Small Office - One Drive / Sharepoint - File Share

[Stephen Bell]

Hello all - 

I have a client that is a small office (5 users).  Currently, they work off of a Windows 2008 (not R2) server with some RDP and SMB shares.  The primary application that runs the business is a web application, however they utilize Quickbooks (on-prem) and some Word / Excel files and a couple of Access databases.  

The server is on the last leg - I was thinking that Office 365 may be the perfect solution to go "server-less" - but I don't have much experience with Sharepoint / OneDrive services.  

Is it possible to create the equivalent of a smb share (\\server\share) using Office 365?

Thanks

sb

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Here's a great blogpost for the same

https://www.anupams.net/migrate-files-shares-to-microsoft-cloud/

File Shares could contain about 10-20 TBs of files. So, you need to come up with a Site Structure which can logically split files across multiple site collections. Even though 20 TB can be accommodated within 20 site collections, you may want to keep options for future growth as well. So, I would suggest to plan for keeping around 300 GB per site collection – It’s just a number, not a hard limit though.

Step 1: Identify the logical hierarchy of Folders in existing File Shares based on geographical location, size and permissions etc.

Step 2: Create Physical Site Collections in SharePoint Online based on that logical structure. Create document libraries & Folders and provide permissions.

Step 3: Migrate the files using your favourite migration tool. This one is the latest and free from Microsoft.

Moving the files to SharePoint document libraries enables easy permission management and document classification and also brings in all those documents under SharePoint Enterprise Search.

File Share Europe

Pros
Great Document Management features like Check-in/Check-out, simultaneous editing, versioning etc.
Enterprise Level Search across the content and metadata of documents
Can be access over internet (if allowed by your organization) and across devices
You can still get files offline using OneDrive Client and use “Files on Demand” option to only download the files you work on and NOT the entire File Share
One Drive Files On Demand

Native content sharing feature of SharePoint makes it easy to manage permissions and share documents with extended teams
Cons
Planning and Implementation of Initial Site Hierarchy for entire File Share could be challenging.
A different experience for end users. They either need to access files using browser or should be made aware of how they can get files offline using OneDrive client. Some users may find this change too challenging to start with.
Cost
SharePoint Online comes with storage based on number of user licenses purchased. For example, for an organization who bought 5000 E3 licenses for Office 365, would get 1 TB + 0.5 GB x 5000 = 3.5 TB space. However, this can be extended to “Unlimited” storage at a cost of $0.20/GB per month. So, for about 20 TB of additional storage would cost around $4000 per month.

OneDrive for Business Sites
Now this one can be controversial Even though, technically, it’s just a special type of SharePoint Site Collection capable to storing 1 TB of documents in each site by default. This can be extended to 5 TB per site from OneDrive Admin Center and to 10 TB by contacting Microsoft Support after you end up using 4.5 TB space. Also, technically, you can share the stored files with any person, groups of persons or even with entire organization. But, as per Microsoft, OneDrive for Business Sites are meant for Individuals and NOT as File Shares.

I will leave that subjective discussion and interpretation out of the ambit of this article and just focus on what can be done to achieve this Technically Consult your Microsoft Account Manager, if you want to explore this option and want to know Microsoft’s stand about this.

How to go about it
Moving File Shares to OneDrive for Business sites are not much different than moving to SharePoint Team Sites. You still need to plan and execute steps mentioned above under SharePoint Team Sites section. I will just mention the additional considerations.

Since, OneDrive for Business sites are “meant” for Individuals, you may want to set up some Service/Functional accounts to associate the OneDrive Sites with. Technically, since OneDrive sites can store much more files, for 20 TB files, even 4-5 sites should be enough, but I would go for at least 10.

One Drive File Share Europe

Pros
All Pros mentioned above under SharePoint Team Sites
Less number of additional site collections need to be created compared to Team Sites
Cons
All Cons mentioned above under SharePoint Team Sites
Additional Service/Functional Accounts need to be created and Managed
As per Microsoft Onedrive sites and NOT “meant” for this purpose
Cost
Perhaps, this is why Microsoft guys don’t like this option. All it costs you is the number of additional licenses for these Service/Functional Account. Even an E1 license comes with the same features of OneDrive as standard E3 which most users in any organization get, so this is even lower.

An E1 license for Office 365 comes at around $10/user per month. Assuming for 20TB, you end up creating 10 OneDrive Sites, it would cost $100/month