Forum Discussion
Whiteboard app - storage and sharing
- Hi Joost
Not entirely sure of exactly what you're describing.
The current Whiteboard app (that comes with Surface Hub) stores whiteboard data in the user's OneDrive for Business storage. As such it's subject to any tenant region storage controls.
The Whiteboard Preview app that is available from the Store saved the app data in Azure linked to your tenant. Currently the data is stored in the United States, but will expand to other regions when the app goes into production. You can read more about this here: https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-whiteboard/digital-whiteboard-app
As far as I can tell there is no anonymous access to Whiteboards.
D
There is nothing to be fixed in regard to the apps. There is the current Whiteboard app which ships on Surface Hub, and there is the Whiteboard (Preview) app that is available from the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 devices.
The Whiteboard app on Surface Hub stores shared whiteboards in the user's OneDrive folder (and as such OneDrive is a pre-requisite for using shared whiteboards). The Whiteboard URL only works for other Surface Hubs within the same organisation. You cannot share them externally and it will not work on any other device.
The Whiteboard (Preview) app stores whiteboard data in Azure and linked to the Office 365 tenant. As the name suggests, the app is still in preview (though we have now been given notice in Office 365 that GA is expected within the next couple of months). While data during the preview is only stored in the US, I would imagine that Microsoft will support data storage in other data centres when it goes into GA, especially due to GDPR and other requirements.
Thanks
Dan
Microsoft has made improvements to the collaboration experience, such as inviting specific users and the ability to revoke access to boards for all users or individual users. That takes away my concern about the sharing aspect.
I am still trying to figure out if data storage has also moved to the region the Office 365 tenant is located in.
Were you able to find mention where the data atm is located?
Pekka Karppinen Quick update, saw this in the Message Centre today:
MC175885Stay InformedPublished On : 15 March 2019We're making several changes to Microsoft Whiteboard that will roll out over the next 3-4 months.
- For all organizations with Whiteboard - Microsoft Whiteboard will appear as an available product in Office 365 and the service principal will be added to appropriate tenants that have Whiteboard enabled.
- For all Office 365 tenants with Whiteboard located in Europe - Microsoft Whiteboard will automatically store whiteboard content in datacenters in that region.
- For all organizations with Surface Hubs – If you manage Surface Hubs, the legacy 2016 application of Whiteboard will be upgraded to the latest version and the legacy version will no longer receive updates.
Finally good news on this topic! Here is a fresh update from Microsoft:
For all Office 365 tenants with Whiteboard located in Europe
Microsoft Whiteboard now automatically stores all whiteboard content in a regional datacenter for customers located in Europe, for all content created as of June 4, 2019. Previously created whiteboards will be migrated over the next few months. No action is required.
- From my understanding, data for the Whiteboard app is stored in US data centres at this time. There is a uservoice request to enable EU data centres for Whiteboard that you can vote on here: https://whiteboard.uservoice.com/forums/915919-whiteboard-for-windows-10/suggestions/36559069-expand-whiteboard-hosting-to-eu-azure-regions
