Google file stream

[DGardiner]

Found this yesterday, gamachanger for uploading things!

 

GoogleDriveFSSetup.exe --allow_server_install

 

 

 

[jmak]

Found this yesterday, gamachanger for uploading things!

 

GoogleDriveFSSetup.exe --allow_server_install

 

 

 

So is your aim to keep a local copy on the server and sync to GDrive to create a hybrid cloud environment or are you just planning to use this as a one of for migration?

[DGardiner]

So is your aim to keep a local copy on the server and sync to GDrive to create a hybrid cloud environment or are you just planning to use this as a one of for migration?

 

Just for throwing up shared drives really, possibly helping staff chuck up their home drives if theyre unusually large when required.

[CHSGM]

Would like to see if anybody has taken the leap and migrated their staff shares into team drives. Moving home drives into the cloud is also something on the list for myself.

[hardtailstar]

Would like to see if anybody has taken the leap and migrated their staff shares into team drives. Moving home drives into the cloud is also something on the list for myself.

 

We are currently doing that, Some departments have taken to it like a duck to water, others not so much.

[Zoom7000]

Would like to see if anybody has taken the leap and migrated their staff shares into team drives. Moving home drives into the cloud is also something on the list for myself.

 

I moved all of the home folder and shared area data at my MAT on to Google Drive in August 2017 and at another school also in August 2018. We have no data on-premise anymore at the MAT. We don't use Google Drive File Stream. Our users access all of their data through the Google Chrome browser.

[CHSGM]

I moved all of the home folder and shared area data at my MAT on to Google Drive in August 2017 and at another school also in August 2018. We have no data on-premise anymore at the MAT. We don't use Google Drive File Stream. Our users access all of their data through the Google Chrome browser.

How easy have they found the transition?

 

Also, if they are using browser only, how have the handled having to upload and download through the browser constantly? I feel like that would be a real burden to end users here going that route.

[fiza]

I moved all of the home folder and shared area data at my MAT on to Google Drive in August 2017 and at another school also in August 2018. We have no data on-premise anymore at the MAT. We don't use Google Drive File Stream. Our users access all of their data through the Google Chrome browser.

I would be interest in how you have structured your shared areas on Drive. Are you using Team Drives?

[jthompson]

Found this yesterday, gamachanger for uploading things!

 

GoogleDriveFSSetup.exe --allow_server_install

 

 

 

 

What does the server install feature do, exactly? The regular client installation just adds a new drive in Explorer, it doesn't sync an existing folder structure, so I'm not clear on what it would do differently. Does it provide access to all of a domain's Team Drives?

[DGardiner]

What does the server install feature do, exactly? The regular client installation just adds a new drive in Explorer, it doesn't sync an existing folder structure, so I'm not clear on what it would do differently. Does it provide access to all of a domain's Team Drives?

 

the installer cant be installed on a server OS usually, the argument lets it install.

 

handy for uploading shared drives to team drives

[Mike8080]

I moved all of the home folder and shared area data at my MAT on to Google Drive in August 2017 and at another school also in August 2018. We have no data on-premise anymore at the MAT. We don't use Google Drive File Stream. Our users access all of their data through the Google Chrome browser.

 

Impressive result, but do people have to manually download files to work with local applications and then upload again once done? Thanks.

[Zoom7000]

How easy have they found the transition?

 

Also, if they are using browser only, how have the handled having to upload and download through the browser constantly? I feel like that would be a real burden to end users here going that route.

 

The transition was obviously a challenge initially, much like any change. But I held several training sessions on how to migrate their home folders to My Drive and then shared documents to Team Drives. Once over this initial learning curve, pretty much everyone got used to it.

 

I've very heavily pushed Google Docs, Sheets and Slides as alternatives to Office apps, with a view to doing away with Office altogether to save on licensing costs. The vast majority of the staff are now seeing the value of working with Google Docs fully in the cloud as opposed to having to upload and download Office documents. So, the burden kinda became non existent. Even some of our biggest detractors have become fans of the ease of Google Docs.

 

I would be interest in how you have structured your shared areas on Drive. Are you using Team Drives?

 

Yeah, we're using Team Drives. I set up 1 single domain for our MAT with 2 Team Drives, 1 for each school. The SLT then put a folder structure in place and staff now store files in the designated folders.

 

Any staff who require private Team Drives (e.g. Safeguarding, Finance, SLT, HR etc) have their own Team Drives.

 

Impressive result, but do people have to manually download files to work with local applications and then upload again once done? Thanks.

 

Again, most of our productivity has transferred to the cloud. We stopped using ActivInspire once Promethean initially announced that they were discontinuing it. There were a few not so happy members of staff, but the decision was made to simply move over to Google Slides as it was the better way forward with a view to taking away our dependency on Windows PCs. I do have a vision to eventually be fully cloud based so that all of our teaching and learning productivity can happen on the cloud through a Chromebook, thus removing the curriculum need to tether to a server of any sort.

[peej2k]

I moved all of the home folder and shared area data at my MAT on to Google Drive in August 2017 and at another school also in August 2018. We have no data on-premise anymore at the MAT. We don't use Google Drive File Stream. Our users access all of their data through the Google Chrome browser.

 

I'm glad you've managed it. I still have our staff complain bitterly about having to use something that isn't Microsoft Publisher, let alone Word.

When I heard the complaint of "I don't like the way Google Docs creates tables" you start to wonder why digital competency isn't part of job interviews.

[Zoom7000]

I'm glad you've managed it. I still have our staff complain bitterly about having to use something that isn't Microsoft Publisher, let alone Word.

When I heard the complaint of "I don't like the way Google Docs creates tables" you start to wonder why digital competency isn't part of job interviews.

 

I had similar experiences, where some users would look for a small feature in Word and when they found they couldn't do that in Google Docs, they would try to make that their show stopper! Ultimately, the discussions about cutting costs and realisation that these issues weren't the greatest in the world, common sense prevailed.

 

You can't look at making cost savings and efficiencies if you aren't willing to change. Change is not easy, but if you don't embrace change, you will only suffer in the long run. The key is looking at platform change from an outcomes perspective. If you look at what you want to achieve, then it doesn't matter what platform you use. Just like it doesn't matter if you drive to work in an Aston Martin or a Ford Fiesta, the outcome is getting to work on time, not how you achieve it. Once I made leaders understand this, the change became a lot easier for them to embrace.

[mavhc]

if you required digital literacy you'd not be able to fill all the roles.

 

Did you find the conversion of MSOffice files to GSuite files good enough? Our millions of legacy files seems like it would be an issue. Plus the resources people download being in not GSuite formats.

 

Did you consider MS's Web Office?

[TwistedHelixis]

All my school were given / setup with both G Suite and Office 365 and all of them preferred G Suite. The other schools around me that are Office 365 were not given the choice but I have been asked by a couple recently to help them move over.

[mavhc]

The only advantage MS has is its compatibility with Office files between web and desktop

[Zoom7000]

The only advantage MS has is its compatibility with Office files between web and desktop

 

This is not strictly true. I did quite some extensive testing with Microsoft Word documents when I was initially looking at G Suite vs Office 365. I have several documents that I created in Word 2016, when I uploaded them and converted to Google Docs, the formatting messed up. However, I tested the same Word document in Word online and it too messed up the formatting. I tried with several other documents that had the same issue. It was then that I learnt that it wasn't a G Suite or Office 365 issue, but more of an issue with web technologies not being able to support the document created from the full featured desktop application.

 

Yes, there were some staff that had to re-format some documents here and there. Once again, it wasn't a showstopper and now the vast majority of our documents are created in Google Docs/Sheets/Slides.