What is the primary use case for ShArc?
ShArc is designed to reduce SharePoint Online storage costs by offloading infrequently used or large files to Azure Blob Storage. These files remain visible and accessible in SharePoint and can be restored on a file level by end users when needed, while no longer consuming expensive SharePoint storage. This allows organizations to significantly lower ongoing storage costs without impacting user workflows.
Can end users still access files after they have been offloaded?
Yes. Offloaded files remain visible in SharePoint and can be restored by end users using the one-click retrieval feature. From a user perspective, the file behaves like a normal SharePoint file and can be accessed without additional tools or training.
Who is allowed to offload or restore data?
Offloading and bulk restore operations can only be performed by authorized administrators through the ShArc administration interface. End users cannot offload data themselves but are able to restore individual files they have access to directly from SharePoint using one-click retrieval.
Can offload operations be restricted to specific sites or libraries?
Yes. ShArc supports granular targeting by allowing administrators to apply offload operations and policies to specific SharePoint sites or individual document libraries rather than the entire tenant. This allows organizations to control both who can restore files and at which scope data is archived or restored.
What happens to metadata, permissions, and folder structures?
All SharePoint metadata, permissions, and folder structures are preserved when files are offloaded. ShArc uses the existing SharePoint permission model, so access rights remain unchanged. Folder moves or structural changes in SharePoint are synchronized accordingly.
Does ShArc support file format X?
Technically, ShArc should support all file formats that are supported by SharePoint, but for some formats SharePoint implements additional features such as metadata extraction, which might interfere with the ShArc offloading mechanism. For a list of formats that have explicitly been confirmed to be working, please refer to File Types.
Are there any file types that are not supported?
Currently, OneNote files are not supported for offloading. All other common file types, including Office documents, images, videos, PDFs, and CAD files, are supported. Unsupported files are skipped automatically during the offload process.
How does ShArc handle file versions?
During offloading, ShArc removes all previous file versions and stores only the latest version in Azure Blob Storage. This behavior significantly reduces storage consumption, as SharePoint can store up to hundreds of versions per file. Version retention options are planned for future releases.
The configuration blob contains a plain text access token. Isn’t that a security threat?
The contents of all Azure blobs are encrypted at-rest through 256-bit AES encryption and in-transit through TLS/HTTPS. If blob content is accessed, it will be decrypted and displayed in plain text. Only users who are permitted to read the blob will see it. End users should not be permitted to access the configuration blob and ShArc does not require users to have any permissions on any of the blobs.
How much cost savings can be expected with ShArc?
In most environments, 60 to 80 percent of SharePoint data qualifies as cold data. Customers typically achieve average storage cost reductions of around 60 percent, with higher savings possible depending on data volume, growth rate, and the configured minimum file age and minimum file size used for offloading.
Is ShArc a SaaS solution or is it deployed in the customer tenant?
ShArc is deployed entirely within the customer’s Azure and Microsoft 365 tenant. All data processing happens inside the tenant and the customer retains full ownership and control over the infrastructure and storage. ShArc is not a multi-tenant SaaS that hosts customer data externally.
Does Layer2 have access to customer data stored by ShArc?
No. Layer2 does not have access to customer files or content. All data remains within the customer’s tenant and Azure subscription. Only limited telemetry information, such as offload and restore statistics, is collected for operational and product improvement purposes.
Is there a limit to how much data ShArc can offload?
There is no hard limit on the amount of data that can be offloaded with ShArc. Offloading large volumes of data is supported and primarily limited by SharePoint and Azure throughput, meaning larger datasets may require more time to complete.
Can offload operations be restricted to specific sites or libraries?
Yes. ShArc supports granular targeting by allowing administrators to apply offload operations and policies to specific SharePoint sites or individual document libraries rather than the entire tenant.
Can offloaded files still be found via search or used by Copilot?
Metadata such as file name, properties, and custom columns remain searchable in SharePoint. However, the file content itself is not indexed while the file is stored in Azure Blob Storage, meaning full-text search and Copilot content analysis are currently limited to metadata only. Further options in this area are being evaluated for future releases.
January 2026