Seamless cloud storage for Microsoft Office users?

[rtangwai]

I have a client who wants to use a cloud-based storage system for his work files. He has several employees of various seniority working for him, so different folders would need different permissions. My problem is that he wants it as fully transparent as possible so that nobody has to think. He requires this because while he is quite computer-savvy himself his employees range from "I'm pretty good with Word and Excel" to "Look at all the pretty lights!" and the last thing he wants is for them to forget to put the files on the cloud. His first attempt was using Skydrive (non-Pro), which became a disaster because nobody could remember to consistently put files into Skydrive. Worse, there are no permissions and there were several cases where one person overwrote another person's work. My client does not run any servers, everything is hosted by a third party. He is willing to spend money on monthly service fees to make this happen. He already uses hosted Microsoft Exchange 2007 so integration with that would be nice but is not a must. The company uses PC's (Windows XP/7/8), Macs (Snow Leopard), and iPhone (4S/5). They are *ALL* using Microsoft Office, no Google Docs or LibreOffice or any other productivity packages. The option to switch to Google Docs is not available, the client insists on sticking to Microsoft Office.

I've been told Sharepoint is an excellent collaboration product, but from what I've read it sounds an awful lot like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly in this particular circumstance. I am also concerned on how easy it is for the users to create new folders properly with correct permissions. I've check out Box.com, their business product looks quite good and they have a good iOS client, but I am concerned that it is similar to Skydrive in that it isn't transparent ie. you have to explicitly move the files in and out of Box.com, compared to Sharepoint where sharing is an Office feature in the application itself.

Anyone have opinions, viewpoints, alternatives to share? All comments are welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[Demon10000]

Anyone have opinions,

I'm a big fan of train your users. If you've got people in there using excel, they should know what it is and how to use it. It sounds like a pretty small company, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal to send them all to excel for idiots class.

I would recommend putting Excel on an RDS server. Then put all the files on an internal file server. This would keep the data in one place, and allow you to secure it any way you wanted.

 

[bigdogchris]

There are a few options. Skydrive will plug right into your user's folder like it was meant to be there (requires Vista SP2 or newer). Windows 8.1 takes it even further by having Skydrive integrated into Windows Explorer, right out of the box. 8.1 won't be available for a while, though.

Another option for him would be to work directly from Skydrive.com. You can open documents in your local Word, Excel, etc., then when you save it puts the documents into the Microsoft Office Upload Center (In Office 2010) and syncs them to Skydrive. Office 2013 builds upon this.

 

[rtangwai]

I'm a big fan of train your users. If you've got people in there using excel, they should know what it is and how to use it. It sounds like a pretty small company, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal to send them all to excel for idiots class.

I would recommend putting Excel on an RDS server. Then put all the files on an internal file server. This would keep the data in one place, and allow you to secure it any way you wanted.

It is a very small company (5 employees), and they don't have a formal office - they all work from home. Training gets complicated because of that, especially since they are spread out pretty far (one of them is even in a separate province). Worse, two of the employees are only part-time as they are "virtual" assistants, further complicating the training idea. You are absolutely right and frankly if I had been involved in the hire process I would have made that skillset mandatory.

 

[rtangwai]

There are a few options. Skydrive will plug right into your user's folder like it was meant to be there (requires Vista SP2 or newer). Windows 8.1 takes it even further by having Skydrive integrated into Windows Explorer, right out of the box. 8.1 won't be available for a while, though.

Another option for him would be to work directly from Skydrive.com. You can open documents in your local Word, Excel, etc., then when you save it puts the documents into the Microsoft Office Upload Center (In Office 2010) and syncs them to Skydrive. Office 2013 builds upon this.

Does Skydrive have folder permissions? I thought Skydrive users can see only their own folders, not anyone else's. I've been looking at the Windows 8.1 integrated Skydrive and it looks really nice, but again what about file permissions?

 

[bigdogchris]

Does Skydrive have folder permissions? I thought Skydrive users can see only their own folders, not anyone else's. I've been looking at the Windows 8.1 integrated Skydrive and it looks really nice, but again what about file permissions?

You can share files between users.

 

[rtangwai]

You can share files between users.

I'll have to look into that then, although my client prefers a central file storage system so that he has access to everything (he is the boss). I'm actually wondering if a simple hosted virtual file server running Windows Server 2012 would be sufficient as there will be no real-time collaboration. The catch with that of course is how do you access files from iPhones, kiosk computers, etc.? Would WebDAV work in this situation?

 

[xLokiX]

What about something like Tonido? www.tonido.com. It is a self hosted cloud that has apps for Android and iphone. I use it for a home cloud solution, but they have options for business.