I'll start with what I would not use OneDrive for! I would not use it as a primary source for code repository, there are other more robust tools out there that can help you with storing and making available code repos. Where I would use OneDrive is in a platform for managing files, and with that I mean any file that can be saved offline and access a OneDrive access point, share, or mount. This could be personal, business, or data from a system that is saved in a standard file format. The OneDrive platform is great for documents collaboration as well, with the ability to allow for share and links to be provided to for easy access and collaboration. I would also recommend if you are someone who likes to use cloud services and rely less and less on offline storage. OneDrive excels in this area!
Panzura works well for companies that have a high amount of data with cross site collaboration being done. The caching ensures you don't need huge investments of storage at each site and the cloud storage ensures high availability over what can be done locally. Also helps eliminate duplicate data across sites and/or small variations in the same data.
I wish OneDrive would allow you to sync multiple personal/individual accounts to your computer. At this time, you can only sync one account at a time. That means that my personal OneDrive and individual corporate OneDrive can't be synced to my computer at the same time.
OneDrive has a file size limitation of 15 GB. I know that that is a very large amount, but I have several files that are larger than 15 GB that I wish I could get to sync. I'm hoping that file size limitation changes in the future.
I would like to see more connectors. Tie in to traditional block storage or NAS. Additional cloud connectors to products like Hitachi Content Platform.
I would like to see a collaborative product created between Panzura and Riverbed. I envision an almost perfect small footprint ROBO solution where Riverbed provides the compute+WAN optimization and Panzura provides the storage/risiliancy components. Combine the boxes into a single 4U solution and you have a near perfect product for remote offices.
Due to its tight integration into the Microsoft ecosystem and its bundling into the Office 365 service, continued use of the product is all but guaranteed. Unless there's a shift away from Microsoft, I can see no competing product offering the same ease of use and integrations taking the place of OneDrive
Using OneDrive is very intuitive and has been improved over the years. It's just like using native file management on either your Mac or PC. It's drag and drop functionality is easy and it clearly shows when files are uploaded to the cloud or if there are errors
It has a good performance, the pages load normally, access to the files, management, reports, everything is working well. With regard to integration with other systems, we have not done so yet.
It's a Microsoft product so there is a wealth of information online both from Microsoft directly and from millions of users but as a corporate user we also have access to direct Microsoft support through a variety of avenues (phone, email, etc.). This makes finding answers to issues more accessible, however, it does also mean that any new feature requests will get buried.
Hands down support is the best part of Panzura. Their techs are always helpful, always knowledgeable, and consistently solve complex problems quickly. You can definitely tell they hire their support folks from the top tier of other companies and they go above and beyond what I have come to expect in terms of support compared to other companies.
Box is another file-sharing application that is very similar to OneDrive. Box falls short of OneDrive in its syncing capabilities. OneDrive is very quick with syncing so you never have to be concerned that you are not using the most up-to-date materials. Box was always a bit delayed and did not always accurately sync across systems. OneDrive benefits from being backed by Microsoft, so you expect the connection across applications that it allows. OneDrive also provides consistency for use and intuitive understanding because of that Microsoft consistency. I'd prefer OneDrive over Box.
OneDrive allows us to save much time on creating and archiving backup copies of our data. Microsoft gives a guarantee on the possibility of recovery of files or folders even from 30 days ago. It provides a great comfort of work.
