Have any Schools moved their file storage to G Suite entirely?

[fiza]

We are running out of space on local storage. Currently have 9TB on the File Server and currently only 900GB is available for use. No matter what we say or do no one will do any housekeeping to remove stuff that is no longer required, just in case they do need it.

We have talked about moving data onto G Suite into Team Drives to emulate the structure of our File Server but want to know if anyone has actually done this and how did you do it? Any caveats? Any Gotchas?

[hardtailstar]

We are moving that way for September.

 

The only thing is teaching the teachers make take some time!

[fiza]

We are moving that way for September.

 

The only thing is teaching the teachers make take some time!

 

Would appreciate some insight on what you have done so far. What your set up is going to be from Sept onwards. Are you making local Files read-only? Are you moving them to G Suite and then removing the File Server?

[hardtailstar]

Would appreciate some insight on what you have done so far. What your set up is going to be from Sept onwards. Are you making local Files read-only? Are you moving them to G Suite and then removing the File Server?

So far we are in a hybrid of G Suite and File server.

 

We told everyone to move files across and slowly getting departments to use Team Drives.

 

As for the file server I'm not sure what is happening, the main move is getting people to use it and be happy with it before anything is done.

[bossman]

We went with the Team drives first to get the staff used to the Google drive and offered help moving stuff around for them and converting files....as from September we are taking away Microsoft office for the teaching staff so only the admin team have office on their computers for Sims and FMS this will encourage them to move all of their remaining stored files in their work area to Google drive either in their My Drive or one of the Team drives that they have access to....

 

Its a very slow process for staff as they don't seem as flexible to learn even though the feedback since moving to G-Suite has been mainly positive...just a few Luddites who want to hang on to Microsoft office apps...

 

The Teaching staff love the Google classroom and this has been a key area where we have focused which seems to have had a very positive effect across the board...

 

Even the admin staff have been positive in using Google docs and sheets for their workloads and as they have access to it from anywhere on any device with a browser it just makes sense to them...

 

Eventually we would like to move to a different MIS and Finance package but the HT is reluctant to move to a web based one as he says it would be too much trouble to retrain the staff....(I find that a poor excuse in the grand scheme of things...)

 

We have also researched web apps to replace the legacy ones we have locally installed and there are many out there (some at a cost) which would make our move to a totally server-less system using just Chromebooks...

 

Its a slow process but we will eventually get there....its a human issue not a technical one!

[jthompson]

If you haven't already, start getting people using File Stream. Also, make sure you know your sharing settings in the G Suite admin console inside and out.

 

You might need/want to retain some local storage capability for things which can't live on Google Drive for technical reasons. Portable apps spring to mind, should you have any of those available from network shares. Not sure what else, but certain filetypes might not be practical without using File Stream. PhotoShop files, things like that.

 

We're looking at moving fileshares to Google Drive as well, but I'm not keen on the idea of just lumping the existing Windows shares online as is. There are limitations on the number of files that a Shared Drive can contain, as well as a limit on the depth of folder structures. Our main staff fileshare could easily exceed these (https://support.google.com/a/answer/7338880?hl=en). We're currently just letting departments build things up for themselves from scratch on Google Drive, so that one big share to rule them all gets superseded by a myriad small and more focused Shared Drives and Google Classrooms. However, if you're wanting to be rid of local shares asap, you might just have to lump it online as is (or broken into a few different Shared Drives to stay within the usage limits).

[bald_pig]

We moved our schools to Drive with little issue, we transferred everything over during easter, removed the network shares and permissions and added everyone to the Team drives, and use File Stream for access. We haven't come across any issues other than the odd file stream update that didn't relaunch file stream on some machines.

[TwistedHelixis]

I moved all my primary schools over to G Suite between 1 and 5 years ago.

 

I started with a folder with photos & videos, just something to get them used to it, but eventually moved everything from the file server except the pupils folders over to Team Drives. We took the opportunity to create a few extra Team Drives out of the one big Staff drive.

 

File Stream was a god send

[RLR]

We've moved almost everything over to Google Drive now. We got staff to move their department resources into Team/Shared drives. We've have now removed their H drives so they use Google for everything. Google Drive File Stream is a must to keep people happy. It's really good as it make Google Drive appear as a network location. You can open/edit Microsoft Office Documents straight from File Explorer.

 

Defiantly make sure you get sharing permissions ready and make sure you delegate Manager access to the Team/Shared drive areas and that the managers know what they're meant to be doing. This isn't something we've communicated too well and IT are having to make a lot of access changes. We want the managers to be doing this.

[fiza]

How do you deal with times when you are asked to get a file from a users home drive? With local storage we can easily do it but with Google only the user has access to their own Google drive.

 

Do you guys keep all audio and video files that are required for moderation on Google Drive too?

[RLR]

How do you deal with times when you are asked to get a file from a users home drive? With local storage we can easily do it but with Google only the user has access to their own Google drive.

 

Do you guys keep all audio and video files that are required for moderation on Google Drive too?

We don't get too many requests for access to files in My Drive. Most teachers will share it with them so this shouldn't be a problem unless the teacher is off ill. Again, most of these files should be in a team drive if multiple people need access to them. On the rare occasions that we do need to change permissions, I use GAM.

 

We usually create specific Team Drives for moderation files.

[CHSGM]

How are people tacking them saving locally to Documents, Pictures, Videos, Etc? I'm looking to go the same way with removing Home Drives and network shares, but I want to prevent end users from using local folders, with the exception of the downloads. Desktops are already re-directed.

[keyboards]

My previous school done it as I was leaving and it was going fine, would love to do it here but two big issues

 

Need staff playing ball and not stuck in the 2004 era of IT of Windows just being office, IT and Outlook so being obstructive or unwilling to use newer technologies

Need higher level backing

There's too many folders with mad permissions for differents bits, all a bit silly

[RLR]

How are people tacking them saving locally to Documents, Pictures, Videos, Etc? I'm looking to go the same way with removing Home Drives and network shares, but I want to prevent end users from using local folders, with the exception of the downloads. Desktops are already re-directed.

 

We let them use them if they really want but are told it's only local to that machine and not backed up. They are meant to use Google Drive File Stream.

[mrstrong]

Just wondering if any of you who moved to G suite considered the Microsoft/onedrive alternative

and if so why did you go with google ?

[colly72]

What's everyone doing about backing up stuff on Google Drive? Do you rely on Vault, or does anyone use 3rd party software? Interested to see what people's attitudes to risk are around having all eggs in one basket with cloud storage.

[TIOAOA]

This is something I'm looking to complete over the summer, we currently use GDrive for all our pictures and videos. WHat I could do with is a reliable tool to copy over all the staff drivesinitally

[TwistedHelixis]

Just wondering if any of you who moved to G suite considered the Microsoft/onedrive alternative

and if so why did you go with google ?

 

At all my schools I setup both G Suite & Office 365, I then let some key staff use both. So far 100% have requested G Suite but these are all primary schools.

 

Most of the schools I know that are using Office 365 were never given an option by the LA

[TwistedHelixis]

What's everyone doing about backing up stuff on Google Drive? Do you rely on Vault, or does anyone use 3rd party software? Interested to see what people's attitudes to risk are around having all eggs in one basket with cloud storage.

 

We use spanning backup but will be taking a look at cubebackup.

 

Spanning backup backs up all emails, docs, team drives, calendars, sites to another cloud based host, it is a full feature reliable backup system, you can even export a google doc as a word doc if needed, but it is not cheap.

 

Cubebackup is more of a manual backup, you can backup to onsite system or cloud and is very cheap

[TwistedHelixis]

This is something I'm looking to complete over the summer, we currently use GDrive for all our pictures and videos. WHat I could do with is a reliable tool to copy over all the staff drivesinitally

 

install Google backup and sync, imidiatly disable the sync section, then point the backup bit at your staff drive folder. Then when its uploaded to G Suite you can drag n drop the staff drive to a Team Drive :0)

[Zoom7000]

We moved all of our data at both my schools in May 2017 and August 2017. I had initially began discussions and training with the staff on G Suite and moving all of our data. The plan was to migrate all data to G Suite for both schools in Summer 2017. However, the main DC at one of my sites was destroyed in a flood, so I migrated all of that data for that school in to G Suite. I created Team Drives and put all the the old shared documents in to a main school Team Drive. I restored home folders to a temporary location and ask all staff to migrate their own data, whilst giving them a cut off date, informing them that and on-premise data will be deleted after this date. (I didn't actually delete anything, I just copied it all on to an external hard drive).

 

With the other school, I went on as planned. Gave staff a cut off date to clean all the files they didn't need in home folders and shared areas and then asked them to migrate everything over themselves. I then formatted the old CC4 server and rebuilt a vanilla server from scratch with no shared areas and a very heavily limited 1GB working area home folder, keeping staff informed that home areas were no longer backed up and that they would have to use G Suite.

 

I purposely disabled the use of Drive File Stream to ensure that staff had the opportunity to learn how to use G Suite natively through the Chrome browser ensuring that they got the most authentic experience ready for when we move to a full Chromebook/G Suite environment sometime in the future.

 

The purpose of the 1GB working area home folder was to ensure that staff could download and open files that didn't open natively in G Suite (e.g. ActivInspire files etc) which we have now moved away from completely.

 

We also moved away from SIMS to Bromcom in 2018, ensuring that we were completely "serverless" with our data. The future plans are to wean users off Microsoft Office applications and fully in to using G Suite. Primarily to save on expensive OVS licensing costs.

[fiza]

@Zoom7000 is that at Primary or Secondary schools?

[Zoom7000]

@Zoom7000 is that at Primary or Secondary schools?

 

Primary.

[kingoranks]

@Zoom7000 Can I get more info pls. We are part GSuite and Microsoft but moving everyone (staff and student) in Sept. I need info on backup, training of staff,printing, Loan chromebook system,legacy server use or recycle?

[Zoom7000]

@Zoom7000 Can I get more info pls. We are part GSuite and Microsoft but moving everyone (staff and student) in Sept. I need info on backup, training of staff,printing, Loan chromebook system,legacy server use or recycle?

 

Okay, this is a very whistle stop recollection, but feel free to get in touch if you want to know things in more detail:

 

First things first, we still have a DC on site. We have an ICT Suite with PCs and PCs in every office and classroom, which need to be managed and centrally controlled. What I did was format the CC4 server and install a fresh copy of Windows Server 2016. I then created 2 more Server 2016 VMs using Hyper-V, 1 to be DC and 1 to be the SIMS server (which we have since decommissioned). Created all GPOs and AD structure from scratch, provisioned all users in to AD. I created quota limits and file restriction policies for all users:

 

- 1GB hard limit

- Block audio and video files, executable files, compressed files, temporary files and anything else that would unnecessarily fill up the space.

 

No user has any profiles. Every user has a newly created profile on a PC when they log in. Most users only use their office PCs or the PCs in the staff room or PPA room. The initial login when they first log on to a device takes a couple of minutes, but it's near instantaneous thereafter. Start Menu is set by GPO XML file, Home Folders and everything else is set up by GPO/Folder Redirection.

 

I am looking in to a replacement printing solution, it doesn't appear that a true SaaS solution exists as yet, so for the time being, I'll probably create a new VM to act as a print server/door access control database server etc. Unfortunately, the technology isn't moving fast enough for us to go "full" serverless.

 

With regards to backup, I do very little in terms of backups these days. I do occasionally take a manual copy of my VMs and throw them on to Google Drive, but in the event of a disaster, it wouldn't be too difficult to rebuild the domain from scratch! I don't backup Google Drive in any way other than built in Vault, but I am looking at CubeBackup as a potential option as it's surprisingly cheaper than I expected.

 

As for staff training. I led a LOT of sessions with various staff groups across the Trust. Be sure to NOT forget the admin teams as you'll find they are amongst the heaviest users and usually the ones that need the most support. But basically, I introduced them to G Suite, gave them a list of reasons as to why we were changing the way we do things, talked about some of the benefits of G Suite and then demonstrated how to migrate files from Windows to Google Drive.

 

I took the decision NOT to install Drive File Stream. Firstly, when we migrated, it wasn't yet available. Secondly, I'm still not convinced that if a PC was to get infected with ransomware, would it not encrypt every Google Drive file?(!) Thirdly, I wanted to prepare our users for a native ChromeOS working environment, as opposed to reliance on the past way of doing things (using Windows Shares and using Microsoft Word instead of Google Docs).