SkyDrive: Google Apps alternative?
I’m sitting here saying it out-loud to myself despite the odd looks I’m getting from my wife.
I can hardly believe it.
Since Google has been killing-off products I use, it’s get me re-thinking about other tools. I’m not complaining, either. Well, maybe at first, but my eyes are opening up to new solutions, which is aweseome. I’m coming to terms with the fact that I may have been a Google fanboi. It’s true. I hate to think about it, but its true.
Now that Google Apps for Business is no longer free for the first ten users, I’ve started to keep my eyes peeled for a good replacement. I’ve also been thinking about a good way to deal with all the Microsoft files people email me. I usually pull them up in Pages or Numbers and everything is chill, but I like to keep things native. I would have never thought that Microsoft–did I just say, Microsoft?–has killed these two birds with one stone.
SkyDrive
Microsoft is one step away from eclipsing Google Apps. I don’t think they have the guts or business sense to pull the trigger, but their close. Really close.
I had signed-up for the Outlook online mail service when it was first released. I wanted a backup plan for if I ever wanted to bail on Google. Plus, they keep your junk private and have no ads. In signing up for it, it also hooked me up with SkyDrive. SkyDrive is part of the Office 365, Google Drive-Dropbox kind of solution. Built into SkyDrive is an online version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Take a look:
Word
Excel
PowerPoint
They have ported the basic features–which usually suffice for basic editing and user needs–and have kept virtually the same UI. I’m really impressed. If you use Microsoft Office on a regular basis, you’ll find yourself right at home.
Get Your Files
Creating and getting your files into SkyDrive is simple. You can even login to your Outlook email and jump over to your SkyDrive:
Open a preexisting file or create a new document:
Slick!
They pricing for SkyDrive is good, too, esspecially when you consider some users may only store their Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on it:
- 7GB – Free
- +20GB – $10 per year
- +50GB – $25 per year
- +100GB – $50 per year
Apps for multiple platforms, including Mac, will keep your files synced on both your SkyDrive and local machine.
Conclusion
If you haven’t signed up for SkyDrive, what are you waiting for? I’ve imported a few different Word documents and they performed great. I think this will be my goto online app for all Word and Excel files.
Churches, ministries and non-profits should consider using SkyDrive as well. Plus, if you’re already using the most recent Microsoft Office, SkyDrive integrates really well and then you’ll have the option for online collaboration–WIN!
Have you tried SkyDrive? What’s your experience been?
Daniel C Berman says
Now if they would just release a free version of outlook.com where you could manage 5-10 users for free on a domain, we would be all set.
Jimmy says
You can do this already and I think the limit is like 500 for free. There are instructions here: http://www.labnol.org/internet/setup-outlook-on-custom-domain/24699/
Eric Dye says
What!?! Clicking. Link. Now.
Tre Lawrence says
Oh wow… didn’t know about the domain stuff.
Eric Dye says
Seriously! It would be a great counter to Google!
Peter Schott says
Another Skydrive advantage – if you’re grandfathered in from before, you had the option to get 25GB for free instead of the 7GB free amount that they’re using now. Of course, that 25GB was there before but largely unusable because there just weren’t any great apps to synchronize files, file sizes were limited, and sharing was pretty bad. That’s changed quite a bit and I’ve found myself using it more than my Dropbox account in a lot of cases.
Eric Dye says
Hey, that’s cool to hear. Thank you, Peter. 🙂
Peter Schott says
Probably also worth mentioning that Excel in Skydrive can also do Surveys in a manner similar to Google Spreadsheets. I haven’t used them much yet, but plan to.
I was going to mention using Outlook.com for domain e-mails, but wasn’t sure of all of the details so didn’t want to go there yet. 🙂
Eric Dye says
Yeah. I think we need a post on this. I’m pretty excited. Maybe I’ll use one of my domains and do a full-on test with it to see how it works.
Jimmy says
I agree, Skydrive is pretty impressive. I got in early and because I already had an account, I got 25 gb for free for life, so I’m really happy.
Paul Clifford (@PaulAlanClif) says
I’m sad to say that I don’t trust Google anymore. I wrote two blog posts about it: (http://trinitydigitalmedia.com/2013/03/what-if-blogger-is-the-next-to-die/ and http://trinitydigitalmedia.com/2013/03/i-dont-trust-facebook-google-and-twitter/). I’m even in the process of writing a third which won’t mention them expressly, but that did come from the killing of Reader.
Here’s the thing. If they’d only been clear about what the criteria were and why Reader died or if they’d said, “Reader was the last thing to did for at least a few years,” I think I could have trusted them, but I’m concerned about all sorts of things that I wouldn’t have even questioned before.
It could be that they won’t even kill it, but just change it in some way that makes it not as useful. I don’t have the budget yet for a paid apps account, for example.
I hope they regain my trust. I’m sad that I’m considering Microsoft as an alternative. Who would have seen that coming?
Paul
Eric Dye says
Well, in Microsoft’s defense, they’ve had a lot of internal changes over the years, but I know what you mean. 😀
Formation google apps says
Thanks for the information, very interesting post !