Forum Discussion
Moving from Dropbox to SharePoint - structure and external sharing questions.
Hello All,
I know we had a very similar post on this subject. But I am trying to make sure I understand sharing and syncing mainly for externals.
Background on current company setup:
We currently use Dropbox for company files and project/partner files.
Company files are stored in Team folder and are for internal staff members only. Whereas Project/partner files can be shared with externals such as consultants or partner staff and are stored in separate shared folders.
The easiest way to map our current structure is as follows:
Dropbox/Team Folder (internal only)
Dropbox/Management folder (internal only)
Dropbox/Project Folder A
Dropbox/Project Folder B
Dropbox/Project Folder etc...
Dropbox/Partner Folder etc...
We already have all staff with Office Bus Pre.. so I am looking to see if Sharepoint can provide the same functionality.
How to apply to SharePoint? (Concept)
My understanding from looking at the guidance on TechNet is that I can form a team site which can be shared with internal staff which will contain a “team folder” document library. Then have subsites for each project folder with its own document library. Then just share subsites will externals without them seeing the main team site.
My only question on this method is how does desktop syncing work for externals users. Are they able to sync and is there a limit on how much they can sync?
OR
Now there is also “office365 groups” which was mentioned in the other post and now seems default when trying to create a new site. Now it looks very easy to setup and use for internals. However, when inviting external it seems like I must invite them via guest access? With guest access, are they able to sync information down to desktop also?
Any ideas or clarifications on my questions would be most appreciated!
Thanks,
Dropbox is only a cloud storage service. Office 365 is much, much more. Hence when migrating to Office 365 you can choose among many variants.
As I told before, generally speaking, you could use several Groups (each Group comes with its own site collection and its own doclib). But you could very well also use subsites or even different doclibs in the same site collection.
I personally would probably go with Groups, but it's a delicate choice and I cannot give you a more precise advice without a deeper analysis of your use case.
About the sync problem, I would not wish to need Groove to my worst enemy! It's really a horrible piece of software: if you can, stay away from it!
Is it really *necessary* for your external users to sync to their destops? Or maybe it is only a "bad" habit?
12 Replies
Should check out skysync...here http://skysync.com/case-study/skullcandy/
Skullcandy has been running hybrid dropbox and sharepoint/odb for years...
With configurable OOTB software.
Hey everyone, we recently published a post on secure external in SharePoint Online, Box, and other cloud apps. I'm curious to know what the community thinks of this post. Is it helpful? Does it fit with your experience on this topic?
https://www.avepoint.com/blog/strategy-blog/secure-external-sharing-in-sharepoint-online-box-dropbox-and-other-cloud-applications/
Just my two cents:
- Generally speaking, the trend is now towards modern team sites (AKA Groups), instead of classic team sites. So, you should use Groups, unless you have special reasons to prefer classic team sites.
- Generally speaking, the trend is now towards multiple site collections / Groups, instead of subsites. So, you shouldn't use subsites, unless you have special reasons to prefer subsites.
- AFAIK, external users cannot sync using NGSC.
- Speaking of Groups, you can make an external user a member of the Group, and in this case he/she has full access to the whole Group document library, or you can share individual SPO items (files and/or folders) with an external user that is not member of the Group. The choice depends from your use case.
Thanks for the info Salvatore.
So from your info it's either looks like I separate the folder structure using site collection instead of subsites. So In theory create the site collections in the sharepoint admin centre. So project folder A will be it's own site collection, team documents it's own site collection etc.
Or use the Office365 groups and have a "team" group, then a "project folder A" group, etc.
So our requirement still needs probably some external users syncing capability, am I right in thinking that external users can still use the old OneDrive for Business standalone client and sync a document libary using the url for both groups and site collections?
Dropbox is only a cloud storage service. Office 365 is much, much more. Hence when migrating to Office 365 you can choose among many variants.
As I told before, generally speaking, you could use several Groups (each Group comes with its own site collection and its own doclib). But you could very well also use subsites or even different doclibs in the same site collection.
I personally would probably go with Groups, but it's a delicate choice and I cannot give you a more precise advice without a deeper analysis of your use case.
About the sync problem, I would not wish to need Groove to my worst enemy! It's really a horrible piece of software: if you can, stay away from it!
Is it really *necessary* for your external users to sync to their destops? Or maybe it is only a "bad" habit?
