SkyDrive Pro sync on network PCs?

[gshaw]

We're looking at implementing SkyDrive Pro \ SharePoint as a replacement for network storage (Documents redirection and Shared Drives) but wondering if anyone else has got around the potential issues of how the sync works?

 

Our new machines all come with SSDs (first gen ones had 60GB, this year's batch are 120GB) so not as much space as when you'd get 160GB+ per desktop. In theory each user could store 25GB on their personal drive and a lot more on shared drives (staff). Problem being SkyDrive Pro isn't exactly intelligent and syncs the entire contents of each location into your local user profile. With a couple of users signing into the machine I can see drives filling up pretty quickly if users take advantage of the increased limits.

 

If you don't install SkyDrive Pro there's no quick and easy way to save to the online storage outside of Office 2013 (I don't see manual upload via the web afterwards as an acceptable solution personally). What would be ideal would be a similar method to the Windows 8.1 Smart Files feature i.e. present everything to the user but download files as and when required. That way you get easy save to cloud but without massive amounts of sync traffic.

 

Alternatively has anyone found a different way?

[lmgtfy]

Excellent question @gshaw thought I'd reply to bump this thread as we would also love to achieve what you are trying.

 

We seem to be hearing the same question often now which is I have dropbox, gdrive, box or SkyDrive all with 4+ GB's of storage my memory stick holds x amount of GB's why do you restrict my "My Documents" to 1GB?

 

Where as we know enterprise storage (SANs etc) is relatively expensive still for schools if I could give them some cloud storage for other files that had a decent sync/upload tool that would be amazing.

 

Cheers

[jbailey]

Have you looked at any 3rdparty applications that allow you to access different cloud storage services from the one control panel software, like: StorageMadeEasy :: Free Cloud File Manager

Not played with any of those things myself yet but might be worth looking into.

 

We have Office 365 and users can open their SkyDrive pro storage in explorer to drag old stuff into it to "archive" and free up space in their my docs but that's it.

However, I wasn't expecting to be able to do what you are hoping to do - we are chuffed we can now do that

 

there's a similar thread here:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/117148-skydrive-pro-syncing-folder-redirected-documents.html

[gshaw]

Speaking to MS on their BETT stand today it's confirmed there's no way to do what I'm hoping for at present although they are looking into it.

 

Will take a look at that 3rd party software though, thanks for the suggestion

[psydii]

Basically cloud sync services assume 1 user per device, which if you're of the mind set of hot desking users, just cannot be reconciled.

 

1:1 or bust as far as I can tell.

 

That said, for students, why not use have them use the Office Web Apps? Then you ought not need them to sync their files locally? also be wary of applications that have no concept of the file syncing activities (access, adobe products, pretty much any educational application) as this way file corruption lies.

 

It has been observed that sharepoint is not a replacement for a traditional file system. It's an old document, but the ground rules have not changed sufficiently yet for it not to be valid: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd163523.aspx

 

However, once all the old win32 applications from the last 20 years are replaced by Windows Store Apps, then perhaps getting rid of the fileserver and the My Documents paradigm might work... But by the time that happens this 'new way' will have evolved to the point the 'group your work by project/activity' metaphor will be back in vogue again.

[gshaw]

Web Apps are OK for basic editing but still not as good as desktop, even basic things like pasting images much more clunky than on the desktop. MS even say as much with their hybrid marketing approach.

 

1:1 doesn't scale with the number of students we have (in the thousands) so not sure what we can do with that one. Interesting point around sync corruption though, we're a long way from having even 50% of the classic Win32 apps changed to Metro style.

 

Was reading that SharePoint article the other week actually, would definitely have to keep file shares for some document types. How we can make best use of the 25GB SkyDrive Pro is going to be interesting as users have to start thinking about where their files are going when they hit Save.

[psydii]

It feels like the 90's again, but playing out in a random order.

 

Nothing quite works right.