You are using Google Drive File Stream and keeping your current Windows file server or NetApp file server for business applications such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and Adobe InDesign. If you look at the applications you kept on the file server, and these applications tend to work on big sizes, database files, and files with external links (XREFS). Are you thinking about how you can unify them into one solution?
The short answer is "it depends". If you are only using office document types such as word, excel, power points, google docs, google sheets and google slides, the answer is "YES"! The cloud is ready. However, suppose you are in the architecture, engineering, construction, and media production verticals. In that case, you still depend heavily on the application for your verticals to run smoothly on the traditional file servers. You are in a situation that you are using multiple data repositories for different purposes. Do you wish to consolidate them?
Google has two cloud storage service offerings, Google Drive and Google Cloud Storage. Let's do a quick review of Google Drive, its benefits, and its limitations before discussing how to use Google Cloud Storage to build a file server solution with better application compatibility.
Google Drive allows you to store, share, and access files on Google servers. These files range from documents, presentations, and spreadsheets to photos, audio, and videos. Data stored in Google Cloud is encrypted at the storage level. Google Drive can act as a backup solution for your files, allowing you to free up some of the storage on your computer. When you upload your files on Google Drive, you can access them from anywhere and any device. Offline access is also available. To view your files offline, you need to right-click on the file and turn on the "Available offline" option.
Google Drive File Stream is a desktop application for end-users to map a local drive to Google Team Drive. As Google explained, Google Team Drives are shared spaces where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device. Unlike files in My Drive, files in Team Drive belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay exactly where they are so your team can continue to share information and get work done.
Cloud solutions bridge the gap between file servers and cloud storage for secure remote access without the need to use a VPN.
Cloud solutions provide mobile applications for secure mobile file sharing from a web browser or mobile application.
Cloud solutions se web links to share files and folders with recipients or to receive files and also collaborate on files directly.
The cloud is excellent in providing remote access, mobile access and easy collaboration to businesses. However, these features are becoming commodities now. Pretty much every cloud storage service, such as Office 365, Dropbox, Citrix ShareFile, Box is providing cloud file sharing and file synchronization features. The next stage of the cloud storage service is application compatibility and data ownership.
It is painful to keep the file server and Google Drive side-by-side as two repositories for different applications. I want to unify them into one solution providing both cloud file sharing features and file server features.
I like the permission structure on Windows fileservers which the IT teams set up over the years and are hard to replicate. I need Active Directory and NTFS permissions.
I had to keep my file servers for compliance reasons. I prefer to keep my file servers in a primary role but extend the file server experience with a cloud file sharing experience like Google Drive.
Suppose a solution combines remote access, mobile access, easy collaboration with the file server's application compatibility, permission control, and data compliance. Would you like to see the solution today?
check out the incredible
A solution that adds iPhone application, web browser interface, Windows mapped drive, and Mac Finder volume to Google Cloud Storage and turns Google Cloud Storage into a corporate cloud file server solution.
Combines on-premise file servers and Google Cloud Storage for secure remote access without using a VPN.
Leverages existing Active Directory and NTFS permission to protect the files and folders on the hybrid cloud file server.
The solution uses Google Cloud Storage for secure mobile file sharing from a web browser or mobile applications.
Use a broader range of applications across the combined local and cloud storage services.
Google Cloud Storage is a scalable service provided by Google to allow enterprises to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time. Developers use a simple programming interface to perform data operations and processes securely and cost-effectively. Gladinet provides file server mobilization enhancement on top of existing file servers. It can mix the traditional file server and current cloud storage services into one solution. Here are some use cases below:
Are you having problems with file locking, file corruption, and external references (XREFs)?
Unfortunately, AutoCAD wasn't designed to work with these kinds of cloud services. Their recommended solution is to configure file locking for cloud storage or create a manual checkout process.
Now companies in the "cloud computing" age rely on a wide variety of devices, cloud applications, cloud storage platforms, and file servers for business operations. All of the business operations produce digital content on different devices and different storage platforms. It can cause companies to lose important content that is hard to reproduce.
File server migration comes with limitations, time delays, and hidden costs in various forms. The migration process is something you would like to avoid if you know the limit ahead of time. So what are the migration benefits that motivated you to start migration in the first place?
One of the significant challenges of using Microsoft DFS to sync server directories across multiple sites is that you need a separate file sharing tool. But when you try to use solutions like Dropbox, SharePoint, or ShareFile, you face the challenge of keeping those files in sync with the copies on the file servers. Gladinet solves this problem with an integrated solution that uses your file servers as a private cloud for file sharing while simplifying the multi-site synchronization of server directories and file shares.