Google Drive File Stream for students

[Sheridan]

We're a GSuite school, with accounts synched from AD with GDCS (not passwords) and I'm looking to the possibility of using File Stream for all users to access their Drive through Explorer.

 

Has anyone done this? It works fine for single user systems, but presumably their would be a login element to this.

 

I'd be interested in anyone's experiences if they have gone down this route.

[azc]

Biggest roadblock to deploying GDFS is the need to log in again. Until they introduce seamless signon then it's not something we can push out to students.

[jthompson]

Sign-on issue aside, I'd be wary of how well it would work with students when they're not necessarily using any particular machine regularly. If they save something and log off quickly, for instance, or save something during a connectivity dropout, their file may never make it up to Google Drive from the local cache on that machine. At least with staff machines, the user profile will be sticking around and GDFS will get another chance during a later session to sync the local cache with the cloud. It would be a particular problem if the file(s) in question were large and needed plenty of time to sync.

[Primus]

We let students use it - our photography students use it exclusively for storing all of their many many huge images and we've had zero problems.

[Sheridan]

We let students use it - our photography students use it exclusively for storing all of their many many huge images and we've had zero problems.

 

Do they sign in after logging in to the computer? And you don't have any issues with that in normal usage? My concerns are like those above, signing in and the synching speed. In the it suites we'll see multiple logins during the day.

[Primus]

Yes they do but it remembers them using their local profile - they tend to sit in the same seats each lesson.

 

No issues whatsoever.

[Primus]

I should point out we have a 1Gb symmetric connection but to be honest we don't ever hammer it so I don't think you'd have much of an issue on a slower connection. We have 1100 students, 160 staff and about 400 desktop PCs and 300 Chromebooks.

[Sheridan]

Yes they do but it remembers them using their local profile - they tend to sit in the same seats each lesson.

 

No issues whatsoever.

 

Ah that might be a factor, as ours tend to move around a bit more! We have a 300Mbps connection so I don't think that would be an issue. We only delete profiles that are inactive for 6-7 weeks (i.e a full term) so the profile retention seems to be the biggest need

[Primus]

Try it and see - I don't think you'll see the issues you expect to be honest.