T103.9b - Google Backup and Synch / Google File Stream
In July 2017 Google announced Backup and Sync as a replace for the Google Drive Desktop App. The Google Drive desktop app was really a filing syncing app -- and the name was confusing, so this name change alone sounds good.
In September Google announced Google File Stream and indicated this may be a better fit for Gsuite users but the explanations of comparative functionality I initially read were very confusing and unclear.
On 10/18/2017 I started the process of trying to get clarity on this.
On 10/18/2017 spoke to Google Support and we landed on this page identified elow where she directed me to the emails at the bottom..
In September Google announced Google File Stream and indicated this may be a better fit for Gsuite users but the explanations of comparative functionality I initially read were very confusing and unclear.
On 10/18/2017 I started the process of trying to get clarity on this.
- https://www.pcworld.com/article/3223136/data-center-cloud/google-drive-is-being-replaced-by-backup-and-sync-what-to-expect.html
- This left me confused. As it turns out the author of this totally omitted the reference to Team Drive, which is a primary key to understanding the differences. So much for mainstream publishers...
On 10/18/2017 spoke to Google Support and we landed on this page identified elow where she directed me to the emails at the bottom..
- Deploy Drive File Stream.. -- https://support.google.com/a/answer/7491144?hl=en --
- That didn't help much -- but in my dialogue with her she did enable me to understand that much of the differences were related to Team Drive and that the backup and sync was a rebranding of the current drive app with more features -- but it wasn't clear just how powerful one of them was
- Their use of the term "offline" is about as confusing as it can get -- I think they are generally talking about when you are not connected to google drive -- which is a time when the user can still very much be "online"... and at that point, they can still have access to their cloud drive via a browser -- thus a lot of confusion here...
On 10/18/2017 got off phone w/ google support aand went back to the Deploy File Stream page and found a link for comparing
AND THIS is where you need to be to understand this... and some really good stuff...
- compare synch solutions --- https://support.google.com/a/answer/7491633?hl=en&ref_topic=7455083
AND THIS is where you need to be to understand this... and some really good stuff...
File Stream -- first and foremost, file stream is only an option if you have a gsuite account. Likewise, Team Drive is only an option for GSuite accounts. Here's how I've am trying to envision this... instead of a network drive there is a Team Drive -- not sure if that is on one of the Gsuite users in a domain or if somehow that is a folder in the ether related to the domain only and accessed via admin panel .. but must be one of the two and will figure out shortly...
Now... imagine if this Team drive had 1Terrabyte of data on it... Most members on the Team don't have that much "extra" hd space on their machines and most likely don't need all that is on this magical team drive -- so with this, you just bring down what you need when you need it...- -- but this is where it's a little confusing -- as what types of files are we talkinga bout here anyway -- GDrive type files don't reside on local machines anyway -- so we can only be talking about Native app files (like docx or xlsx or ppt or pdfs or similar) -- and if that is the case, then this is basically just saying you are just downloading them from a cloud folder to your machine when needed -- so it's a big download site -- but this is where it's a little confusing --- if there are word docs there or xlsx docs -- and if you were to bring one down and edit it -- and then it synced back up -- it would be tough to control permissions and/or overwriting -- and I guess it would then drop down to others who had that file on their local machines?? but again, the potential file overwriting issues here are huge... so this streaming thing sounds good but it seems if its not just used as a download system all kinds of chaos ensues. Some more clarity on what they really mean is required -- and I'm thinking the word "streaming" is probably adding confusion... Backup and Sync Commercial version might have been a better choice but oh well..
Now... imagine if this Team drive had 1Terrabyte of data on it... Most members on the Team don't have that much "extra" hd space on their machines and most likely don't need all that is on this magical team drive -- so with this, you just bring down what you need when you need it...- -- but this is where it's a little confusing -- as what types of files are we talkinga bout here anyway -- GDrive type files don't reside on local machines anyway -- so we can only be talking about Native app files (like docx or xlsx or ppt or pdfs or similar) -- and if that is the case, then this is basically just saying you are just downloading them from a cloud folder to your machine when needed -- so it's a big download site -- but this is where it's a little confusing --- if there are word docs there or xlsx docs -- and if you were to bring one down and edit it -- and then it synced back up -- it would be tough to control permissions and/or overwriting -- and I guess it would then drop down to others who had that file on their local machines?? but again, the potential file overwriting issues here are huge... so this streaming thing sounds good but it seems if its not just used as a download system all kinds of chaos ensues. Some more clarity on what they really mean is required -- and I'm thinking the word "streaming" is probably adding confusion... Backup and Sync Commercial version might have been a better choice but oh well..
Backup and Sync -- Back up and sync is the current google drive app with seeming two major changes -- the fact that you can synch not only your google drive folder but folders outside of that for backup purposes is HUGE. Absolutely huge. I've had to use crashplan because I have webdev stuff in PC inetpub folder I needed backed up and I didn't want to remap inetpub because I had issues when I did that years ago...(that may be gone now, but ptsd). Nice timing too as Crashplan and Carbonite are now merging and prices are doubling... (wtf..). Carbonite was not nice to play with years ago. Crashplan was awesome. Not excited to see how this works out assuming it was the carbonite folks who bougth Crashplan and not the reverse. Apparently there may also be a setting to assign a folder for syncing with google photos...
More on this when I get better understanding of it...
Team Drive
This is here for now as you can only use team drive if you have file stream installed -- it may get it's own page later...
"Team drive itself goes beyond a shared drive because users by default will NOT download everything in the shared drive" -- maybe that's out there somewhere, but that's the kind of thing that helps me get things quicker...and I think this is the biggest gist related to this..
The table on this page goes a long ways to explain difference with more clarity. the part about Team drive files being used offline is still confusing -- if we are talking about word and excel files (native programs) it might be good to tell people that while these can be used offline and they will sync up when back online -- that functionality does NOT lend itself to document sharing unless the specific users of the docs are in fulll agreement as to who's doing what..
There's so much vocabulary flying around out here and so much desire to please users, sometimes the simple facts and drawbacks of systems are not being highlighted and it's tough to continually try to figure out if things are really new, major benefits or the same stuff with a little more features.
"Team drive itself goes beyond a shared drive because users by default will NOT download everything in the shared drive" -- maybe that's out there somewhere, but that's the kind of thing that helps me get things quicker...and I think this is the biggest gist related to this..
The table on this page goes a long ways to explain difference with more clarity. the part about Team drive files being used offline is still confusing -- if we are talking about word and excel files (native programs) it might be good to tell people that while these can be used offline and they will sync up when back online -- that functionality does NOT lend itself to document sharing unless the specific users of the docs are in fulll agreement as to who's doing what..
There's so much vocabulary flying around out here and so much desire to please users, sometimes the simple facts and drawbacks of systems are not being highlighted and it's tough to continually try to figure out if things are really new, major benefits or the same stuff with a little more features.