Bentley and Microsoft seems to be moving more and more functionality to the cloud. Most large projects would have something like MS Sharepoint to provide transaction services for MS Office formats, and increasingly pdf's as well. Having everything on the cloud makes availability of the info for editing much higher, more reliable and more able to cater to today's 24/7, multi-device (phone, tablet, desktop, mainframe), google map-style consumption everywhere working demands, thereby transparently increasing productivity.
This was/is something that ProjectWise Delta Transfers has been providing for decades... where CAD files are concerned. The same Azure platform used to host Sharepoint and PW could be used to host users that do not have a full-blown PW install. PW's Local Document Organiser would be part of the base install of Mstn CE; and the DgnPreviewer that currently mods the Windows Explorer would display a bit more dgn-related info like 'model description' etc info when in 'Details' view.
This would make working remotely and in distributed fashion more integral to the Mstn experience; and a more compelling reason for students and new users to make the switch.
Students: seem to be using Rhino or Sketchup for the most part. These apps run into scalability / interop restrictions very quickly. Mstn's Ref attachment tools and wide range of readable file formats have long been a differentiator. The burgeoning google-map / cesium world will make access to 'big data' much more mainstream to student projects. Group-based projects will also be more prevalent, as tutors realise the need for students to collaborate in order to assemble and assimilate more and more information to ground and legitimise students designs. All of this points to the need to go beyond the 'private' folder and mainstream more 'open' cloud-based working practices.
New users: Bentley seems to be fighting a losing battle here, especially where small-medium offices are concerned. Having something 'unique' like built-in cloud-based working would be very attractive... even to small firms who would be able to work more globally. Even the ability to work 'from home' without having to pay and maintain additional software would be a big deal.
And when there are readily available graduates able to git the ground running?