With Microsoft's aggressive strategy to build out its Software-as-a-Service capability to online storage—even as physical, hardware-based storage remains ubiquitous and competitive—some businesses may find it tempting to allow employees and workgroups to jump into Microsoft's SkyDrive for some limited purpose.

SkyDrive, Microsoft's Office Live storage arm, is a free, Web-based service that is loosely integrated with some Office applications and, because of how it's organized, outflanks its biggest rival, Google in online storage. The Test Center has taken a look at SkyDrive, formally launched last month after a short beta run, in the ever-expanding shadow of high-powered NAS, SAN and desktop storage solutions.

Microsoft says of SkyDrive, "Sharing with friends, co-workers or family is easy when you all add and update files in a shared folder." Sharing personal files with friends or family might make sense, but doing so with co-workers is questionable.

After extensive review, not only does the CRN Test Center not recommend SkyDrive, but it would also be advisable for VARs to suggest their clients block its access through content filters.

For now, as with any mass-market, file-sharing service, SkyDrive is something that's best left at home and kept out of the business. These are SkyDrive's components:

Security
For companies with compliance concerns—such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley or Payment Card Industry—it's difficult to see how SkyDrive could create anything other than a headache. While SkyDrive is SSL- and password-protected (although it allows simultaneous sign-ons with the same ID across multiple systems), it lacks other control features. Microsoft, Redmond, Wash., needs to make a stronger security statement with online applications like SkyDrive before even small businesses can warm up to it.

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