Kurt Shintaku's Blog

I have clients that have historically used a 3rd party cloud file storage service but since the release of OneDrive for Business & its advanced sync client, most are reassessing that earlier decision & instead investigating why it makes sense to instead use OneDrive for Business – especially clients using Office 365 in production.

Here’s a few matters to consider when evaluating the use of OneDrive for Business for your end user’s personal file storage in the cloud:

• NO ADDITIONAL COST: 
  Office 365 E3 customers have OneDrive for Business as part of their subscription.  There is no additional subscription cost to leverage the solution as it’s already being paid for. (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/onedrive-for-business-service-description.aspx)
• UNLIMITED STORAGE:
  Folks with Office 365 E3 licensing get *unlimited* file storage in OneDrive for Business for Office 365 licensed users.  Initial limits are set to 5TB however more storage may be allocated to a user’s OneDrive upon request to Office 365 support. (https://blogs.office.com/2015/12/16/onedrive-for-business-update-on-storage-plans-and-next-generation-sync-client/)
• SYNC CLIENT REQUIRED FOR SHAREPOINT: 
  Any customer with active SharePoint implementations will likely need to deploy OneDrive for Business sync client to end users anyway to provide file sync with centralized SharePoint Online/SharePoint Server document repositories in which to collaborate.  If the sync client is already going to be used for SharePoint, why not simply use the client to sync personal OneDrive for Business files as well? It makes no sense to deploy a SECOND sync client to accommodated a 3rd party service.(https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Sync-your-OneDrive-for-Business-files-23e1f12b-d896-4cb1-a238-f91d19827a16?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US)
• CO-AUTHORING/CO-EDITING FROM OFFICE APPLICATIONS 
  Users will be able to simultaneously edit the same Office documents (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) at the same time without fear of collisions when they are stored in OneDrive for Business.  This productivity feature is only available if the files being collaborated on are stored OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online.  (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/realtime-coauthoring-7dd3040c-3f30-4fdd-bab0-8586492a1f1d, https://blogs.office.com/2015/08/13/preview-real-time-co-authoring-on-onedrive/#wdZgiV4hKoHPEpG1.97) 
• NATIVE DOCUMENT SHARING FROM OFFICE APPLICATIONS 
  Office 365 users can, from the Office 2016 apps, automatically publish documents to OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online and provision those files with the necessary security privileges, and send a message to the person being collaborated with.
  (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/sharing-documents-from-Office-apps-d39f3cd8-0aa0-412f-9a35-1abba926d354)
• PREMIER SUPPORT CONTRACT:
  Customers with existing Microsoft Premier Support agreements for have a single, flexible, technical support contract which covers OneDrive for Business without the need for a separate 3rd party support agreement.  The same people supporting the desktop, servers, Azure Active Directory & Office 365, can receive support for OneDrive for Business without any changes. (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftservices/premier-support-for-enterprise.aspx)
• NATIVE OFFICE INTEGRATION:
  Natively integrated with Office applications for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, OneDrive for Business allows users to open documents from the “Most Recent” list synchronized across OneDrive for Business enabled devices. (https://blogs.office.com/2016/04/12/onedrive-for-business-recognized-as-an-efss-leader-and-continues-momentum-with-spring-updates/#FE6gvASqIW01JjKZ.97)
• ENTERPRISE IT CONTROLS:
  OneDrive for Business will maintain IT controls to throttle bandwidth consumption of the client for synchronization activities nad keep them centrally manageable.  We also have the ability manage expiration dates for sharing to limit exposure on a tenant level.  (https://blogs.office.com/2016/04/12/onedrive-for-business-recognized-as-an-efss-leader-and-continues-momentum-with-spring-updates/#FE6gvASqIW01JjKZ.97, https://blogs.office.com/2016/02/17/auditing-reporting-and-storage-improvements-for-sharepoint-online-and-onedrive-for-business/)
• DELVE & PRODUCTIVITY ANALYTICS: 
  Office 365 E3 customers have access to Delve which provides cross-organizational collaboration & alignment/relationship mapping however it will only work with files stored in OneDrive for Business.  Delve does not see relationships using documents stored on 3^rd party cloud file storage.   (https://products.office.com/en-us/business/explore-office-delve?legRedir=true&CorrelationId=58efcdac-8b2f-4cf0-a9b8-f8413bc3fe38)
• UNIFIED SEARCH WITH SHAREPOINT:
  Search works across file shares, SharePoint document repositories, and OneDrive for Business, providing a singular & integrated search experience that is not possible with other cloud file storage providers.
  (https://blogs.office.com/2014/08/27/search-sensitive-content-sharepoint-onedrive-documents/)
• OFFICE 365 EDISCOVERY SEARCHABLE:
  eDiscovery through Office 365 produces reports that includes Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business.  Office 365 eDiscovery will not index & report on content stored within 3rd party cloud file storage.
  (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn765092.aspx)
• WEB, DESKTOP, MOBILE CLIENT SUPPORT:
  Provides the client support you expect from the web to the PC/Mac to mobile devices including iOS, Android, and Windows Phone through native clients.
• OFFICE 365/AZURE ACTIVE DIRECTORY
  Native authentication with Azure Active Directory means seamless & instant integration for Office 365 users including single-sign on.