Should an engineering or architecture practice keep project files in SharePoint or on a server?

The short answer: for most engineering and architecture practices of five to 50 people, SharePoint in Microsoft 365 works well for live project files, with a local server kept only where file sizes, broadband or design software make it necessary. Microsoft 365 business plans include 1 TB of SharePoint storage for the organisation plus 10 GB per licence, accept single files up to 250 GB, and Microsoft recommends syncing no more than 300,000 files in one library. A 15-person practice therefore starts with about 1.15 TB of shared storage before buying more.

This guide is for principals, partners and practice managers across Meath, Cavan, Westmeath, Louth and Dublin who are weighing up an ageing file server against a move to the cloud.

What changes when drawing and model files move to SharePoint?

Instead of a mapped drive in the office, staff open project folders through the OneDrive sync app, Teams or a browser, from the office, home or a site cabin. Sharing a folder with a client, consultant or contractor also gets easier than emailing large attachments.

Microsoft’s SharePoint limits page sets out a few practical limits worth knowing before you move anything:

• Storage is 1 TB for the organisation plus 10 GB per licence, and more can be bought. If you stay over the limit, SharePoint can switch to read-only.
• A full file path, including every folder name and the file name, can’t exceed 400 characters. Deep project folder structures can hit this during a migration.
• Syncing 300,000 or more items across the libraries a person syncs can slow the sync app down. Large project archives are the usual cause.
• Once a library or folder holds more than 100,000 items, you can no longer give it its own separate permissions.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint let several people edit one file at once. Many drawing and model formats don’t. Microsoft’s sync troubleshooting guidance explains that when two people edit the same non-Office file, OneDrive can keep both versions and add the device name to one of them. So agree who is working on which file, and lean on version history when something goes wrong.

When does a server or hybrid setup still make sense?

A local server, or a server alongside Microsoft 365, is often the better fit when:

• Individual files are very large and the office broadband is slow, so every save turns into a long upload.
• Your design software vendor recommends working from a local or network drive rather than a cloud-synced folder.
• Drawings reference other files by their location, and each person’s synced folder sits in a different place on their own computer.
• You hold years of closed project archives that rarely change but take up a lot of space.

A hybrid setup is common. Active projects, and anything shared outside the practice, live in SharePoint, while the heaviest working files or the archive sit on a server in the office. The trade-off is that a server needs patching, monitoring, secure remote access for people at home or on site, a hardware replacement plan and its own backup. Cost that honestly against the price of extra cloud storage.

The office network matters either way. Good broadband helps with SharePoint, and solid wired networking and Wi-Fi helps with large files on a local drive.

What does backup look like in each setup?

Backup needs depend on where your data lives, so the answer changes with the setup you choose. A separate Microsoft 365 backup lets you recover an earlier copy if files are deleted, overwritten or encrypted and the recycle bin or version history can’t help.

A Microsoft 365 backup covers email, OneDrive and SharePoint. It doesn’t automatically cover files on a local server or workstations, your practice management, accounts or other line-of-business software, or every other cloud platform you use. Each of those needs device or server backup, or the supplier’s own backup, checked one by one.

The National Cyber Security Centre’s guidance for SMEs recommends keeping backups separate from the original data, backing up as often as your data changes, and testing backups regularly. Project files can change daily during a live job, so a weekly backup can leave a lot of work exposed.

Where project files include personal data, such as client contact details, the Data Protection Commission’s data security guidance notes that GDPR expects appropriate measures, including the ability to restore access to personal data in a timely manner after an incident. Your own advisers can confirm what applies to your practice.

How should a practice decide?

Five questions usually settle it:

1. How big are your largest working files, and how long do they take to open from home today?
2. What does your design software vendor say about cloud-synced folders?
3. How much data do you hold, and how much of it is closed archive?
4. How often do you share folders with clients, consultants and contractors?
5. When is your current server due for replacement, and what would a like-for-like replacement cost?

Moderate file sizes, frequent external sharing and an ageing server usually point to SharePoint. Very large files, lots of linked references and slow broadband usually point to a hybrid setup.

How Sweeney Computer Services can help

Oliver Sweeney founded the company in 1985, and today we support more than 50 businesses and more than 10 schools from Hurdlestown, Co. Meath. For engineering and architecture practices, that includes migrating files and email into Microsoft 365, building SharePoint sites with permissions for different levels of staff, and supplying, installing and backing up servers where a local copy still makes sense. Firewalls, secure remote access and network cabling are handled in-house. Read more about how we work with engineers and architects.

Silver, from €45 per user per month excl. VAT, covers remote support, monitoring, patching, antivirus, endpoint detection and response, ransomware protection and Microsoft 365 backup of email, OneDrive and SharePoint. Gold, from €70 per user per month excl. VAT, adds email security, full Microsoft 365 administration and support, unlimited on-site call-outs and 24/7 security monitoring through a partner security operations centre. You can mix Gold and Silver in one practice. Microsoft 365 licences are billed separately.

Our helpdesk runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with after-hours emergency support at extra cost. We restore-test backups every two weeks and can share the records on request. Device and server backup is scoped in your proposal.