OneDrive for Business in SharePoint Server vs. SharePoint Online

image from : http://hansbrender.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/onedrive-vs-onedrive-for-business-unterschied-grundlagen/ 

Customer Ask Me

1. Please Compare OneDrive for Business in SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online

2. Compare the investment cost between both, They have 250 users.

This is the awesome question, I put some opinion in below.

1.       There is no specific difference for OneDrive for Business between SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online.

We just need to share the difference between SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online, as the One Drive for Business will follow the same limitation, i.e. if there is limitation for SharePoint Online, then it applies to One Drive for Business in SharePoint Online too.

Here is the information you need to check.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/sharepoint-server-help/what-is-onedrive-for-business-HA102822076.aspx

SharePoint Online: software boundaries and limits

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/sharepoint-server-help/redir/HA102694293.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA102822076&anc=Toc351114840

2.       Some other key point need to take care in different SharePoint Edition and SharePoint Online Plan.

SharePoint Foundation 2013 customers have limited OneDrive for Business functionality. SharePoint Foundation 2013 customers can use OneDrive for Business to sync SharePoint document libraries with a shared computer and access documents offline. But SharePoint Foundation 2013 users do not have a Personal Site, so they do not benefit from a OneDrive for Business personal library with 25 gigabytes (GB) of online storage. (or 1 TB)

 Kiosk accounts have limited OneDrive for Business functionality. Kiosk customers can use the OneDrive for Business folder sync client application to sync team site document libraries with a shared computer and access documents offline. But kiosk accounts do not include a OneDrive for Business Personal Site, so they do not benefit from a OneDrive for Business personal library with 25 gigabytes (GB) of online storage. (or 1 TB)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sharepoint-online-service-description.aspx

Generally I do not recommend you compare the cost directly because there are more thing hard to calculate, e.g. train the people to manage SharePoint Server and IT environment, but for Online you need only a little effort to manage the online environment.

Here is I share some ideas for your reference.

SharePoint Online:

Monthly/Yearly  subscription fee*250

$2.50 user/month  with annual commitment Purchase additional storage for $0.20 per GB

Very little administrative efforts, but the user need to pay for the storage, default 25GB, more storage more money.

https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/plans/

In a quick summary, generally there is no big difference for One Drive for Business in SharePoint or SharePoint Online except the limitation for the server/plan themselves. E.g. SP Foundation has limited function, or Kiosk accounts have limited OneDrive for Business functionality. And the One Drive for Business needs to follow SharePoint Online limitation too.

Thank you Support Team and Good Luck :)