Online File Sharing and Collaboration Test Drive -...

Online File Sharing and Collaboration Test DriveMobile Enablement in a Consumerized World

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© 2012 by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc.

EMC Syncplicity Business Edition

Authors: Terri McClure and Kristine Kao, November 2012

Online File Sharing and Collaboration Test Drive: EMC Syncplicity Business Edition


For more than 12 months, ESG has engaged with vendors of business-oriented online file sharing and collaboration (OFS) solutions to understand their offerings, intellectual property, and business models—and to test drive their products to uncover strengths, areas for improvement, and distinctive capabilities. The overall goal of the ESG OFS Test Drive program was to obtain a real-world point of view on OFS solutions from the perspective of end-users and IT administrators alike. Please note that ESG is not identifying a “best overall” solution because every enterprise has its own priorities and therefore weighs features differently.

One solution tested was EMC Syncplicity Business Edition—a product that enables subscribers to backup, synch, and share files, accessing them from a laptop, iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, or other device. The product’s business edition also includes an administrative dashboard and priority support.

Introduction

IT administrators tested End-users TestedIT administrators tested End-users tested

Obtaining licenses: To execute the tests, ESG required three administrator and seven end-user licenses for each OFS solution. In some cases, ESG requested and was given trial licenses directly from the vendor. In other cases, ESG purchased the licenses. All licenses were temporary. Vendors providing licenses received no special consideration during testing/analysis.

Testing team: To provide a broad view of opinions/user experiences, the testing team consisted of the following ESG employees: two analysts, three IT staff, and two administrative staff. They tested using endpoint devices including PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android phones, and Android tablets. Due to time constraints, not all solutions were tested with all devices, but each was tested with at least one desktop/laptop/mobile device.

Test plan: ESG used the same testing methodology for each OFS solution. Because IT administrator and end-user needs differ significantly, test categories were separated/customized. IT administrators tested four common categories and one unique category. (Each vendor could identify three differentiated features for ESG to test and report on.) End-user tests included six common categories.

Scoring: Testers numerically scored each solution in each category of their plan. Scores were based on whether the solution supports the necessary feature/function, and (as appropriate) how easy, intuitive, extensive, reliable, or seamless the feature/function seems to be. Scores were tabulated/averaged for every category in each individual vendor test plan. Also, ESG calculated a category-average across all vendors to show how a given vendor compares against the group. A complete methodology description is available in the ESG brief “OFS Test Drive: Methodology and Test Plan.”

• Central administration• Security• Data protection• Performance• Differentiated features (the top-three vendor- defined value-added, distinctive features)

• Installation and setup• Collaboration and file sharing• Mobile device use• Versioning and file recovery• End-user administration• Support

Methodology



How EMC Syncplicity Business Edition fared

Our testers rated attributes of EMC Syncplicity Business Edition based on the following scale:

Central administration

Security

Data protection

Performance

Differentiated features

Average

Installation and setup

Collaboration/file sharing

Mobile device use

Versioning/file recovery

End-user administration

Support

Average

Features were lacking or performed below expectations

EMC Syncplicity Business Edition EMC Syncplicity Business Edition

Fast, easy, intuitive, and exceeded expectations

IT administrator test results End-user test results

ESG test-group average

Syncplicity Syncplicity ESG test-group average

Scores were rounded to the nearest whole dial stop.



Vendor overview—Syncplicity

Syncplicity, until recently a privately held cloud-based file-management solutions provider based in Menlo Park, California, was acquired by EMC in May 2012. Co-founders Leonard Chung and Ondrej Hrebicek, both former senior technologists at Microsoft, remain at the helm of this new EMC entity.

Syncplicity promotes its technology as being able to help “elevate your file management to the only cloud-based file management solution designed to seamlessly allow users to work the way they want.” But as a small startup, Syncplicity had been limited in its ability to invest in development, sales, and marketing. With EMC’s deep pockets and market reach behind it, Syncplicity now is accelerating development and gaining inroads into new accounts.

Results Summary

Product Tested: EMC Syncplicity Business Edition

Overall, ESG’s testers found that Syncplicity provides good functionality for IT administrators and end-users. The product is slightly more expensive than other offerings because Syncplicity sets up accounts with only 50GB to start. (Pricing starts at $45/month for the first three users sharing 50GB of storage, $15 per user per month for additional users, and $10 per 10GB per month for additional storage.)

The product offers a great set of IT administrative capabilities and features. ESG’s admin testers did wish that more storage was allotted up front, but they appreciated Syncplicity Business Edition’s high level of account control. In particular, the administrators liked Active Directory (AD) integration and the ability to configure version policies, retention policies, and remote wipe settings.

We uncovered a few areas for improvement (such as adding reporting capabilities for summarizing and auditing the account) but were very pleased with the security, data protection, and general usability of the solution overall. Syncplicity Business Edition seems well suited for small and large companies alike.

Syncplicity also meets most end-users’ needs, offering good desktop client and mobile functionality. Our end-user testers accomplished sharing, synching, and collaboration with relative ease after becoming familiar with the solution. However, testers noted that the product’s user interface has a little way to go before some users will consider it to be “seamless” relative to the more consumer-focused OFS solutions they may already be accustomed to using.



Detailed results—IT administrator tests

Testers appreciated the configurable administrator settings but were disappointed with the lack of high-level reporting capability.

ESG admins found Syncplicity relatively easy to set up. Adding users was simple, and we particularly liked the level of usage visibility we were given in support of our ongoing effort to protect IP. Testers found it easy to batch provision a number of accounts.

Syncplicity included AD integration in the business edition we tested. Typically, AD integration is offered only in the enterprise editions of other vendors’ OFS products.

Our testers noted that, although the initial 50GB storage allotment seemed small compared with other products tested, it was very easy to increase company-wide storage capacity. Admins wished for the ability to allocate storage per user (i.e., set user quotas), which would enable them to prevent scenarios where a few users potentially consume all the storage. The feature gap is not a huge concern, but per-user quota control would be nice to have. We felt that Syncplicity offers a good level of folder-sharing options, including the ability to control sharing permissions for users inside and outside of a company domain.

The solution has an especially comprehensive, easily configurable version history feature. ESG testers were able to set ver-sion policies of up to 100 days, although Syncplicity claims that no limit on retention policies actually exists and that users can extend the limit to months or years. The solution also allows admins to customize deleted-file retention policies and to keep a certain number of versions regardless of time. Any older versions adhere to the retention policy configured. In all, Syncplicity Business Edition provides admins with a greater degree of control over version depth and retention duration than most of its competitors.

Our admin testers easily disabled sharing tied to various users’ folders and could remote wipe files as necessary. We liked the fact that admins could impersonate users for auditing purposes, and on that note, we appreciated that Syncplicity actually notifies users whose accounts were impersonated. The admins believe this feature engenders trust between IT and end-users, and it serves as a check-and-balance system for both groups.

One tester noted that a high-level reporting capability pertaining to storage status, user logs, etc., would have been helpful because impersonation can be an inefficient way to audit numerous users at large companies. However, he thought Syncplicity offered good administration capabilities overall.

Central administration

EMC Syncplicity Business Edition ESG test-group average




Syncplicity has robust data protection processes, including quadruplicate replication of files to three geographi-cally dispersed data centers and continuous data protection.

Relative to the rest of the “OFS pack,” our IT admins found that Syncplicity really shines when it comes to offering robust data protection. Many other solutions that ESG tested do not offer backup, but Syncplicity Business Edition stores unlimited versions of every file without requiring administrators to run extra backup processes.

Syncplicity impressed ESG’s testers with its quadruplicate replication of files to three geographically dispersed data centers and its continuous data protection with instant restore of old file versions or deleted files. Considering that cloud solutions such as Syncplicity rely heavily on bandwidth, the product also put our testers’ minds at ease by offering features such as large-file transfer resumption and bandwidth optimization to ensure uploads completed even when the network suffers a service disruption.

Data protection


Syncplicity has standard security features as well as good remote-wipe capability, which admins could set to wipe automatically following the unsharing of folders.

Our administrators were pleased with the level of security Syncplicity offers. Basic security items such as encryption in transit and at rest are covered, and our testers felt safe knowing that Syncplicity data centers are SAS 70 Type II (now SSAE 16) compliant.

We loved the product’s remote-wipe capability, which we could set to occur automatically following unsharing of folders. For instance, removal of a user from a folder results in immediate removal of access to all files in that folder, lowering the risk of inappropriate sharing. Our admin testers liked the fact that cloud platforms such as Syncplicity allow users to recover their own passwords without enlisting IT’s help.

We also appreciated that admins can change a user’s password if needed, believing it to be a potentially important step before disabling an account. ESG testers reported that if Syncplicity enabled them to view end-user logs and control folder settings in batches (instead of through individual impersonation), Syncplicity’s security score would have bumped up. Re-gardless, we deemed the solution “very solid on the security front.”

Security



Testers observed synching happening almost instantaneously, and they appreciated features such as large-file transfer resumption and bandwidth optimization.

ESG’s IT administrator testers were impressed with Syncplicity’s performance in synching files across devices. We copied a large amount of data into a shared folder and observed synchronization occurring almost instantaneously. Of course, synch speed will vary depending on available bandwidth. One tester reported that Syncplicity synched the fastest of all the OFS products he had tested (possibly because of those large-file transfer resumption and bandwidth optimization capabilities identified earlier).

We asked all vendors to identify the three features that they believe differentiate their product in the market—and to tell us how we should test those features.

The following ratings stem from our admin and end-user testers’ conclusions after they asked themselves the following three questions: (1) Do the three product features that the vendor identifies as being “differentiating” really work as advertised? (2) Is there actually a need or demand in the marketplace for these “differentiating” features? (3) Is there truly “differentiation” here, or have we seen these features in other OFS solutions, too?

With answers to those questions in hand, our testers rated Syncplicity Business Edition:

Performance


IT administration features End-user features

Differentiated features—EMC Syncplicity Business Edition



EMC-Syncplicity identified these differentiators:

• “True sync” of any folder on your computer: The folder is available on all your computers and mobile devices, and you get offline access to all your files. Other products just allow you to download files when you need them (incorrectly calling that “synch”), and limit you to preconfigured folder structures.

• Works with any folder: With this cool feature, your “work in process” is synched to the cloud seamlessly and is available on devices without you having to think ahead and move them somewhere. Work on a bunch of files; launch the iPad, iPhone, or Android app; and you will see all those changes in the newsfeed and be able to open those files.




Detailed results—end-user tests

Testers found that Syncplicity exhibited some unexpected behavior and would have appreciated more help in the form of a wizard to walk them through setup.

On the bright side, end-users found Syncplicity to be extremely easy to download/deploy. Nearly everyone was up and running in under five minutes, and we were pleased that no system restart was required.

Installation and setup


Our testers loved the “true sync” function, reporting that the application synched faster and was one of the most reliable solutions for synching. The IT admins believe end-users would be very happy with that feature, which (unlike other vendors’ products) alleviates the burden of picking and choosing “favorites” in advance for offline consumption.

Our administrators found Syncplicity’s ability to work with any folder to be an interesting and potentially useful feature, but one tester noted that in his experience, most users prefer a “Dropbox-like” process involving dragging and dropping a file into a designated folder. That’s not to say Dropbox’s method is better; it is merely the way users are accustomed to handling synch at home. In addition, most IT admins are fully conversant with the corporate folder structure at their organizations. Allowing synching of any folder could create confusion stemming from unorganized folders on end-users’ computers. Syncplicity does have a visual clue in the form of an overlay icon (as do all the solutions) that indicates folders are synched, shared, or local (i.e., not synched/shared). But synched folders could live anywhere, and our admins could not find a central view of all synched and shared folders, which they would have found useful. However, Syncplicity states this functionality exists for both Mac and PC users.

We also loved Syncplicity’s policy controls. In particular, we were impressed with the product’s security capabilities related to setting up wiping of shared folders when access is removed, when a device or cloud app is removed, or when user accounts are deleted.

Our impressions

(Differentiated features, continued)

• Deep, persistent policy controls: Policies you’ve set for sharing and data retention work on all devices. Be sure to try the policy for automatic remote wipe of data—unshare a folder with a user, and see that the folder is permanently deleted.

(Installation and setup, continued)

But our end-user testers ran into confusion when choosing which folders to synch. One user was surprised that Syncplicity automatically synched all of her desktop pictures to the website without asking her. Another tester thought she set up the application to synch a designated folder, then she looked on the web and found her entire desktop synched. With BYOD programs becoming more popular in the business world, this confusion could presage a potential barrier to end-user adoption. Some users won’t care. For others, seeing their personal pictures and files automatically synched to a company website will be a cause for concern. Additionally, companies that adhere to policies against storing personal documents in the corporate OFS solution could find it problematic.

Our end-user testers were also torn regarding the process of selecting folders for synching. Again, some testers were too habituated to the “Dropbox-like” process involving dragging/dropping files into one large folder for synching. Syncplicity offers that exact capability by allowing users to add folders, yet it still asked users to select folders for synching. The request briefly caused confusion, but after we understood the process, we ultimately judged Syncplicity to have a more flexible approach to synching than most of the OFS products we tested. Still, testers would have appreciated more direction, perhaps in the form of a wizard to walk them through the process.

Testers accomplished all tasks in this area successfully but were confused by inconsistencies in how tasks are accomplished between the web interface and client application.

End-users strongly favored Syncplicity for its near-real-time synching capability (rather than the interval-batch synching that some other solutions offer). Our testers were pleased with the extremely fast synch times. We also noticed the setting in the synch application that enabled us to choose faster Internet, faster synching, or something in-between. We did not test that function but suspect that it might aid users who are dealing with limited bandwidth.

Users were able to accomplish all collaboration/sharing tests successfully (with the exception of creating a discussion thread) but reported that using the synch application and web interface was not an intuitive endeavor. For example, we could share folders from the Manage and Share section of the application, or alternatively, by right-clicking the folder. But that action was not available in the web interface. Similarly, unsharing was only available in the Manage and Share section of the application—not by right-clicking the folder or on the website. Those inconsistencies increased the amount of time that our testers needed to become comfortable with the solution.

Solving version conflicts was also a part-automatic, part-manual process. Syncplicity notified users when there was a file version conflict. In one case, Syncplicity notified a tester that a conflicted copy would be added to her folder, but it was up to her to determine which copy to keep. Still, after we figured out the nuances of the product, we found it works fast and well.

Collaboration and file sharing








Testers appreciated the granular details offered when viewing older versions of files on the web.

ESG end-users found and restored previous file versions easily—as long as they were logged into the web interface. Our testers weren’t able to discover a way to find and restore files using the synch application. Because preview functionality is unavailable on the web interface, we couldn’t browse files or versions efficiently to determine which version to open or restore.

However, Syncplicity does allow users to see whether a new version was added, renamed, or edited—and by whom—a capability that our testers expect would be very helpful in situations where they may be collaborating with multiple people. This feature also eliminated the need for preview when restoring file versions.

Versioning and file recovery


Testers were impressed with the ease of setup and functionality of Syncplicity’s mobile applications.

Our testers were generally very happy with Syncplicity’s mobile applications. Syncplicity Business Edition offers mobile applications for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire. Installation and setup were a breeze, and the application allowed users to see/consume all of their content reasonably. Some chart and table distortion occurred within some documents, but overall, Syncplicity does a nice job of displaying documents on mobile devices. We liked that we could e-mail, delete, and view previous versions of files, but we wished we could share folders from the web application as well. One tester stated that she typically refrains from deleting files using mobile applications because she feels that a higher risk of inadvertent deletion exists. But she was pleased that Syncplicity has a safety net in place, namely, restoring files from the recycle bin.

Mobile device use


Testers would have liked more consistency in functionality in the web interface and desktop client.

Using the web interface, end-users easily and intuitively gauged how much space was available/in use as well as which files were being shared. Using the client application, we also easily managed and viewed which folders were shared.

Overall, our end-user testers were satisfied with the product’s higher-level administrative capabilities but wished the vendor had consolidated those capabilities into one control panel instead of requiring users to toggle back and forth between the application and the web interface. A lack of search capability also proved problematic for our heavy users who had synched many folders and files.

End-user administration


Testers liked the flexibility of online and e-mail support but would have liked phone support for more critical problems.

Syncplicity offers free priority support to all Syncplicity Business Edition accounts. It does not include phone support, but it does allow for online and e-mail support tickets as well as priority queuing for those tickets. Our testers didn’t need to go down that path, but we were reassured to see that priority queuing was an option if needed. Phone support is included in a Premium Support option, which is available for a fee.

Generally, our end-user testers considered online help to be adequate to meet their needs. One end-user did experience difficulty locating online forums or end-user guides on the Syncplicity website, finding only “getting started” guides for administrators. Later, however, she realized that if she clicked Help from the synch application, she would be directed to an end-user support page online. On that page, typing a topic into a search bar proved effective for getting answers to basic questions.

Support









The Bigger Truth

EMC Syncplicity Business Edition offers good functionality compared with other OFS solutions that ESG tested. The solution contains many sophisticated features for administrators working in a corporate environment and offers some of the best security and data protection capabilities that ESG tested.

Pros: Administrators appreciated features such as large-file transfer resumption and the bandwidth-optimization features, as well as the AD integration, granular settings for version and retention policies, and remote wipe. End-users liked the fast synch speed, the ease of restoring old versions, and the detailed view of version history.

Cons: ESG’s IT admin team found Syncplicity’s reporting capabilities somewhat lacking and would have liked to have the capability to set quotas. For end-users, the Syncplicity learning curve took a bit of time; the user experience is not as “seamless” as it is with other products tested. They also wished for search functionality to help find folders and files.

When end-users have acclimated to Syncplicity’s process, it becomes one option they’ll be happy to adopt—an option with good synch and share functions, very fast performance, and easy-to-use mobile applications. This is a solution that seems well suited for small and large companies alike.

The Bigger Truth

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