Andy Parkes provided a great link in response to my most recent blog post on SkyDrive Pro. Here it is:
5 Question about SkyDrive Pro – http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/BlogPost.aspx?pID=1033
Let me make some comments on the points it makes:
1. There is a LOT of confusion around the whole SkyDrive brand now for most people. What is free? What is included? How much can I sync? Bottom line?
SkyDrive = free consumer web storage product with 7GB. (http://skydrive.live.com).
SkyDrive (App) = a free program to sync SkyDrive (NOT SkyDrive Pro) files locally on a desktop.
SkyDrive (Mobile) = free apps to work with files saved on SkyDrive (NOT SkyDrive Pro).
SkyDrive Pro (On premises) = commercial product available as part of SharePoint Server 2013.
SkyDrive Pro (Office 365) = commercial product available as part of SharePoint Online 2013
SkyDrive Pro (App) = local desktop app that comes with Office 2013 that allows syncing of files from SharePoint (Office 365 or on premise) to your desktop.
2. SkyDrive Pro (App) has LESS features than the current SharePoint Workspace 2010. SkyDrive Pro (App) can only sync files, whereas SharePoint Workspace 2010 could do other SharePoint elements like lists.
SharePoint Workspace 2010 will still work with all versions of SharePoint 2013 and provide all the features from what I can see but this is the last version of the product. It is no longer available in Office 2013. If you still want to run SharePoint Workspace 2010 and SkyDrive Pro (App) sync’ing tool on your desktop you’ll need to install this update for SharePoint Workspace:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687364
3. SkyDrive Pro (Office 365) will have 7GB of storage! Wow, that is a huge increase from the current 500MB per user in the their my sites. Now, here’s a question, the current Office 365 P Plan SharePoint offering doesn’t offer My Sites so what will happen with the new Office 365 P Plans? Not much word there either, we’ll have to wait and see whether SkyDrive Pro is available in the new Office 365 P plans.
If it isn’t available you’ll still be able to use the SkyDrive Pro (App) that comes with Office 2013 to sync other SharePoint libraries. So you won’t have SkyDrive Pro (Office 365) but you’ll have SkyDrive Pro (App) with Office 365 P plans. Confused yet? Again, naming everything SkyDrive was not a good idea in my books.
4. The article in the link above seems to indicate that to get SkyDrive Pro all you need is Office 2013 or Office 365. Office 2013, yep agree, but in my testing from the current beta version of Office 365 when you click on the SYNC option on a SharePoint page you receive an error unless SkyDrive Pro (App) (or SharePoint Workspace 2010) is installed. This means that SkyDrive Pro (App) isn’t available directly from Office 365, it is in fact only available via Office 2013.
Now this could obviously change when the next version of Office 365 is released and as I said previously it makes a lot of sense to make the SkyDrive Pro (App) freely available. However, that is currently not the case from what I see and is only available when you install Office 2013. I also wonder whether SkyDrive Pro (App) will be available in ALL versions of Office 2013 or only the Professional Plus edition?
What about Office for MAC? Will there be an option for SkyDrive Pro (App) to suits MACs? There is one for the plain consumer SkyDrive but what about with Office 365 and SharePoint 2013? If you consider that Office for MAC will be available as part of many Office 365 plans you would of kind of think so but then how do you get it as they way I understand it there is not a new version of Office for MAC. That seems to point towards either a free SkyDrive Pro (App) or no app at all for MACs.
Don’t get me wrong, SkyDrive in all flavours (consumer, Pro, App, Mobile) is fantastic and I use it everyday and in a few months we’ll all being using these products without thinking BUT at the moment it is very confusing I reckon!
CIAOPS 