You're on the road and need a file, you come home with a broken USB drive or worse: it's lost. Or your data is poorly secured, or stolen by hackers. Or your data storage is suddenly full. All annoying issues that get in the way of business continuity that can be solved by cloud services. In a previous blog, we explained exactly what cloud services are. Microsoft's own cloud service Office 365 includes OneDrive and it can easily solve these problems. But ... do you know exactly what OneDrive is or does?
What exactly is OneDrive?
In this blog, we explain it clearly. Questions ... give us a call.
The OneDrive elevator pitch: OneDrive is part of Microsoft's cloud service called Office 365 and ensures that your data is available anywhere. The cloud service is like a layer between the cloud and your PC or mobile device. You can think of this "cloud" as a cloud of computers of which you don't know exactly how many there are and where those computers are located. That is not so important; what is important is that you can access your data securely and easily anytime, anywhere. No crazy VPN or security risks.
So how big is the cloud services market? To give you a quick idea of the size: 90% of companies used cloud services in 2019 and the total market for cloud services is expected to grow from $250 to $600+ billion (yes, a thousand million) by 2023.
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A private or business version
It is important to know that OneDrive comes in two versions, private or business. The business version is called OneDrive for Business and that is what we are going to talk about today. After all, that one is the most relevant to businesses. The business version has deep integration with Office 365, extensive data security and automatisering managed by businesses. So you can collaborate modernly and work efficiently and securely. By the way, it is possible to use a business and private version side by side or two business versions. How convenient.
Is OneDrive is a cloud service or app?
We find that there is often confusion about the difference between OneDrive as a service and OneDrive as an app. We are happy to explain that in plain language! At its core, the confusion arises because OneDrive as an app provides access to your business documents (which reside in SharePoint) but as a cloud service also acts as storage for your personal documents. So it is both storage (for personal use) and access to storage (for business use). That requires some explanation.
Within your company's Office 365 subscription, you may collectively use 1TB (1,000GB) + 10GB additional per user storage in the cloud. This is part of the SharePoint service within Office 365. As an app, OneDrive can make this data available on your PC, laptop or mobile device (provided you have the proper permissions). You can even sync the data and take it with you or collaborate live with colleagues. As an app, OneDrive makes your data available to use and when you want it. Online or synchronized on your laptop so you can continue working on the train.
But... As a service, you also get 5TB (5,000GB) of personal storage online with OneDrive. Easily sync your data with the cloud - for example, your Desktop, My Documents, My Pictures from your laptop or PC. With all the technology within Office 365, you'll never lose data again. Think automatic version control, eDiscovery, litigation hold and much more! We'll tell you more about this later or give us a call and get informed.
And this is where the magic happens: with the application on your PC or laptop you can make data available and synchronize your personal storage as well as the company data. Say you are working in a team on a project and you have certain documents, such as minutes or quotes. You can save these on the company storage and make them available to the people involved. This way, everyone can collaborate on Office documents without multiple versions or the document being available only from one particular computer. Also convenient: you can immediately backup your account data, such as the documents on your Desktop, your Documents and Images. This makes data loss a thing of the past.
The power of OneDrive
Thus, OneDrive is incredibly powerful and indispensable because you have a lot of storage at your disposal anytime, anywhere - securely and simply. With the application, an Internet connection is not even necessary. Synchronization allows you to open documents just as you would normally open files from your PC or laptop. So during your long train journey you can just keep working and as soon as you have internet access again, the changes are made. Best of all, sharing is simple and you can't lose anything, which means no proliferation of online storage like Dropbox, Google Drive and the like.
Because security is a top priority for us, we'd like to take a moment to explain how well that's all handled with OneDrive. All security and compliance on your company data is neatly managed by your IT party, because OneDrive is part of your Office 365 subscription. Your data is secure through data encryption, secure connections and MFA. All your data complies with your set rights and GPDR, for example. So that's a good thing!
Here's what OneDrive can do
If you are still not completely convinced, then we would like to convince you with some OneDrive fun facts. Also fun for an Office 365 trivia pub quiz.
- You can see changes to documents live. So you see when your colleague adds or removes something in the minutes of the meeting you are in.
- Version control is available, allowing you to view or restore all steps in a document. Pretty handy when you've accidentally deleted an entire paragraph. This is available for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The 50,000 iterations we set up for you will probably be enough.
- There are two garbage cans that are on a full quarter (90 days). The first one you operate yourself and the second one we operate for you. So getting rid of them is really a thing of the past.
- Lost something anyway? Actually no, because thanks to cloud storage we can infinitely recover all your data without the need for an additional subscription or service.
- It is clear where all business data is located, who has access to it and who works in it.
Want to get started with OneDrive?
Convinced? Yes! We would love to help you take the first steps to get started with OneDrive. Because it's not difficult, but you do need to get started. Give us a call at 010-2121806 or email info@limenetworks.nl. We'd love to join you on this journey.
Frequently asked questions about Modern Working?
Is your question not listed? 1 email or 1 phone call is enough to get it answered. 010-2121806 | info@limenetworks.nl
Sure. Office 365 has many techniques that provide security for accessing, modifying or sharing data. Steering and controlling these processes are also part of the ecosystem for regulatory compliance. Want to know more about this or see how it works? Feel free to call us for an appointment.
Through engagement and responsibility. By empowering you to work with engagement and responsibility, barriers to working together are reduced or eliminated. By including people in the planning, changes and what is possible, you give energy instead of change. We help you with the process and involving people/employees in modern collaboration. This way you let technology work for you and not against you. This shifts you from 'having to work together' to 'being able to work together efficiently'.
Cooperation is something that people do, not technology. Modern Work is not about people, but about removing the barriers that technology creates or used to create. By removing these barriers, you can really work together efficiently. So see Modern Working as a tool and especially as a catalyst.
Having a single hub/application allows you to communicate, work with data and applications as a team. Adding communication to your data makes for true collaboration - wherever you are in the world and at any time. No barriers. All you need is a working internet connection.
Yes! Invite people to read files or even participate in creating the content. You can also invite external parties in Teams and/or Channels to become part of your productivity. You can determine what they can do in your environment (read, create, take control). As a company, you can influence whether or not you want this. In the Office 365 Compliance overview you can see which data is available to whom.
You can be an excellent team player by working in Outlook, Word, Excel and all your business applications. You don't bother anyone and you're productive. However, if you want to collaborate and work more efficiently with colleagues and/or externals, then working in Microsoft Teams is fine, convenient and enjoyable. You can even do that online without working on your own PC or device. Nothing has to.
First of all, we help you with information about what it is, how it can work for you and we show you how it works in practice. With thorough planning, we help you with the technology and give you direction and concrete help on how to start and staff with change. After that, we help you with daily support for questions, breakdowns and changes.
Microsoft Teams is an application that is part of Office 365. You can use it to communicate (chat, audio, video), access your business (team) data and connect to other Office 365 applications. You can also connect to all kinds of external (cloud) applications, such as Trello, Asana, CRM, etc: Trello, Asana, CRM, PowerBI, Jira, and so on. Microsoft Teams is a hub for your daily work, communication and collaboration with others.
This is a cloud service provided by Microsoft. You can make use of various services and products depending on your subscription. The most well-known are:
- Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.) on your pc, Mobile/Tablet or online
- Exchange mailbox online from 50-100GB
- 1TB of storage for company data (per company) via SharePoint
- OneDrive for Business with 1TB storage per person for private use and pc backup
- Microsoft Teams for collaboration (chat, audio/video conferencing) and as a hub for data, applications and communication between various Office 365 components and external (cloud) software/services.
- Various online Apps for better collaboration and productivity: Planner, OneNote, To-Do, Stream, Sway and many more
- Microsoft Power Platform. Power Automate: automate tasks across all Office 365 components without programming skills
- PowerApps: build your own applications online to extend and customise Office 365 or to develop complete applications or connections to existing applications
Microsoft Teams is an application that is part of Office 365. You can use it to communicate (chat, audio, video), access your business (team) data and connect to other Office 365 applications. In addition, you can connect to all kinds of external (cloud) applications such as, for example: Trello, Asana, CRM, PowerBI, Jira, etc. Microsoft Teams is thus a gathering place for your daily work, communication and collaboration with others.
Where should we start? It is of course very personal, but to name the core you will mainly work together and more efficiently. You work together in Teams, where you work with data, communication, applications and information from various sources. You'll work more efficiently because you can work anywhere, on your workstation or mobile phone. With the addition of Microsoft Teams, you see that many sources of information come together in one ecosystem. With Office 365, you have a platform with many applications (in addition to the standard Office Suite that we are all familiar with) that give your productivity a boost because they directly affect your data and way of working. Call us for a demo and we will show you what it looks like in practice.
Backup is an old-fashioned limited way of securing your data. You can do much better. Let your cloud service fulfil this role. Think version control (see for yourself what happens to documents and/or data), retention (go back in time and secure data as it once was) or retaining transaction-based data about how you work.
If you work in the cloud, then that is the basis for your data. With Office 365, for example, your data is safe in the cloud at Microsoft. Think of Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform. Think also of SharePoint (don't worry... it's only used as storage... you don't have to work with it) and OneDrive to make your data available everywhere.
Employees and change... that's always something to think about. With a transition to Modern Working, we include this in our working method. Through customer engagement, we take you and your employees along in the changes. With e-mails, relevant information and training, we ensure that everyone knows what is going to happen. By giving employees more responsibility over the way they work and letting them work in teams, a connection is quickly created. You could almost say that benefits are the engine of success. If you have employees who don't want all this, of course you can. You can always keep working in the 'old' way with your data, but then you miss all the benefits.
No. It's not about cloud or servers, it's about an idea of working. We do know from experience that working in the cloud is much easier. In fact, maintaining a server park with all the peripheral issues (uptime, security, backups, continuity, availability etc) is much more expensive. By using Office 365 and other Office 365 applications, for example, you can quickly make a fresh start.
Yes. With "secure by design," working safely is paramount at Lime Networks. We ensure that your data is secure (including in the cloud) and that the path to your data is also secure. You don't have to worry about the availability and integrity of your data. With retention and versioning of data, you can make mistakes without impacting the organization.
Once the background is in place, you're ready to go. Whether you work on your Apple laptop in a coffee shop, on your iPad at home or with a Microsoft workstation in the office. You can work with virtually any solution anywhere. That is the essence of modern working. No complicated security. It is simple and cleverly arranged. Employees can get to work without any problems and do not have to worry about security or data. With an internet connection, you can work immediately, even if you are not working on your own pc.
That depends very much on the chosen solution and whether you are already working with certain solutions. As an example: if you already work with Office 365, then you already have a licence that allows you to work in a modern way. So in fact, it costs nothing. Of course, you need to set up and secure everything, engage your staff and have a training course at the office (1 to 2 hours) for a fresh start. The costs of this are still manageable. Especially when you see how much more effective you will be working together with your colleagues! Oh yes; once you have started, we are there for you with answers and help for your questions and problems. Our skilled helpdesk is always ready for you.
Actually, Modern Work is the next step in efficient cooperation. In fact, every organisation is ready for it. Of course, we are happy to explain the effect on your organisation and give you customised advice - whether you work in production, have a consultancy firm or are in financial services.
Collaborate anywhere, anytime, without technical limitations.
