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Which will come out on top: Microsoft SharePoint or OneDrive?

Document collaboration and versioning are key functions in many workplaces. Learn how Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive work together to make this happen.

Despite Microsoft users shifting from SharePoint to OneDrive, SharePoint continues to run the show behind the scenes.

Enterprise users seek convenient ways to store their business data so they can access it from anywhere and on any device. OneDrive offers these capabilities without the need for SharePoint, but SharePoint delivers core services to support several OneDrive features.

Here are some OneDrive features SharePoint supports:

  • Co-authoring is a feature that enables multiple users to edit Office 365 documents at the same time. This feature is available to files stored in SharePoint document libraries. While OneDrive alone does not offer this functionality, OneDrive for Business does, as it is linked to SharePoint.
  • Document versions. For users who want to track document changes over time -- especially in documents such as contracts -- SharePoint offers versioning to provide users with the option to restore a document to a specific version or time. This is a capability SharePoint offers out of the box.
  • OneDrive for Business. OneDrive for Business always starts from a SharePoint document library and is then linked to a user's OneDrive account. This process is different from OneDrive Personal, where users rely on the OneDrive client installed on their computers to create or access folders. OneDrive for Business features co-authoring, document versioning and data loss prevention features, whereas OneDrive Personal does not.

OneDrive is still heavily dependent upon SharePoint, especially in the workplace, where necessary features for businesses are only available through OneDrive for Business. For now, SharePoint and OneDrive remain tightly linked.

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