Summary:
Syncplicity offers online backup, restoration and file synchronization. Think Carbonite
meets Dropbox, for business. It's a great idea, but there's still a lot of room for
improvement.
Syncplicity is a portmanteau of synchronization and simplicity--the two things that
Syncplicity strives to provide for businesses. The cloud-based file synchronization
service's business edition has added several new features and enhancements since our last
review. The resulting business service is more ambitious than ever, but there's still a
lot of room for improvement.
The goal here is to create a cloud-based centralized
environment for backup and for sharing files and folders across multiple repositories:
servers, PCs, mobile devices and even other cloud-based services such as Zoho and Google
Docs. For a small business that's data-light, does not requires a lot of auditing and
granular control over user permissions, Syncplicity could substitute for a traditional
on-premise server. That is, if users don't mind a few quirks and missing features. For
businesses that do have those aforementioned requirements, they may not want Syncplicity
to replace an existing file server, just yet.
Syncplicity has a lot of potential.
The cloud is where it's at, and the fact that Syncplicity
integrates with other cloud productivity suites is powerful, since users are increasingly
creating and storing data in disperse locations. The latest edition of Syncplicity caters
to IT admins to allow control over users and company policies. It's a step in the right
direction for Syncplicity in the enterprise, but its light on real administrative
capabilities.
Pricing and Setup
The business edition is available as a 30-day free, fully
functional trial. The trial version supports up to 25 users, gives 50 GB storage and
imposes no limits on number of computers, folders, files, or file sizes. The paid
subscription includes priority e-mail and support, and it starts at $45 per month for
three users. Unlimited storage and users can be added. The pricing sounds expensive when
you compare it to similar solutions like Dropbox, which is $9.95 per month, also giving 50
GB of storage. However, Syncplicity's synchronization is much more flexible than
Dropbox's, which limits synch to just one dedicated folder.
Setup and New Features
Setup and the user interface in both the local client and
the browser console have not significantly changed since our last review. Setup begins
with creating a user account and downloading the client software. You are asked to give
your computer a name to identify it for synching and collaboration purposes--the name
doesn't have to be the actual machine name.
Getting Started
Users then pick the local folders they want to synch with
the online service. It's a very straightforward setup process, and the client has a lot of
neat features, including bandwidth throttling for adjusting synch speed as well as upload
and download speeds.
A big advantage from using Syncplicity's service is that
it's possible to keep data consistent across multiple machines. For example, I synched up
folders on the work laptop using the service. On my home laptop, I installed the
Syncplicity client and added that machine to my Syncplicity account. Once I did that, the
synched data from my work laptop appeared on my home laptop. In converse, I was able to
place data from my home laptop onto my work machine. Using Syncplicity, no matter which
laptop I worked on, edits to files and folders appeared on both. Of course, it also gives
me backup and restore capabilities; if I accidentally delete a file from one machine, I
can restore it with Syncplicity.
New Features
There are three brand new features. Syncplicity now fully
integrates with Mac--a long-awaited improvement. There's also new integration with Google
Docs as users can link Syncplicity with a Google Docs account. There are some file type
support limitations with a basic Google Docs account; you can Synch Microsoft Office Word
files in Google Docs but not .PDFs, for example. Google Apps Premier accounts do not have
this limitation. Google Apps users can also now logon through Syncplicity's single logon
capability for Google Apps.
I linked my Google Docs account and admittedly the
synchronization process is smooth and works well. When I made any change to a file in
either Syncplicity-synched folders or in Google Docs, the change appeared in both
services. It's a good way to keep files consistent and versioning in check. Unfortunately,
file editing is somewhat limited at least within the Web-based file view. You can't use
Google Docs to edit a file; instead, you have to have the associated program installed
locally and download the file. Through the installed local client, you can edit files with
other cloud services like Zoho, Scribd or Picnik, by right-clicking on the file. Still, it
would be nice to have the ability to work "cloud-only" and not have to
intermingle with the local machine for minor edits. By the way, editing in Zoho is not an
option with Office 2010 files like .docx.
Another issue I have with the online file browser: there's
no search. Embedded searches can be performed using Google Apps integration--which is
fine, if you have a Google Apps account. Syncplicity tells me they are still weighing
their options to include full-text search; whether it's something they want to develop or
partner with someone to develop. Whatever the case, it's a feature that is really needed.
News Feed is the third big new feature. It's an
RSS-feed-like real-time listing of all events happening to files or folders. It's a handy
way for admins to track what activities are going on with Syncplicity users because it
shows events on those you share synched folders with as well.
Administration
A lot of the enhancements surround administrator
capabilities. The admin console is accessible via the my.syncplicity site via a browser,
the same way that users can access the online file viewer. Administrators can create and
manage users, inviting them to join Syncplicity via e-mail. Invitees respond to the e-mail
and have to create their own passwords. Admins can't assign passwords to users and there
is no way to set password complexity requirements, something that may be unsettling to
some businesses. Also, there is currently no way to create groups, although Syncplicity
says it's a priority on the roadmap. Creating groups would be of benefit because admins
can also apply an organization policy. Policies are a series of pre-defined settings that
admins can use to apply to all users. For instance, you can restrict users from sharing
folders with anyone outside of an organization or only with the company. Sharable links
for downloading files can be given to anyone outside of the organization or only to
authentication users. The restrictions work fine and take effect immediately, but the
problem with the administrator controls is that they are too "all or nothing."
Having groups would at least give a little bit more flexibility with administration.
Admins can also disable user accounts (good if someone
loses a laptop, for instance) and delete users. For remote troubleshooting, admins can use
the "Impersonate" a user feature. This will allow the admin to see the same
console as the user is seeing. I'm not quite sure of the value of this feature--if a user
is having a problem with synched files and folders couldn't the problem reside on the
actual machine that user is on, and not necessarily within the interface of the
Syncplicity service? I guess to demonstrate "how-to"s, its good as an
alternative to remote access.
Other Nuisances I discovered a few other annoyances during
my testing. The biggest one for me is that you can't download a folder from the online
file viewer. Also, when I created a new directory within a synched folder in the online
file viewer, it did not show up in the same synched folder on my computer.
As a backup solution, the restoration process is a bit lax.
Users must go through a Recycle Bin to restore a file that may have gotten deleted. This
would be easy to confuse with the Recycle Bin on a desktop. I would prefer a dedicated
area of the interface tabbed "restoration"; much in the same way Carbonite
addresses restoring files.
Should You Sync Up with Syncplicity? Syncplicity Business
Edition is trying to achieve a lot. It's a good way to administer files from a wide
variety of places, there's no question about that. It's got a long way to go, however. The
lack of basic features like groups and downloading folders puzzles me--seems like those
would be first and foremost to appeal to businesses, not to mention more granular
administrative controls.
Still, it's a work in progress and the folks at Syncplicity
have further development plans, including integration with LDAP and Active Directory.
Adding those capabilities and ironing out a few quirks would make it a much weightier
business option. If its currently uneven set of features meets your needs, by all means
give Syncplicity a try. Otherwise, you might want to wait until the next version.
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