News
Office 365 ProPlus Users To Get OneDrive in January
Microsoft clarified a bit more when its OneDrive for Business service will arrive for its Office 365 ProPlus subscribers.
The cloud-based storage service is already rolling out to existing Office 365 ProPlus subscribers but it's expected to arrive to all of them "before the end of January 2015," according to Microsoft's announcement today. Organizations newly subscribing to Office 365 ProPlus after Dec. 1, 2014 will have the storage service right away.
The addition of the storage service will be free for subscribers. Previously, OneDrive for Business wasn't included in Office 365 ProPlus plans, although all of the other Office 365 business plans had it.
The storage capacity of OneDrive for Business eventually will be "unlimited." Microsoft announced that change late last month. However, this storage expansion also is being gradually rolled out to subscribers, so users will be limited to 1TB for the time being. Unlimited OneDrive storage is expected to be available to all Office 365 subscribers by sometime in 2015.
OneDrive for Business is based on SharePoint. There's also a consumer OneDrive version. Microsoft expanded the file upload size for consumer OneDrive users to 10GB back in September, but OneDrive for Business users are still stuck with a 2GB file upload limit for now. Microsoft said back then that it was also working on a 5,000-item sync limit in SharePoint libraries that is holding back some organizations using OneDrive for Business, although it's not clear when that limit might be lifted.
Some other OneDrive for Business improvements to come include enabling certain blocked characters (such as "%" or "#" symbols) in file names, enabling longer file names and the addition of a new desktop sync client for Mac OS X. Microsoft keeps a running list of its planned Office 365 improvements at this roadmap page.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.