Personal computer users, fed up with having to pay hundreds of dollars for single-use license installations of Microsoft Office or Office for Mac, are now simply leaving these extra items off new laptop purchases. Instead, they’re working within more efficient, free solutions: specifically, Google Drive and Apache OpenOffice.

The cloud service Google Drive is at present the more popular solution, due in part to its extreme ease of use and the fact that it now comes standard with every Gmail address (or, shall we say, “Google Plus Account”). Google Drive functions nearly identically to Microsoft Office, and even converts MS Office documents on the spot.

Sharing, of course, is as easy as sending an email or sharing a link. Since all file changes are tracked and integrated in the cloud, Google Drive eliminates the awkward versioning control found in those long chains of emails with Word or Excel attachments — there’s no more file attachments titled “2014BudgetrevisedFINALnewrevisionsJohnsedits.” For that alone, we’ve got to thank Google Drive.

Google Drive, is, according to CNET, the product that “killed” Microsoft Office. However, for the people who don’t want to put all of their eggs into the Google basket, there’s also Apache OpenOffice, the popular free “productivity software suite” that includes, you guessed it, a word document editor, a spreadsheet editor, a slide presentation creator, an image editing application, and a database creator. Sound familiar?

Apache OpenOffice, which fully integrates with MS Office files, has become so popular that, in a study conducted in 2011, 13 percent of companies were using the free OpenOffice instead of MS Office. That same study also notes that 9 percent of companies were using Google’s cloud services, mostly through Google Apps for Business.

This means, in short, that more and more personal computer users, as well as companies, are using alternate services instead of licensed MS Office software. The cloud users in particular have interesting implications for network security. After all, even if your company uses MS Office on your office computers, the worker editing files at night from her home laptop is going to import them into Google Drive, if she did not spring for her own copy of MS Office.

What does this mean for companies and organizations, now that they can’t expect their employees to have MS Office installed on home computers, can’t expect staff to not have cloud services like Gmail open on their office computers, and may even be experimenting with cloud file solutions themselves? Increased network security is essential.

At present, the cloud is just as safe as any corporate server — which is to say, it’s definitely secure, but also vulnerable to threats both present and yet-undiscovered. Whenever new devices or software products are released to the market, notes Trend Micro Cloud Security, it usually precipitates new viruses and malware.

The second step is to ensure your IT staff is up to date on what to look for in a security breach. For example: some types of advanced persistent threats only make themselves visible by showing atypical amounts of network use — if it looks like there are more users on the company network at 3 a.m. than there should be, for example, you might be carrying a few unwanted users who have hacked into your system.

The third step is to educate your workforce on cloud security. Hackers are likely to gain access to your company’s cloud storage by stealing your staff’s login information, so make sure everyone knows to use a completely unique password for the company cloud account, as well as for their at-home Google accounts, and to enable additional security features such as two-step authentication.

Now that cloud storage is here to stay, it’s time to educate yourself and your organization both on how to use the cloud efficiently and securely. Whether you’re the head of a company or the owner of a new MacBook Air, it’s up to you to keep yourself and your cloud storage safe.