Has OneDrive for Business Improved Enough?

Microsoft’s entry into the Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) software market has made huge improvements over the past few years. OneDrive began as a product called Microsoft Office Groove,  and later became know as SkyDrive, before changing its name to OneDrive. OneDrive for Business, which is the business version, is included with many Office 365 subscriptions and it touts unlimited storage in many cases. For these reasons, many businesses want to utilize OneDrive for Business for all their file sharing and storage needs.

Some of the features and improvements of OneDrive that have been released over the past year or so:

  • A next generation sync client (no longer based on Groove!)
  • Support for real-time co-authoring from Office 2016 desktop apps
  • A streamlined process for external sharing with outside parties who don’t have a Microsoft account
  • Sync throttling controls
  • New IT Admin controls over per user quotas and external sharing permissions

OneDrive Features rolling out or planned for the future include:

  • Support for larger file sizes
  • A dedicated IT Admin console
  • Further integration with SharePoint Online document libraries

Every couple of months, technicians at TecFac discuss whether OneDrive is finally at the point we can recommend to our clients. Unfortunately, the answer continues to be NO!
While the new sync client is a welcome improvement, and the new admin features promise to provide IT with the tools needed to enhance security and compliance, the bottom line remains the same:
OneDrive for Business is for personal file storage and sharing.

The 3 biggest problems that prevent TecFac from recommending OneDrive for Business are:

    1. There is no way to create a folder hierarchy that can be shared among different business groups. You need to use SharePoint (which does not provide) unlimited storage and train end users on how they can sync individual libraries to their computer.
    1. The sync client still has problems and is not as robust compared to other EFSS solutions such as ShareFile or DropBox.
  1. File syncing or access via web page are your only options for access documents.

What Are the Viable Alternatives?

While TecFac has been using, supporting and recommending Citrix ShareFile for the past couple of years, there is a newer service that has emerged as the clear champion of functionality and workability, called Egnyte.
This EFSS service merges the security of your on premisis server infastracture with cloud support, allowing for cross device-compatibility without requiring a central VPN. Business users benefit from its large file capabilities while IT administrators are able to utilize a highly-detailed administrative dashboard to manage security, functionality, and file-sharing permissions. Egnyte’s suite of services are simply head-and-shoulders above the competition today, as both OneDrive and ShareFile still advertise feature rollouts that as of yet have not come to fruition. In future blogs, we’ll build one-to-one comparisons between Egnyte and other EFSS software. Learn more about the benefits of Egnyte
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