{"id":8211,"date":"2022-06-29T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T16:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=8211"},"modified":"2025-09-03T12:06:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:06:01","slug":"how-microsoft-employees-are-leveraging-the-cloud-for-file-storage-with-onedrive-folder-backup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/how-microsoft-employees-are-leveraging-the-cloud-for-file-storage-with-onedrive-folder-backup\/","title":{"rendered":"How Microsoft employees are leveraging the cloud for file storage with OneDrive Folder Backup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MicrosoftWe periodically update our stories, but we can’t verify that they represent the full picture of our current situation at Microsoft. We leave them on the site so you can see what our thinking and experience was at the time.<\/em><\/p>\n

Any device, no matter the operating system, is susceptible to a ransomware attack or a device crash.<\/p>\n

Microsoft OneDrive Folder Backup (known as Known Folder Move) is a policy deployed by Microsoft that automatically syncs the contents of a user\u2019s critical folders\u2014Documents, Desktop, and Pictures\u2014to the cloud to protect it in the event of device crashes and ransomware attacks. Files are safe in the cloud, easy to share and collaborate on, and are accessible across different devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of this project was to empower every OneDrive user in Microsoft to protect their critical files and sync their “known” folders to the cloud\u2014this gives them seamless access from any of their devices from anywhere without changing the way they work,\u201d says Priya Chebiyam, a senior product manager who leads Microsoft\u2019s internal use of OneDrive for the Microsoft Digital team\u2014the organization that powers, protects, and transforms the company.<\/p>\n

Putting data security first<\/h2>\n
\"Carini
Priya Chebiyam (left) and Gaia Carini were instrumental in piloting, testing, and deploying OneDrive Folder Backup (Known Folder Move) across Microsoft. Chebiyam is a senior product manager for Microsoft Digital and Carini is a principal group product manager for the OneDrive product group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Known Folder Move project was piloted at the end of 2019, starting with a small group of employees.<\/p>\n

A significant step in the pilot was to decide on the deployment approach\u2014would it be silent or prompt-based? With a silent approach, the policy would be automatically initiated for users who would then be notified when their backup was complete. With a prompt-based system, users would be notified at the start of the process and choose whether to opt in or opt out.<\/p>\n

While a silent approach is widespread across the industry, Microsoft opted at first to give employees a choice during the program pilot. As the team rolled out the pilot program, a surge in cyberattacks altered the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found during the pilot program that opt-in security measures raise levels of vulnerability,\u201d says Chebiyam. \u201cAdoption of security measures was slow in the opt-in pilot. There was also an increased risk of low employee participation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPivoting to a silent deployment reduces risks,\u201d continues Chebiyam. \u201cSo, faced with rising levels of cyberattacks, the choice was clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Microsoft team swiftly countered rising cyberattacks by switching to silent deployment and rewrote the Microsoft\u2019s corporate security policy to require that all work documents and files reside in a corporate-approved storage system; OneDrive is that system.<\/p>\n

With this shift in tactics, the team has been progressively rolling out a new plan that emphasizes security and disaster recovery across the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity is ingrained in the fabric of our culture,\u201d says James Speller, a client deployment engineer on the project with Microsoft Digital. \u201cThe idea is to make data security as easy and non-disruptive as possible without compromising on safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning from the results of the Known Folder Move pilot, the company took a different path at LinkedIn from the start, choosing the silent deployment approach.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ideal to keep security measures as non-disruptive to employees as possible, and striking the right balance between security and efficiency has been at the top of our minds during this project.<\/p>\n

\u2014Priya Chebiyam, senior product manager<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAt LinkedIn, doing it that way was right for their culture and the way they run their business,\u201d Chebiyam says. \u201cWe focused on accelerating the adoption of security measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, the cross-company Known Folder Move team relied heavily on employee feedback to create a better solution and user experience. They took their time to get this rollout right, as this policy affects employee productivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to take a step back and consider how the rollout will affect productivity,\u201d says Chebiyam. \u201cIt\u2019s ideal to keep security measures as non-disruptive to employees as possible, and striking the right balance between security and efficiency has been at the top of our minds during this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team used Viva Engage (formerly known as Microsoft Yammer) and OneDrive in-app surveys to collect feedback that would be sent directly to the help desk. Feedback was communicated to the product team, continuously improving the product to provide a better user experience.<\/p>\n

After enough feedback was gathered and implemented, the rollout came to the entire Microsoft user base\u2014approximately 290,000 targeted employees and vendors. This user base was divided based on role and geography, and the team started rolling it out to about 5,000 users per batch.<\/p>\n

Because files are automatically synced to OneDrive, users don’t have to worry about what happens to their computer, giving them peace of mind that their files are safe.<\/p>\n

\u2014Gaia Carini, principal group product manager<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

New employees and vendors are given this feature by default.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rapid growth of KFM-enabled OneDrives will significantly help the admins with any data investigation issues efficiently, with a quicker turnaround during critical emergencies. As a tenant admin, this KFM capability helps me to apply improved security controls on our Corp content residing in user OneDrives across the company,\u201d says Abhishek Sharma, a senior service engineer with the team.<\/p>\n

Change management<\/h2>\n

To get employees on board with using the cloud, messaging focused on the benefits of using OneDrive. These benefits include the amount of storage provided (all OneDrive accounts in Microsoft come with 5 TB of free cloud storage), the ability to access files if your computer is lost, broken, or in a refresh cycle, more secure sharing, easier access, improved collaboration, and real-time versioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause files are automatically synced to OneDrive, users don’t have to worry about what happens to their computer, giving them peace of mind that their files are safe\u201d says Gaia Carini, a principal group product manager on the experience and devices team. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to worry about where your data is or where your content lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Eva Etchells, a senior content publishing manager on the Microsoft Digital team, worked on messaging internally to employees, our OneDrive product marketing team shaped the narrative around OneDrive Folder Backup outside of Microsoft, communicating the benefits to external stakeholders.<\/p>\n

The narrative formed around figuring out how to automatically backup all users\u2019 content without disrupting the way they work. Like Etchells\u2019s messaging, the OneDrive product team focused on device crashes, stolen PCs, ransomware attacks, and so on to drive change management and adoption of the product.<\/p>\n

Out of sight, out of mind<\/h2>\n

With OneDrive Folder Backup, users don\u2019t have to think about the safety and security of their documents or worry about it affecting their productivity. It\u2019s invisible, seamless, and always in sync. Millions of files and hundreds of terabytes of data have been uploaded to OneDrive, and it continues to grow each month.<\/p>\n

\u201cOneDrive has provided a valuable benefit to me for a long time,\u201d says Susan Sims, a fan of the service who works in Microsoft Digital as a team Senior Program Manager.<\/p>\n

Sims managed global file services years ago that hosted shared content. According to Sims, there was an attack on those file servers nearly monthly, attacks that led to manual lockdowns to make sure the company didn\u2019t lose business-critical content. Microsoft OneDrive Folder Backup has eliminated the risk and concern around losing content from device crashes as well as attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cOneDrive is crucial for recovery from ransomware attacks,\u201d says Vivek Vinod Sharma, a Senior Security Architect who served as the security point of contact for the project for the Microsoft Digital Security and Resilience team. \u201cAs a best practice for fast-tracking people to get back to a productive state if affected by an attack, we want more business data to reside in OneDrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving forward, the team aims to enable OneDrive Folder Backup through silent deployment for all Windows users.<\/p>\n

\u201cOneDrive Folder Backup brings the power of the cloud to the desktop on Windows and macOS,\u201d Carini says. \u201c<\/strong>It\u2019s a critical part of the strategy and important for customers to enable in their organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Key<\/figure>\n