OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client and Update on Storage Plans

  • Article

TimTetrickPhoto

Tim Tetrick

Hello Partners,

In case you missed it, there were some big announcements a couple weeks back concerning OneDrive for Business.  I wanted to highlight a couple of these around the Next Generation Sync Client and Storage Plans.

Next Generation Sync Client for Windows and Mac

I know many partners and their customers have experienced challenges with the previous OneDrive for Business sync client.  Challenges around performance, reliability, and lack of specific features and functionality.  And I know many of you have been testing the Preview of the Next Generation Sync Client over the last few months.  Well I’m happy to say that after a successful Preview program, the Next Generation Sync Client is now available.  Some highlights of the new release:

  • Improved reliability and performance
  • Selective sync
  • Support for large files up to 10GB
  • Removal of the 20,000 file sync limit

For Partners and IT Professionals, it also provides the ability to silently deploy and configure the client on behalf of your end users. The OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client is available for Windows 7, 8 and 10 (8.1 support will be added in the first quarter of 2016) and Mac OS X 10.9 and above.

Go here to learn more and get started.

Storage Plans

Several months back it was announced that unlimited storage would be coming to OneDrive for Business.  As part of these recent announcements we now have details on what this will look like and the timing for the rollout.

Office 365 customers on premium Enterprise, Government and Education plans will receive OneDrive for Business unlimited storage. Specifically, this includes unlimited storage for individuals in organizations with more than five people subscribing to one of the following plans:

  • Office 365 Enterprise E3, E4 and E5
  • Office 365 Government E3, E4 and E5
  • Office 365 Education
  • OneDrive for Business Plan 2 and SharePoint Online Plan 2

Increased storage began rolling out last month, starting with an automatic increase from 1 TB to 5 TB per user. The rollout is expected to be complete by the end of March 2016. After this point, customers who want additional storage can request it as needed by contacting Microsoft support.

Customers on all other Office 365 Enterprise, Business and standalone plans that include OneDrive for Business will continue to receive 1 TB of storage per user. While customers on these plans will not receive the full unlimited benefit, it is expected it will serve the vast majority of users.

For more information on these announcements, as well as a couple additional updates, see the official Office Blog post here.