Tag: OneDrive

Sydney SharePoint Saturday–I’m speaking

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In sunny ole Sydney this Saturday (29th November 2014)? Fancy a bit of SharePoint luvin’? If so why don’t you head along to SharePoint Saturday at:

Clifton’s
13/60 Margaret St, Sydney

from 9am. Full details and registrations at:

http://www.spsevents.org/city/Sydney/Sydney2014

if you do you’ll discover a whole days worth of content specifically around SharePoint. I’ll be speaking about OneDrive in the afternoon so I’d love to see you at my session.

If you are planning to attend the day drop me a line and let me know so I can say hi!

I still firmly believe that SharePoint represents the greatest opportunity for SMB IT resellers and is something they need to be familiar with at the very least. For customers SharePoint provides a way to streamline and manage their information much better and likewise is not something that should be dismissed.

Thus, in summary, no matter who you are, you should come to Sydney SharePoint Saturday. There is something for everyone!

Need to Know podcast–Episode 62

Tas Gray from AxiomIT is back for another episode focused on Office 365. We cover a range of announcements that Microsoft recently made as well as some discussion about Office 365 adoption.

To listen to the episode visit:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-62-tas-gray/

or subscribe to this and all episodes in iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

I am also pleased top announce that the podcast is now available on Stitcher at;

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

If you are interested in being a guest on the show to discuss business or technical topics please contact me (director@ciaops.com).

Does this mean Microsoft will buy Dropbox?

You may have seen the news that Office and Dropbox will start working together. Here is the announcement if you missed it:

http://blogs.office.com/2014/11/04/office-dropbox-work-together-phones-tablets-web/

Now this got me thinking. With Microsoft recently announcing unlimited free storage for OneDrive consumer and also unlimited free with plans including OneDrive for Business it kind of wrecks Dropbox’s business model of charging for web storage now doesn’t it?

Microsoft has a file sync tool for OneDrive but it isn’t currently as robust or as widespread as Dropbox’s. So to me it makes sense for Microsoft to look at buying Dropbox to not only get the sync technology but also the audience.

That scenario may seem unlikely to you but let me point to a few precedents here. Firstly, Microsoft’s purchase of Skype and secondly Microsoft’s purchase of Yammer. Both gave Microsoft access to key technology as well as an audience they were not really engaged with.

So if Microsoft does acquire Dropbox you can tell people you read it here first. However, I’d love to hear whether you think what I suggest here is feasible? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic.

OneDrive Windows Phone App updated

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Microsoft has updated the OneDrive app for Windows Phone now to include the ability to access both OneDrive and OneDrive for Business in a single place like they recently did with other platforms.

To configure this, firstly ensure you have the latest version of the OneDrive app from the Windows Store on your device. Then go to the list of apps and select OneDrive.

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If the app has been updated you should see Add OneDrive for Business as an option at the bottom as shown above. Select this.

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You’ll now be prompted to enter your Office 365 credentials and Sign in.

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You should see the account being added to your OneDrive app.

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When complete your OneDrive should appear in the list as shown above. Select Files (under this new item) to view your OneDrive for Business content.

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You should now see all your OneDrive for Business files in the app,

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just as you would see them in a browser.

Nice improvement that brings the Windows Phone app to par with apps on other platforms.

We have reached the bottom

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We all knew it was coming but this announcement from Microsoft:

Moving forward, all Office 365 customers will get unlimited OneDrive storage at no additional cost.

proves that we have finished the race to the bottom when it comes to storage.

What it means is that all Office 365 customers, home and business, will soon have unlimited storage capacity in their OneDrive. Here’s what the article says specifically about OneDrive for Business:

For OneDrive for Business customers, unlimited storage will be listed on the Office 365 roadmap in the coming days and we will begin updating the First Release customers in 2015, aligned with our promise to provide ample notification for significant service changes.

So we’ll have to wait a few months until we see it in Office 365 for Business but it will be worth the wait. My only question is whether the same unlimited storage will also apply for Team Sites as well as OneDrive for Business? Sure hope it does, but time will tell.

For providers who already don’t offer unlimited free storage there probably won’t be much option but to match this or risk being uncompetitive in the market.

Storage is only the first in a long time of resources that will ultimately end up being free thanks to the commoditisation of the cloud. Roll on I say.

You can read the full blog post from Microsoft here:

https://blog.onedrive.com/office-365-onedrive-unlimited-storage/

Image courtesy of audfriday13 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Emailing OneDrive for Business files

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Office 365 now supports the ability to attach files directly from your OneDrive for Business via Outlook Web Access.

To do this simply navigate to your Office 365 web portal and select Outlook from the top navigation bar.

Compose a new email and select the Insert button at the top of the window. That will reveal the above menu. Select Attachments or OneDrive for files.

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You’ll then be taken to a screen like the above where you can select from a number of different sources. Under the OneDrive option for example select My Files. You should then see all the files you have in OneDrive for Business displayed. Select the file you wish to attach and then the Next option in the top left (above the OneDrive icon).

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You are then prompted as to whether you wish to send this file as an attachment (i.e. the whole file is added to the email) or you just want to send a link to the file. In essence this ‘shares’ that file from your OneDrive for Business rather than sending the whole file. That allows you to potentially revoke that sharing at any stage in the future.

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If you elect to attach the file you will see the attachment displayed as above with the actual file size displayed.

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If instead you elected to Share with OneDrive you will see the attachment but also the text Recipients can edit.

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When the recipient receives the file, if it was sent as an attachment they can view it as they normally could.

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However, if you elected to Share with OneDrive they will be taken to a link to view the file. If the shared file is an Office document they will see that document in Office Online as shown above.

This feature is something that has been missing from Office 365 for a while now and makes more sense as more people move all their information to the cloud. What would be nice now is some similar integration with Outlook on the desktop. Having the ability to attach or share from Outlook on a standard PC desktop would really accelerate cloud adoption in my option.

This feature is currently rolling out to all tenants. If you don’t have it yet you will soon.

Sydney SharePoint Users Group

I have been invited along to the Sydney SharePoint Users Group on Tuesday the 21st of October to speak about OneDrive for Business. here is the session details:

This session will help you not only understand what OneDrive for Business from Office 365 is but the options that are available for IT Professionals to manage it inside their business. You’ll learn about how the product works and what limitations it has along with the best practices around usage and management. Importantly, you’ll learn how to implement OneDrive for Business as an effective collaboration component inside a business.

The meeting commences at 5.30pm and ends by 7.30 pm and is held at:

Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, Level 1, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney

For more information about the Sydney SharePoint Users Group visit the following links:

www.sharepointusers.org.au/sydney/

https://www.facebook.com/SharePoint.Sydney

If you are able to attend come along and say ‘hi’ and hopefully learn a bit about OneDrive for Business. 

OneDrive consumer max file size increased

Microsoft has announced that the consumer version of OneDrive now supports files up to 10GB (up from 2GB). There are also many other improvements outlined in this blog post:

https://blog.onedrive.com/onedrive-now-supports-10-gb-files/

The hopes is that we will see the same very soon for OneDrive for Business as well as improvements to the sync client as well.

Roll on OneDrive updates.