File Collaberation in Teams versus file management on internal coporate servers

[Guardian865]

We store all our files on internal corporate servers and would not be moving all our files to O365. Is there anyone using Teams for file collaboration, but maintain all their files on internal corporate servers? If so, how is this managed? 

[#2]

Hi!
Since Teams is a cloud only service, working with files located on-premises in Teams is not possible!

[#3]

You are free to do it but the user journey from teams to get files in file explorer isnt the best. Bear in mind that Teams has file storage via SharePoint so unless you completely turn this off you may find users start to store files in Teams.

Might be worth looking if you can create links from Teams to your file shares. See what happens when someone shares a link to a file on a file server via teams.

Overall advice is it's not a recommend scenario but if their are business reasons that are stopping you migrating to the cloud write out some user journeys and test then out with your users.

[#4]

Yeah! Basically you have to separate the files and file collab and just use other features like meetings and chat! But even then you would have files in the cloud when you attach files / create meeting notes etc. And having files both in cloud and on premises can be a mess if this isn’t planned very carefully and people know what should be where etc..
Links to local files aren’t supported. You can go in and vote for that on Teams uservoice. There are several requests created:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/

Adam

[#5]

It's also possible to sync a library of SharePoint locally and the experience is different https://support.office.com/en-us/article/sync-sharepoint-files-with-the-onedrive-sync-app-6de9ede8-5...

[#6]

@adam deltinger 

Good to know that. 

@Guardian865- what I would suggest is to demo the 2 side by side to your stakeholders/business users. Its a poor experience having the 2 side by side and will lead to frustration in the business. If they sign it off they sign it off but as you can see its not anything anyone on here would recommend doing. 

[#7]

Thanks for the suggestion.

[#8]

Thanks. Agree that files in cloud and on premises could be a nightmare with regards to versions, which is my concern. We are an Architectural firm and have a lot of large design files that we wouldn't store in the cloud.

[#9]

@Andrew Hodges 

@adam deltinger 

Thank you both. Do either of you know if expiration dates can be set on files shared through Teams?

If there is an automated way to have shared files removed from Teams upon a certain date, then only the original owner would have access after the expiration date in there one drive.

Ultimately I'm trying to consolidate our In-Out Board, Chat, Webex, Voice Conferencing, and Phone System all into one solution. I was looking to Teams with voice service to be the one solution. 

[#10]

You can use retention policies to remove files within a timeline. If you want them moved you might use power automate to set up a flow

[#11]

@Guardian865 I would suggest looking again at using the OneDrive tool to sync files between desktops and the cloud, you can have the performance of a local file with a background process that will copy the files to the cloud.

It uses a differential sync, so only changes are moved so it's highly efficient. Take a look at where it was announced, along with new built in previewers for AutoCAD files -> https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/onedrive-roadmap-roundup-september-20...

I looked at this with a graphic design team who were absolutely certain they could not manage without fast local file shares for their multi-Gb images. They found it was actually faster as they were editing from their own drives rather than the file server, and only syncing changes.