A quarter of organisations admit that their employees are using "unofficial", cloud-based file-sharing services to share content and collaborate, according to a survey by information management professional body AIIM.

AIIM surveyed over 500 of its members to gauge the current state of content management. It found that 9% of respondents see "unofficial use" of "business-grade" cloud file-sharing services in their organisations, and 16% see "consumer-grade" services in use.

Only 16% had an official, cloud-hosted file-sharing system for employees to use.

AIIM said that the use of unsanctioned cloud file-sharing services is "frequently driven by the need to share information with third-party organisations or partners".

When it came to mobile access to company content, 22% of respondents see employees using their own mobile devices outside or in absence of a BYOD policy. Over 30% said there was a BYOD policy in place, while 57% said employees use company-issued devices to access content.

The most popular strategy for remote access to content was via a virtual private network (VPN) and a remote desktop system, with over 65% of respondents. 32% said that employees can access content remotely through a browser, and 10% said that browser was optimised for mobile access.

As for their future plans for remote and mobile access, 43% said their aim was "keep all content within the firewall and use VPN connection only"; 29% plan to "keep all content within the firewall and use secure / containerised mobile apps".

12% of respondents said they are moving to a "hybrid cloud" content platform "by extending our on-premise ECM system to the cloud".

"Moving the most sharable or collaborative content to a hybrid cloud will make it much easier to connect remote, mobile and third-party users, and may head-off unofficial use of cloud file-sharing sites," AIIM said in its 'ECM at the Crossroads' report.