OneDrive & Sharepoint: File Storage in the Cloud
Saving files to the wrong place can result in data loss if that location is not being backed-up.
Where are your files stored? A simple question, the answer to which may not be so simple. Most people are familiar with the normal folders created automagically for every Windows user profile; Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, and Downloads. Did you know a Contacts and Favorites folder are also created for your profile? Even these lesser known folders have an obvious intent. Contacts stores a contacts file, usually associated with Outlook and Favorites stores bookmarks for Internet Explorer. An incredibly important folder you may have never heard of is the hidden folder AppData, and that’s by design. This folder stores some of the files most important to the applications you use every day. Your web browser history and saved credentials here are stored here. Outlook sometimes stores your offline mailbox here. All these folders can usually be found on the C: drive of your computer in the Users folder. Each user gets their own folder containing these default folders which makes it very easy to see what belongs to whom.
These folders can sometimes be stored elsewhere. Using Group Policy, everyone’s user folder can be moved to – for instance – a file server, where regardless of what computer you’re using you will see the same files when you sign-in because they’re being stored and read from the same location. This is called roaming profiles and is a great way to head off file duplication, provide the same experience for users regardless of the machine being used, and makes backing up users’ files much easier – all provided there is reliable network access to the file server.
What if your job regularly takes you out of the office? What if you want or need to work from home? The old answer to this may have been a VPN connection to the office network or to plan ahead and email yourself the files you’ll need or store them on a USB stick to bring with you, both subpar solutions rife with security concerns.
Office 365 offers OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online which allow you to store files in the cloud, encrypted when at rest and accessible from anywhere in the world from your home desktop PC, laptop or smart phone. Access policies can be configured to prevent users from accessing company files in the cloud from insecure devices or locations if your business has security or privacy concerns.
OneDrive for Business is your own personal hard drive in the cloud. 1TB of storage space that you will likely never fill even if you tried. Files can be shared with other people from OneDrive for Business by generating a link that can copied and sent via email (or any other delivery method you can think of). An expiration date is set on this link, providing access for up to 90 days before expiring. Write access can be provided to alter the file as it sits in your OneDrive, or not, and Read access will allow the download of the file which can then be modified, leaving the original copy stored in OneDrive untouched. OneDrive also has version history for common Microsoft application file types (think Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents) allowing you to rollback changes and much like your own desktop computer OneDrive has a recycle bin from which items are permanently deleted after 90 days by default (this can be reduced or extended indefinitely but may present storage space concerns).
SharePoint Online shares the same backbone infrastructure as OneDrive for Business. It has all the above features; if OneDrive for Business is your own personal Documents folder in the cloud then SharePoint Online is a shared network folder in the cloud. SharePoint is all about collaborating with your colleagues. You can simultaneously edit a Word or Excel document with another user in SharePoint, while they work on the intro you can write up the conclusion. SharePoint does so much more than just store files though, in fact, it does so much more than OneDrive for Business that much of its features are out of the scope of this article. SharePoint Online can allow you to create intranet websites for your different departments or even public facing webpages for customers, clients or users of your product(s).
While SharePoint Online can be used as a type of cloud file server for smaller businesses, it’s recommended that you use other cloud storage solutions for large amounts of files that are not being actively collaborated on. Azure File Service is a usage-based cloud solution that simply acts as a container for your data in the cloud and can be drive mapped to your PC much like local network shared folders can be drive mapped.
That’s a lot of places your files could be! Sometimes it’s not transparent exactly where your files are stored but it’s important to know. Saving files to the wrong place can result in data loss if that location is not being backed-up. The best location to save files you are using is one that can be accessed from anywhere, or at least from a multitude of locations. Oftentimes this means your desktop is the last place you’ll want to save your files. Ask your IT professionals where they think you should be saving your files; they’ll know what locations are being backed up, where your files are at risk, and where saving files will give you the greatest benefit.
-Peter T. Belies