There are some awesome features that G Suite Basic and Business offer. The advent of Google Drive and the Google Drive client for Mac/PC were big game changers
There are some awesome features that G Suite Basic and Business offer. The advent of Google Drive and the Google Drive client for Mac/PC were big game changers
There are some awesome features that G Suite Basic and Business offer. The advent of Google Drive and the Google Drive client for Mac/PC were big game changers
There are some awesome features that G Suite Basic and Business offer. The advent of Google Drive and the Google Drive client for Mac/PC were big game changers, especially when it came to being able to access your files from anywhere on any device. Google has now enhanced that ability with Drive File Stream.
Challenges with Google Drive for Mac/PC
One of the challenges that Google Drive had, and specifically with the Google Drive client for Mac/PC, was that you had to sync the files/folders that you wanted to be able to work on to your Mac or PC, or use some type of Chrome Extension like the Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office to directly access Google Drive for web and load the data into the application. Kind of a pain and it may have warranted you syncing a plethora of files and folders to your workstation, taking up valuable drive space on your computer. Well no more!
Drive File Stream
Introducing Drive File Stream! Drive File Stream is a new app that allows you to access your Google Drive files directly from your Mac or PC, without using up all of your hard drive space. Drive File Stream doesn’t require you to download your files first in order to access them from your computer. Instead, when you need to view or edit a file, it automatically streams from the cloud, on-demand. Teams will spend less time now waiting for files to sync and worrying about disk space.
What if I’m not connected to the internet?
You can still access files even if you’re not online. As with Google Drive for Mac/PC, you can still select files or folders that you want to access offline at anytime. The files that you are likely to work on from your Mac or PC become available in the background intelligently, making it much quicker to access them later.
Access files in File Stream directly from my desktop apps
With Drive File Stream, you can work with Drive files directly from the apps you’re used to, like Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop. Any changes you make to files in those apps are saved automatically to Drive and can be accessed from any of your devices later.
Benefits of Drive File Stream
- Frees up disk space and network bandwidth
- Decreases sync time
- Minimizes the amount of company data stored on users’ hard drives
- Access files directly from apps you use like MS Word, Excel, or Adobe Photoshop
- Access files in Team Drives
- Stream files on demand
- Sync selected files and folders in My Drive folder
Will Google Drive for Mac/PC go away?
Yep. So you’ll want to move to File Stream prior to the dates below. Google stated on their official G Suite Blog that “With this launch, Google Drive for Mac/PC is officially deprecated. It will no longer be supported starting on December 11th, 2017, and it will shut down completely on March 12th, 2018. We encourage you to use Drive File Stream.”
OK, I’m sold! How do I install Drive File Stream?
Installing Drive File Stream is pretty straightforward. If you are receiving the below pop up on your computer, click on the “Install Drive File Stream” button and then follow the below instructions. Please note, you will want to disconnect and uninstall Google Drive for Mac/PC after installing and verifying that Drive File Stream is working IF the Drive File Stream installation doesn’t remove the Google Drive for Mac/PC client automatically.
As always, if you have questions or want to drop us a line, feel free to do so. We’d love to chat with you!
Steps to install:
After downloading the client, clock on the installation file to start the installation process
In the “Sign in to Google Drive” window, enter your G Suite email address
Next, enter your G Suite password
NOTE: If you have 2 step verification enabled, just follow the instructions – if not, goto next step
In the permission window, click on the “Allow” button
Once the installation is complete, click on the “Close” button
Verify Drive File Stream is working by access Finder or Windows File Explorer
If the Google Drive for Mac/PC client isn’t uninstalled automatically, disconnect and uninstall it by following these instructions
Once completed, verify that the data in the Google Drive folder is on the web by accessing Google Drive via your web browser. Once you have verified the data is there, you can delete the old Google Drive folder. You may choose to keep the folder around for a few days just to make sure.
That’s it!
So there you were….reviewing your most recent email when suddenly your phone dies. You try and try and try some more, to get it back up and running. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. You put in a call to your carrier’s tech support for help. After working with them for sometime, they finally tell you that you are going to need to reset your phone and all your data will be lost.
So you think to yourself, that’s not going to be so bad. So you’ll have to reinstall apps and re-configure the look and feel of your phone. Big deal! Your email and contacts are safe and sound in Gmail. Nice! And your documents are good to go on your Google Drive. No worries!
Small businesses around the nation pretty much have one thing in common. They have a phone line or two coming into their business. Another thing they have in common? They are paying WAAAAY too much for those phone lines and not receiving any features, except basic ones, like call waiting or caller ID.
Case in point. I was implementing Google Apps for Business for a small, construction company. After chatting with them I had found out that they had three phone lines from the local phone company. Their total bill was $230/month or almost a whopping $2800/yr! Another business I work with was spending close to $2100/yr. for four phone lines coming into their shop. To small businesses, these are huge costs!
I.T. Business Services LLC has recently become a telcom VAR (Value Added reseller). With this addition to our portfolio, we can now provide end to end solutions for the small to medium sized business. This takes the worry out of having to work with multiple vendors and gives the business owner or project manager a true one-stop-shop option.
For example, if a small business needs a VoIP business phone system solution, not only can we provide, setup and train the client on the phone equipment, but we can also provide the internet service needed for the VoIP solution.
Have you ever had that quick thought come to mind and you immediately reach for those sticky notes? Of course you have. We’ve all done it. Then, we take that note and stick it to our desk, fridge, mirror or dashboard. Rarely, however, are we back at the spot where that note resides when we need it. So what do we do?
Enter Google Keep. Google Keep is an Android app that allows you to quickly capture thoughts, checklists, voice annotations or pictures via your smart device and then stores them in the cloud so that you can access that info from anywhere.
With Google Keep you can:
- Keep track of your thoughts by notes, lists, and pictures
- Color code your thoughts
- Setup home screen widgets to capture thoughts and info quickly
- Store your notes in the cloud and access them from anywhere
|
Are you backing up your data? If not, why not? Is it a hassle? Do you forget to do it? Is it just one of those things that you have on your list of things to do and will “get to” when you have more time? I work with a lot of different clients, from individuals to businesses, and a large percentage do not backup their data. So I always ask the question, “What would you do if you lost all your family pictures? What would you do if you lost company data, like Quickbooks?” First they will say “cry” and then they start to think about it a bit more and they will inevitably tell me, “You know, I don’t know what I would do.”
|
In the past few months we have received calls from clients saying that a big tech company, like Microsoft, contacted them saying that they have detected a virus, malware, or some type of issue on their PC. Pretty nice of them right?
Does this really happen? Are these big tech companies just that nice? In a lot of cases, they are great to work with…but this is NOT one of those cases. Microsoft, or any other tech company, is not going to pick up the phone to let you know that there is something wrong with your PC let alone software on your PC. They have already put measures in place (think “Patch Tuesday” and automatic updates here people) that help prevent a lot of these types of issues. Can you imagine the amount of phone calls that they would be making? A lot of phone calls…a LOT…of…phone calls!