Office 365 questions

[RadiclDreamer]

Have a client (volunteer basis) that currently has a pc running as a file server, but wants some more features paired with more peace of mind. I've recommended they take a look at Office 365 since it comes with 1TB storage per user, however they asked a few questions I didnt have a good answer for.

They have less than 10 employees who all need access to the same files with zero security differences, and to do so as simply as possible. Would we just set one of the O365 accounts up as the "master" and map everyone else to it? What about backups etc?

 

[stlcardinals]

Each person would have their own Office 365 account. The shared files would basically be in SharePoint Online. Each user would have their own OneDrive storage where they can store their individual files. SharePoint Online starts at 10GB of storage I believe for Office 365 Business Essentials.

Backup is through redundant data centers. Exchange will keep permanently deleted Items for 90 days that you can retrieve. SharePoint Online has the recycle bin that will keep deleted items for 30 days. But if you turn on versioning on SharePoint document libraries, you can have multiple copies of the same document to fall back on.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Ok, so is it possible to use one account with the desktop app to make a large account that each user will have the desktop app linked to? It isnt so much collaboration and versioning they are concerned with, they just need a large dumping ground for files that everyone can access (callaboration lite?)

Also, I understand there is a hardware backup so to speak with their redundant data centers, but im more concerned with an employee accidentally or otherwise deleting everything from one drive or skydrive, or whatever they call it these days and being able to get it back.

 

[ringtail]

Quote
Drive starts you with 15 GB of free Google storage
END QUOTE

Obviously you see above, your most evil "do-no evil" friends at Google give all that free.

In case your client staff is all in the same office location, then if it were me I'd prefer to set them up a server in house. I just cling to a possibly luddite hunch that in-house server is more secure than cloud.

I've had troubles with Office 365. For example, MySQL for Windows installer fails to recognize that Excel is present, and so refuses to install MySQL for Excel. Other similar troubles with other software that is supposed to interact with Office but fails with 365. Don't know but suspect it's because the Office 365 installation filed on your HDD don't contain what those 3rd party apps like MySQL are hunting for. Anyway, I would never (based on experience) recommend MS Office 365 to anybody. It's really more about MS acclimating consumers to use its cloud stuff more & more, and less about serving you and your needs. Yeah there's the "they-keep-it-updated" thing, but it's a BAD CONSULTANT who puts his clients into MS 365. BOOOOO MS 365 !!!

 

[Mushkins]

Quote
Drive starts you with 15 GB of free Google storage
END QUOTE

Obviously you see above, your most evil "do-no evil" friends at Google give all that free.

In case your client staff is all in the same office location, then if it were me I'd prefer to set them up a server in house. I just cling to a possibly luddite hunch that in-house server is more secure than cloud.

I've had troubles with Office 365. For example, MySQL for Windows installer fails to recognize that Excel is present, and so refuses to install MySQL for Excel. Other similar troubles with other software that is supposed to interact with Office but fails with 365. Don't know but suspect it's because the Office 365 installation filed on your HDD don't contain what those 3rd party apps like MySQL are hunting for. Anyway, I would never (based on experience) recommend MS Office 365 to anybody. It's really more about MS acclimating consumers to use its cloud stuff more & more, and less about serving you and your needs. Yeah there's the "they-keep-it-updated" thing, but it's a BAD CONSULTANT who puts his clients into MS 365. BOOOOO MS 365 !!!

Hows that blind hatred working out for you so far?

Obviously plugins are going to have trouble with O365 webapps, they're not locally installed. If your client needs to use all sorts of office plugins, you need to be looking at one of the Office 365 plans that includes local install versions of the full Office suite. You get the same local instal as if you bought a retail disk, there's no "cloud" involved. Some of the plans even have downgrade rights so you can still use Office 2010 if your plugins aren't updated for 2013 yet.

Office 365 also massively simplifies license management and software purchasing for organizations that aren't big enough to want to budget in for open/volume licensing.

We moved our organization to Office 365 and we're saving thousands of dollars a year with absolutely no issues, tons more features (hosted lync, hosted sharepoint), and way less management overhead for IT. Maybe take the time to learn about the actual product instead of blindly trash talking it?

 

[Mushkins]

Back on topic, Office 365 does *not* provide a robust backup solution for OneDrive as part of your deal. It's cloud storage, *not* a backup service. I don't know of a single consumer-oriented cloud storage provider that does include gratis archival off the top of my head, and anything more robust is probably way over budget.

Unless they want hosted exchange and office applications, O365 really isn't the solution you're looking for.

Get them a second-hand server running Server 2008 R2 for cheap, set them up on a domain (i'm assuming they're not if their fileserver is just an old PC), and manage the fileshare with proper NTFS permissions. Then sign them up for a reputable cloud backup solution for that data. Not Mozy or Carbonite or any of that consumer-level junk, go to a business oriented solution like Iron Mountain.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Back on topic, Office 365 does *not* provide a robust backup solution for OneDrive as part of your deal. It's cloud storage, *not* a backup service. I don't know of a single consumer-oriented cloud storage provider that does include gratis archival off the top of my head, and anything more robust is probably way over budget.

Unless they want hosted exchange and office applications, O365 really isn't the solution you're looking for.

Get them a second-hand server running Server 2008 R2 for cheap, set them up on a domain (i'm assuming they're not if their fileserver is just an old PC), and manage the fileshare with proper NTFS permissions. Then sign them up for a reputable cloud backup solution for that data. Not Mozy or Carbonite or any of that consumer-level junk, go to a business oriented solution like Iron Mountain.

That's the toughest thing about moving to pre-packaged cloud solutions. You are forced to embrace the policies they provide and have few options. The real question is about file your own file retention policies, cost, and file security.

1. If you only retain your backups for a week, consider the 90 day window mentioned above. You can delete files and have 3 months to recover them.
2. Cost of a backup solution and maintaining it is not cheap. Most small office solutions start around $10k and go up from there. You can buy an older system off support and take a low chance that you'll have to deal with equipment failures, but you'll also need to support the backup software, etc...and it's a time consuming process. Going to a packaged solution is pretty nice for so few users. You could essentially do a business-class cable modem in the office and not worry about your uplink.
3. Finally, file security is actually probably a little safer in the cloud. All it takes is a shared folder on a windows server and 1 user getting infected with cryptolocker and you'll be needing those backups. I wouldn't upload vital client data or financials to a cloud resource, but I wouldn't have a problem uploading most data if it was encrypted prior to storing it up there.

 

[Mushkins]

That's the toughest thing about moving to pre-packaged cloud solutions. You are forced to embrace the policies they provide and have few options. The real question is about file your own file retention policies, cost, and file security.

1. If you only retain your backups for a week, consider the 90 day window mentioned above. You can delete files and have 3 months to recover them.
2. Cost of a backup solution and maintaining it is not cheap. Most small office solutions start around $10k and go up from there. You can buy an older system off support and take a low chance that you'll have to deal with equipment failures, but you'll also need to support the backup software, etc...and it's a time consuming process. Going to a packaged solution is pretty nice for so few users. You could essentially do a business-class cable modem in the office and not worry about your uplink.
3. Finally, file security is actually probably a little safer in the cloud. All it takes is a shared folder on a windows server and 1 user getting infected with cryptolocker and you'll be needing those backups. I wouldn't upload vital client data or financials to a cloud resource, but I wouldn't have a problem uploading most data if it was encrypted prior to storing it up there.

1) It depends on what you want out of a backup. What they're doing isn't a true multi-version archival. If someone deletes a file, they can *probably* get it back in that 90 day window, but if someone alters and overwrites and you dont catch it for a week? You're hosed.

2) Bwuh? 10k for a small office backup? How much data are you backing up? Our current BDR plan is $84 a month (covers two servers) for a 1TB on-site backup, 250GB off-site backup *PER SERVER* with 90 day local retention and 30 day cloud retention, and adding another 250GB to the cloud portion is maybe $10-15 extra per month (we just dont need it). $10k for a small office backup is nuts unless you're talking dozens of terrabytes of data with a much longer retention policy.

3) Depends on the service, which really boils down to needing a real business-class solution instead of Carbonite or Mozy or whatever. If you dont have versioning with a solid retention policy and you get hit by cryptolocker, you're going to overwrite your backup with a bunch of junk encrypted files whether its local or in the cloud.