Overview
Traditionally, each of the apps and services in Office 365 has been targeted based on the mode of communication. For example, Skype for Business for chat-based collaboration, Outlook, and exchange for messaging, and SharePoint for information storage. All of these work together for providing a better collaboration experience. However, they are still separate applications. The MS Teams has aligned all of these modes of communication together without switching between the applications.
Role of SharePoint in MS Teams
MS Teams support deep integration with SharePoint.
- Each MS Team has a SharePoint site (technically a site collection) as a backbone.
- Files shared in MS Teams conversation are stored in a document library inside the SharePoint site.
- For each public channel in MS Teams, the corresponding folder is created in the SharePoint Documents library to hold the files shared through that channel conversation.
- Each private channel has its own SharePoint site collection optimized for file sharing and fast provisioning.
- Files sent between users outside of a Teams channel (1:1 chat) are stored in the sender’s OneDrive for Business folder.
- Users do not have to leave Teams to work with files; they appear in the Files tab of MS Teams with an option of “Open in SharePoint”. This option lands users to the SharePoint site.
- It is possible to add SharePoint pages as a tab in MS Teams.
- It is possible to show the entire document in the MS Teams tab.
- Membership and access for MS Teams channels are centered around SharePoint site membership roles, so it is easy to control who can browse MS Teams channels content.
Advantages of storing MS Teams documents in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business
The backend storage of MS Teams at SharePoint and OneDrive for Business brings in below advantages:
- OneDrive sync client works on Windows or Mac OS, makes easy to sync all the files for MS Team (but, this setting should be disabled)
- Document co-authoring in MS Teams is possible (as a built-in feature of SharePoint)
- SharePoint supports a preview for more than 300 file types, which make it easy to show preview in the MS Teams tab.
- Files uploaded through MS Teams channels are discoverable in Delve and SharePoint search.
SharePoint implementation at your organization
Although there are numerous advantages, as a SharePoint administrator below are few of the controls to be placed:
- External sharing should be disabled on SharePoint at the global level, unless needed.
- Data governance and compliance (in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business)
- Automate classification and labeling
- Data loss prevention
- Document retention policies, disposition review, and event-based retention
- eDiscovery and legal holds
- It is advisable NOT to modify permissions on the SharePoint site and document libraries directly. Doing so may hamper the normal functionality of MS Team (e.g. file sharing in conversation).
- The file sync feature of OneDrive for Business should be blocked. Let the file operations take place from MS Teams.
Summary
The MS Teams has aligned all modes of communication together without switching between the applications. MS Teams support deep integration with SharePoint. We explored the advantages of storing MS Teams documents in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business. Although there are numerous advantages, as a SharePoint administrator you should set the controls for better governance.