Microsoft named a Leader in the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Collaboration Platforms

In the new Content collaboration platforms Magic Quadrant Report for 2017, Gartner has recognised Microsoft as a Leader and it was placed highest for Ability to Execute. OneDrive for Business is the content collaboration product offering from Microsoft that is available both as a stand-alone cloud service and as an extension to Microsoft SharePoint Server or Office 365. Organizations generally adopt OneDrive for Business as part of an Office 365 purchase. 

Gartner noted that Microsoft is a good fit for companies that have prioritized investment in Microsoft’s office productivity and collaboration suites, content server platforms (such as SharePoint Server), SharePoint Online, and Office 365. Read about OneDrive for Business’ strengths and cautions as reported by Gartner below.

STRENGTHS:

• Microsoft ODB is available as part of Office 365 at no additional cost. Microsoft is using its dominance with the hosted Exchange offering in Office 365 to bolster its CCP adoption.
• ODB is the unified file-centric syncing and sharing engine for Microsoft’s Office products and Office 365 applications, supporting integration among them. This creates a seamless user experience for users of Microsoft applications, especially when working with enterprise content in SharePoint. It also expands OneDrive experiences with digital business workloads via the Flow connectors and other advanced Office 365 features.
• Microsoft offers extensive security features in its cloud offerings, including ODB, Office 365 and Azure. These include client-managed encryption keys, global data centers that support regionalized data residency and privacy regulations. When deployed as part of the Office 365 suite, ODB can use Microsoft’s identity-centric EMS security.
• Customers find ODB deployment easy and efficient, and feel they gained value and operational efficiency after rollout. They noted that ongoing updates and new features continue to enhance their opinion and the value of the product.

CAUTIONS:

• Microsoft ODB lacks native connectors to some enterprise content repositories and business applications. References reported complexity of integrating with tools outside of Microsoft’s ecosystem. This situation can be partly mitigated by the fact that most enterprise applications have native connectors into SharePoint, on top of which OneDrive for Business is built.
• Enhanced enterprise-grade capabilities for ODB are only available with additional products, for example, connectors to non-Microsoft systems (with Flow) and group collaboration (with Teams or SharePoint).
• Reporting capabilities are limited to 90 days of information retained in logs and are not isolated to ODB activities, requiring generation and management of ODB activity reporting and oversight, where needed.
• References noted feature and functional gaps in ODB, for example, with respect to external collaboration, offline usage and sync performance, often related to old versions used in on-premises deployments. Commenting in ODB alone remains limited outside of Office and PDF files, despite complementary capabilities that can be found in Office 365 products such as Teams, Yammer and SharePoint.