In addition to Remote Servers that administrators control, users sometimes keep their working files in systems you do not administer, like a project manager's own Google Drive or Dropbox account. To create a Remote Server connection for those systems, you would have to get credentials from each relevant user and manually configure each connection. That approach does not scale past a handful of people.

An Integration-Centric Profile makes the remote account's owner responsible for the connection to your site. You create profiles to list exactly which types of systems to connect, and then assign the profile to users or groups. When a user with an Integration-Centric Profile logs in to the web interface, your site walks them through connecting their own accounts under their own credentials. You never collect or handle those credentials.

Each user sees a single file listing that combines the folders they can access on your site with every system they have connected. Nobody moves between applications to find a file.

Migration off a legacy content platform is a common reason to reach for this. While files are still moving into Files.com, users keep working in both places instead of waiting for the transfer to finish.

Use this approach when the connection belongs to a person rather than to your company. When the connection belongs to your company, use a Remote Server owned by an administrator instead. Both approaches can work together in the same site.

What a Profile Contains

Each Integration-Centric Profile has a profile name, a list of expected connections, and an option to apply the profile for all users in the site or Workspace.

Each expected connection includes a type of Remote Server to connect and an optional name for the connection. The connection name becomes a top-level folder in the user's file listing, which is how they reach its contents. Users can change this name.

Site Administrators manage profiles for the whole site. Workspace Administrators manage profiles for their own Workspace, and the profiles they can assign are limited to that Workspace.

Assigning a Profile

You can assign an Integration-Centric Profile directly to an individual user or attach it to a Group so every member receives it. You can also apply it to everyone through the Use for All Users setting. When the Integration-Centric Profile is created in a Workspace, the Use for All Users setting applies only to users in the same Workspace.

Assign Integration-Centric Profiles to groups for the most efficient setup. Group-level assignment hooks into the provisioning you already run. If your identity provider creates users through SSO, JIT, or SCIM and drops them into groups, attaching a profile to the right group puts every current and future member into the integration-centric experience with no per-user work.

Assigning a profile sets a user's File System Layout to Integration-Centric.

What Integration-Centric Users See When They Log In

When a user assigned an Integration-Centric Profile logs in to the web interface, your site checks whether the user has set up all of the connections expected for their profile. If any connections are missing, the user sees a list of Remote Server connections to configure and authenticate. Where a connection type uses OAuth, the user authorizes it through that provider's own sign-in rather than entering a credential. Once every expected connection is complete, the user can access their files.

Users can skip the setup process and access your site's files even if they have not finished it. They see the same prompts each time they log in until they set up all the expected connections.

The user's root contains a Files.com folder, plus one top-level folder for each system they have connected, named for the connection. Files.com holds the site root, or the Workspace root for users in a Workspace. Folder permissions govern what they see inside it, exactly as they do for every other user.

A project manager granted permission to Projects/Northgate Redevelopment, who has connected a Box account and named the connection My Box, sees this:

Files.com/
  Projects/
    Northgate Redevelopment/
My Box/

The user sees the same folder structure no matter which client they use to connect to your site.

What Integration-Centric Users Can Do

Users move and copy files in both directions between their Files.com folders and the systems they have connected. Each direction needs write access to the destination. On the Files.com side that is folder permissions. On the connected system it is whatever their own account allows.

An Integration-Centric Profile lets a user manage their own Remote Server connections, and only their own. They can change their connections' settings, reset authentication for OAuth servers, remove their servers, and add new Remote Server entries of the approved types. An Integration-Centric Profile does not let users create Mounts, Syncs, or Automations for those connections, or view the logs for them.

Connections that use OAuth need re-authorizing when their credentials expire, and only the user who owns the account can do it. Files.com prompts them to re-authenticate.

Removing a Profile

Unassigning a profile from a user or group does not automatically update their file system layout. The user keeps the Integration-Centric layout, and the Remote Servers they created stay connected and stay theirs. You must set the user's file system layout setting yourself if you want the user out of the integration-centric experience. Plan for that cleanup when you're using the integration-centric approach to cover a migration.

The connections are ordinary Remote Servers owned by that user, so they follow the usual ownership rules. Deleting the user manually gives you the choice to reassign or orphan them. Deleting the user automatically through a lifecycle rule or identity-provider de-provisioning leaves them orphaned and still running. If a departing user's connection was carrying real work, decide where it goes before the account disappears.

Integration-Centric Profiles vs. Administrator-Managed Remote Servers

Both approaches end with an external system reachable from Files.com. The difference is whose account is behind it.

An administrator-managed Remote Server is one connection built once with organizational credentials. That is the right choice for a system the organization owns. Most cloud storage works this way. Accounts with providers like Amazon S3, Azure, and Google Cloud Storage are bought and held by the company. One connection serves everyone, and it survives any individual leaving.

An Integration-Centric Profile connects accounts held by individuals to your site. That is the right choice when the access is genuinely individual, either because each person reaches different content or because the credentials are theirs and should stay that way. Content collaboration platforms land here most often, since a person's Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive is their own. This is a common situation right after a merger or acquisition.

The two types of Remote Servers can be used together. Inside their Files.com folder a user might reach a mounted S3 bucket and a corporate SharePoint site, with their own Google Drive sitting next to it at the top level. Administrators can configure Syncs, Mounts, and Automations that interact with user-owned Remote Servers.