per document.
• Rights management can explicitly control actions such as edit, save, and print, and these controls travel with the document.
• Standard EIP capabilities include rights management, cloud and on-premises support, key management, policy frameworks, and auditability.
• Advanced EIP capabilities include classification, document versioning, secure file repositories, sensitive information detection, and email protection.
• Amazon WorkDocs is available in six regions worldwide and provides 1 TB of default storage capacity.
• Exostar supports a global community of over 150,000 companies in more than 150 countries.
• Exostar issues credentials aligned to NIST 800-63 Levels 1 through 4.
• Fasoo assigns an embedded unique ID into each file for tracing, audit logging, and visibility that persists across location and derivatives.
• CryptoMill Circles of Trust supports fine-grained policy customization across approximately 70 features.

• “Perimeter protection is no longer adequate, leading to the release of many EIP solutions.”
• “The ‘post-perimeter’ age of security means that every interface with enterprise data is a potential attack vector.”
• “Protecting enterprise information while still making it available for varied use is therefore paramount.”
• “A strong solution is one that protects enterprise data with flexible control of data that can accommodate the way that enterprise staff, business partners, and customers prefer to interact.”
• “These controls travel with the document and apply on internal infrastructure or cloud environments.”
• “Controls on data must be light-touch and must accommodate the way staff share information both internally and externally.”
• “This wake-up call, as well as rising pressures on the climate from daily commuting and business travel will drive growth for this market.”
• “This requires the ability to securely share documents in use, not simply finished documents, with fine-grained control over any user’s access to or manipulation of information in that document.”
• “Advanced capabilities for this segment will start to appear in 2020 responding to a high demand for secure remote workforces and collaborative workspaces.”
• “Sensitive data often resides in multiple places in an organization, and is incorporated into files at rest, in motion, and in use.”