After a couple of weeks on the job, I have had at least 3 different customers ask me about the difference between SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro. I looked for some really good material to create a presentation and found that there really wasn't a lot out there so I figured it would be worthwhile to create a blog post I could point to whenever the question comes up. So here we are!
SkyDrive? SkyDrive Pro? Come on what gives?
It is confusing, but in a nutshell. SkyDrive (which almost everyone is familiar with) is our consumer cloud storage solution. SkyDrive Pro on the other hand is squarely aimed at our Corporate customers. It provides much the same experience that SkyDrive (consumer) provides, but adds the ability for a Corporate IT department to define security/search/content policies. Take a look at the following diagram -
A few really key points:
- SkyDrive is completely managed by the individual. This means all security and comnpliance is completely in the hands of the individual and completely outside the control of your corporate oversight.
- SkyDrive Pro is implemented on Sharepoint 2013. This means whether yoru sharepoint infrastrcuture is part of Office365 or on-premises the solution works exactly the same way. The same ease of use for the end user as SkyDrive and the same security and compliance you already have with your own IT department managing your Sharepoint 2013 infrastructure.