Small business cloud data storage

[DickP]

Hi,

What is the current flavour for providers offering cloud data storage geared toward small businesses?

The data will primarily comprise word and excel documents along with some autocad files and lots of photographs.

The total number of users will be one to begin with, but may need to grow to allow say up to around five others over the next couple of years.

I would want to be able to access the documents and files as an extension of windows explorer, as if it were part of the computer's own hard drive, but would rather only have files downloaded locally whilst working on them (if necessary) rather than synchronising the entire cloud and my local hard drive.

FYI I currently use Google Drive for my personal data and have it set up to sync only files I want to access and keeps local copies cached to a minimum.

Suggestions and thoughts welcome.

Thanks,

[shopper150]

Office365 (OneDrive) seem is obvious choice. Easily scalable as you grow.

[DickP]

Thanks, it does make an obvious selection as you say. However, I have read (on here and elsewhere) about people battling with it, although presumably these issues were on older versions of OneDrive?

[maccboy]

I've used Google Drive for many years - both personally and managing a company with over 100 employees. Can't fault it and it's easy to manage access etc.

[pokegone]

M365 is the obvious choice. It gives you the extensions within explorer, also the ability to sync to mobile/tablet. I provide this to many SMBs and generally works a treat and easier to use than most. DM me if you want more info/prices.

[akirk]

We use Dropbox - works flawlessly, synchronises with our NAS, and on any other machine you can choose different methods of sync / download

[Captain_Morgan]

Is there a plan to backup the data or are you relying on the cloud to provide this?

[Robotron70]

I use Dropbox, please don’t use OneDrive, if Microsoft don’t like something you’ve uploaded then you’ll get an account lock with no robust appeals process.

[deckster]

Robotron70 said:

please don’t use OneDrive, if Microsoft don’t like something you’ve uploaded then you’ll get an account lock with no robust appeals process.

That's hugely unlike to happen in real life though. Millions of organisations use O365 & OneDrive for their corporate document storage and it really does just work.

That said and as above, it would be imprudent to rely on a single cloud provider. Use O365 as your primary day-to-day storage as it's so well integrated into Windows - but make sure you keep a secondary backup elsewhere just in case.

[GuyW]

O365 & OneDrive.

Perfect use case!

[Jwan]

I use Dropbox. Can't fault it.

[Robotron70]

deckster said:

That's hugely unlike to happen in real life though. Millions of organisations use O365 & OneDrive for their corporate document storage and it really does just work.

That said and as above, it would be imprudent to rely on a single cloud provider. Use O365 as your primary day-to-day storage as it's so well integrated into Windows - but make sure you keep a secondary backup elsewhere just in case.

That’s what I thought, I don’t do anything illegal, I don’t distribute anything illegal, all the content stored was mine, I pay my subs every month and yet here I am 7 months later with no access to any of my data.

And I’m far from the only person locked out of my account, people are being banned left/right/centre for false positives.

Let’s just say my personal content was stored on a corporate OneDrive, Microsoft decide that a picture of my kids in the bath is inappropriate and boom, your corporate account is locked without a fair or robust appeals process.

I’m saying the same as you effectively, make sure you have a second and even a third backup well away from OneDrive.

[Mr Pointy]

We are running a project with five engineers & the Dropbox project folder is currently about 15Gb of assorted CAD, Visio, Word & Excel files & we find it works very well. Occasionally you can get conflicted copies of files but they are flagged & someone sorts out which is the latest version. You can go back in time to search previous version of files which is useful as it also tells you which numpty deleted a particularly vital file & lets you restore it.

One comment I would make is that we always sync the online DB files to our local DB folder as we find it much faster. It's a real pain to wait to download the latest version of a large CAD file just so you can quickly check something.

Another client uses Box & we find that very poor in comparison, mainly because it seems to work by not syncing the online & local stores. In addition for several of us a major issue is that you can't move the root Box folder off the C drive onto another drive, despite what various online videos say. Dropbox lets you do that so I have it on my D drive which is backed up.

[paulrockliffe]

Do the terms and conditions for One Drive not preclude Business use other than as personal storage in a Corporate Sharepoint-based environment?

If you've used SharePoint before and like the idea of being able to manage your projects in there, be able to collaborate with clients in yours or their Sharepoint environment, want to use Power BI etc, then it's something like £35 a month per use for Office 365 Enterprise E5.

I have a free account as a developer and love being able to spin up Sharepoint sites for managing projects, though I use it mainly for putting live data on my Wife's phone so she can't complain about not knowing about stuff.

[paulrockliffe]

Robotron70 said:

Let’s just say my personal content was stored on a corporate OneDrive, Microsoft decide that a picture of my kids in the bath is inappropriate and boom, your corporate account is locked without a fair or robust appeals process.

I can't remember if you mentioned the corporate element on your thread, but I wonder if you breached the terms of use for the account simply by using it instead of paying for a personal subscription for your personal stuff?

I can also see that putting pictures of kids in a bath on a corporate account will be subject to different safe-guarding rules than a personal account.

[wombleh]

I would keep it simple and just use the cloud storage from whichever place you get your company office software from. If it's Google docs then Google Drive, if MS Office then OneDrive. Then just need to buy one type of license to cover the lot.

[Robotron70]

paulrockliffe said:

I can't remember if you mentioned the corporate element on your thread, but I wonder if you breached the terms of use for the account simply by using it instead of paying for a personal subscription for your personal stuff?

I can also see that putting pictures of kids in a bath on a corporate account will be subject to different safe-guarding rules than a personal account.

It was my 365 Family account, nothing commercial, nothing distributed, nothing illegal, subs paid, account secured with 2FA. I used it purely as backup for photo’s, work documents and my online courses. If I was a nonce, terrorist or Prince Andrew I’d have encrypted before uploading,

[toohuge]

Robotron70 said:

Let’s just say my personal content was stored on a corporate OneDrive, Microsoft decide that a picture of my kids in the bath is inappropriate and boom, your corporate account is locked without a fair or robust appeals process.

I remember reading about your situation - however, was this confirmed as the definitive reason? As opposed to speculation?

[poppopbangbang]

Use Dropbox. There is a reason several billion dollar companies do. The 2FA is flawless (and you want this!) the ability to roll back and recover files (even the entire Dropbox following a ransomware attack for example) across 180 days is seamless, the ability to create groups, delegate rolls and control access down to a per user level if required is well proven and the sync options mean it works just as well on a rubbish spec small hard drived laptop as it does on a CAD workstation. Plus encryption, remote wipe, auto machine backup, water marking etc. etc.

Many will argue against it but for 15 quid per user, per month for unlimited storage it's a no brainer for most SME requirements.

[bitchstewie]

I'd look at a 365 business subscription but you may want to consider how your existing email and other stuff is handled.

With any service I'll guarantee you can go online and read about someone who's had a horrific experience but respectfully if it's good enough for businesses of tens or hundreds of thousands of seats it'll almost certainly be good enough for yours.

Nothing wrong with Dropbox or G Suite either.

Maybe have a think where you may end up in the future as the feature set may swing it in a particular direction.