Dropbox and OneDrive are both widely used document sharing platforms designed to help poeple, and businesses, simply, easily and securely share information. In our second Lancom TV episode, I chat with Imran Sadiq, our Technical Director, to discuss how to decide which is right for your business.
Video Transcription
Hello everyone.
Hello.
Welcome to our second episode of our Lancolm TV series, From Imran's Desk. Today we are sitting here and we are going to talk to you about a topic that we often get asked by our clients. "When should I use Dropbox," "When should I use OneDrive," which is a Microsoft product which is a part of the Office 365 Suite etc., etc. Imran is going to explain that to us. So the topic, to rephrase again, is OneDrive versus Dropbox. First question.
Go for it.
Topic #1: What is Dropbox?
Okay. Just to bring everyone up to the same page, shall we start by reviewing or talking about Dropbox as a product? What is it for those that haven't really used it in the past?
So Dropbox is an online cloud platform for storing a lot of your files, your videos, your photos, and it was born out to be a online collaboration software. So what it allows you to do is to keep your files offline on different devices very, very well, as well as it allows you to share those documents, and photos, and videos with external parties really, really well. And it's really good at doing that, that's best part of Dropbox.
All right, so a need to sort of document sharing service that has been built with that capability from the ground.
Exactly.
Topic #2: What is OneDrive
Now, probably the most sort of new thing here about, you know, this whole sharing of documents is OneDrive because none of us are familiar with that product. I certainly wasn't a few years ago. So, what's OneDrive?
So OneDrive is, again, a software developed by Microsoft which is used for storing your files offline on different devices, as well as give you the ability to actually share those documents with external parties.The difference...the big difference between Dropbox and OneDrive would be that OneDrive is actually a front end for a back end SharePoint service, which is a much larger software by Microsoft as well.
I didn't know that. Learned something new.
So SharePoint is used for different things. It's used in corporate environments for creating intranet sites, also used as a internet site for quite a few companies, and also it is used for storing all of your files. So a lot of...got a lot of corporate companies, as well as small to medium companies, enterprises will be keeping their files in SharePoint. And OneDrive is pretty much a software used for giving you access to keep those files offline on your computers, as well as syncing and sharing it with other people.
So I guess, similar functionality in a way that possibly OneDrive would have a lot more business intelligence behind it because it comes from a platform that has been written for business which is SharePoint.
That's correct.
Topic #3: What are the key differences between Dropbox and OneDrive
Yes, I've learned it. Cool. Given what we've just talked about, Imran, I think the key differences between those two would be...
So the key difference between those two would be, is that OneDrive is more for a business environment where you already are using SharePoint and you would like to take advantage of some offline syncing ability and offline storage of those files or in different devices. Whereas Dropbox is very agile and very fast access software for keeping files offline as well as sharing with that files [SP] without the baggage of having SharePoint in the back end.
Topic #4: What one is right for your business?
Right, right. So when would people essentially go to Dropbox, when would they go to OneDrive? What are the scenarios here that we're looking at?
So if you're not using Office 365, or if you already don't have SharePoint and you just want the ability to have a software which allows you to keep files offline on different devices, keep them synced, as well as give you the ability to share those files with external parties, then the Dropbox would be a really good option. And whereas if you are already using Microsoft products, you have SharePoint deployed, or if you're using Office 365, then OneDrive is something that should consider because it comes as part of Office 365 Suite and mostly it's free. So you're not paying for it.
We like free stuff, don't we?
So you're not paying for the extra storage or not paying for the actual software, and that's when it's really, really good. The other thing I would say, keep in mind, is that OneDrive is...works really well when you are online most of the time and you have a really good internet connection.
Yes, because you're sharing that on the internet. Okay. All right, so I'm feeling a lot more informed. I feel like I've learned the key differences between OneDrive and SharePoint. So thank you so much for joining us today once again.
Yeah, you're welcome.
And we'll see you next time.
All right, see you guys.
Bye for now.