OneDrive for Business to store Outlook Attachments

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This post is part of SP14 Keynote highlights series where I provide some highlights of the next version of SharePoint. These highlights are from the SP24 Conference Keynote that Bill Baer delivered.

OneDrive for Business to change the way we distribute and store Outlook attachments

We all do this. We need to send a file to someone via email and we just attach the file to the email and press send.

60% of mailbox storage is allocated to attachments.

What we should all be doing, of course, is saving the attachment to SharePoint and including a link to the attachment instead. Microsoft may be about to make this much easier in the next version of SharePoint and Office (SharePoint 2016 and Office16) by slipstreaming the entire process and integrating Outlook with OneDrive for Business in Office 365.

Attachments will be stored in a “Attachments” folder in the user’s personal library in SharePoint Online, known as OneDrive for Business.

Each attachment will be secured to those on the recipient list of the originating email.

Benefits of storing attachments in OneDrive for Business include reducing overall email storage requirement but what do users care…general they don’t, not about storage requirements anyway. But what about providing themselves and their recipients with the ability to collaborate on attachments centrally and even use Co-Authoring. Imagine how much email traffic will be reduced because everyone has access to the same attachment.

There are times when storing attachments centrally SharePoint 2016 or whatever it becomes will be useful but not in all examples. Most of us are fortunate to live in a very connected world but there are times when we’re not so connected. This exciting change would mean at the time an email attachment would not be accessible, even though the original email is available on mobile for example. I look forward to hearing what others think about this new feature.

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Join me over the next year as I discover more news and information about the next version of SharePoint and Office 16 by following my #Office16 tag.