Moving to cloud based storage

[grahammm]

Hi,

 

I'm emailing from a large (~500 pupil) primary school and we're looking to move to a cloud based file storage system.

 

Currently we have a curriculum server which we login to via active directory and have an R drive which is staff resources. This is filling up and staff want to access it at home so I've looked at google apps (and google drive as part of that). All looks good etc however....

 

...with many files (SMART Notebook files) staff would need to login to drive, download the file, make changes and then upload - what a mission!

 

I've thought about installing drive on the server and set the folder for the main folder we use however this doesn't sort the "server is full" issue.

 

Any views, should we upgrade hard drive in server and install drive onto the server?

 

See how teaching staff cope going through the download, save etc routine?

 

Any help much appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

Graham

[3s-gtech]

IMO, moving to cloud storage from local for a school is not a practical proposition. Have it as a mapped drive, accessible from home by all means - but you need dedicated onsite storage too. For sensitive and critical data, being able to physically put your hands on the box that contains it is very reassuring, especially when it comes to backups!

 

There are times when cloud based storage may be too slow, too inflexible or plain unreliable.

 

There are methods for accessing your resources drive at home without using third party cloud services; such as HAP+ and a VPN.

[localzuk]

One thing to note is that cloud based storage requires a good internet connection. I don't know about your school but here, we have some Notebook files that hit 300Mb in size. It'd be a nightmare if staff all randomly downloaded that via an internet connection, unless that connection was 1Gbps sort of speed so as to make the download segment of the process minimal.

[dhicks]

Currently we have a curriculum server which we login to via active directory and have an R drive which is staff resources. This is filling up and staff want to access it at home so I've looked at google apps (and google drive as part of that).

 

As others have pointed out, replacing local storage with cloud-based storage is probably going to affect your local file access speed quite considerably, so you're going to need at least a local cache of your Google Drive. This implies that the first thing you need to do, whether you wind up using cloud sotrage or not, is upgrade your local storage. Harddrive space is cheap these days, and if you're using cloud-backed storage then that can take care of your backup and disater recovery, so your local storage needs basically become a box with some harddrives shoved in it - £1,000 would probably get you what you need.